Ben & Jerry originally considered getting into the bagel business, but the equipment was too expensive. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield ended up changing their minds when they found out how much it would cost to get all the needed equipment for making bagels. Instead, in 1978, they both took a $5 correspondence course from Pennsylvania State University on ice cream making. They then took $12,000, $4000 of which was borrowed, and converted an old gas station in Burlington, Vermont into an ice cream parlor called Ben & Jerry’s Homemade.
Before opening the ice cream shop, Jerry Greenfield was a lab technician, in New York, who tried three times to get into medical school, failing each time. Ben Cohen attended various colleges, eventually dropping out and settling on working as a crafts teacher for emotionally disturbed children in New York.
In New York, Ben and his old friend from Jr. High and High school, Jerry Greenfield, shared an apartment in Manhattan before once again parting ways. Eventually, the two reunited and deciding to start some sort of a food company, eventually settling on ice cream, hoping to find something that was “more fun” than their current jobs.