When people wake up and look outside to be welcomed by a morning that is void of color and brimming with clouds that scream rain is imminent – or it is already raining, ice cream is the last thing that they crave.

“When it’s raining, no one is thinking about ice cream. So, business gets really slow,” said Tammy Locke, who has co-owned the Ice Cream Dugout for seven years. Locke and her husband have learned to cut costs during the slow times associated with the weather and have on-call employees available for brisk business when the sunshine and the ice cream-loving crowds come back out.

“We send people home automati....