Zinga Frozen Yogurt

Zinga Frozen Yogurt was a self-serve frozen yogurt chain that grew out of the early 2010s frozen yogurt boom. The brand operated as Zinga! Frozen Yogurt and focused on a simple idea: guests served themselves from a rotating lineup of frozen yogurt flavors and finished their dessert at a large toppings bar. Stores typically operated in neighborhood and community shopping centers and often sat alongside grocery and other daily-needs tenants, which helped drive consistent foot traffic and evening visits.

The concept was created by R. Scott (Scott) Shawn, a Virginia-based operator who had previously owned Starbucks and Five Guys franchises. He formed Zinga Franchise Group, LLC and launched the brand around 2011. In its first few years, Zinga moved quickly through franchising. The company signed multiple franchise agreements and opened locations in several states, including Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Colorado and others, building a small but multi-state footprint in a short period. By the mid-2010s, public franchise directories and local news reports suggested Zinga had grown to several dozen locations either open or in development, although the company did not maintain a clear, verified public store count.

As of December 2025, there is no reliable, up-to-date information on how many Zinga stores remain open. The corporate website is inactive, franchise recruiting has stopped, and there are no recent announcements about new locations or development deals. Most remaining references to the brand are older franchise listings, archived news coverage, and scattered online pages for individual stores that have either closed or been rebranded. There is no public indication of a formal acquisition by another chain. Instead, Zinga appears to have quietly wound down as the broader frozen yogurt category pulled back from earlier over-expansion.

Over roughly the last five years, Zinga has not behaved like an active growth brand. There is no visible real estate, development, or franchise sales team pursuing new sites. Many former Zinga units have been converted to other restaurant or retail concepts, reflecting changing market conditions and the contraction of the self-serve frozen yogurt segment.

For landlords, brokers, and developers, Zinga functions today as a historical reference point rather than an active tenant prospect. Its stores typically occupied small-format inline or endcap space in busy retail centers with strong evening and weekend traffic, a footprint that often transitions well to other quick-service food or snack concepts. The brand’s legacy can be useful when evaluating second-generation frozen dessert spaces, understanding how prior froyo tenants used and configured similar bays, and reviewing older lease comparables or performance history tied to that period of category growth and subsequent shakeout.