Milky Flakes, a popular new gelato and soft serve shop on North Main Street in downtown Walnut Creek, is surrounded on all sides by other frozen treat businesses — some offering very similar products.

Three doors to the right is Easy Breezy, a frozen yogurt and custard shop. Seven doors down on the left, there’s Mr. Dewie’s, a vegan ice cream spot. Directly across the street from Milky Flakes, local favorite Lottie’s Creamery scoops its artisan ice cream. And next month, Italian gelato giant Bacio di Latte is slated to debut its first East Bay location next to Easy Breezy.

It’s enough to make anyone reach for a Lactaid, and locals are speaking out on Reddit and Nextdoor.

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“Thank god! Downtown WC was so severely deprived of an ice cream shop! Oh….wait…,” quipped a sarcastic Pawel D. on Nextdoor. “At some point one reaches peak ice cream saturation and they keep cannibalizing each others sales. Economics 101…is your preferred ice cream flavor Sour Grapes?” 

Milky Flakes owner Billy Rinchin must come from a different school of economics. The former tech founder purposefully opened his shop on this end of North Main Street and has been mobbed with customers ever since, despite the fact that there are actually six more ice cream shops within less than half a mile of Milky Flakes. They include Midwest-born chain Handel’s, Haagen-Dazs and the retro-style San Francisco Creamery one block over on Locust Street.

Vegan ice cream shop Mr. Dewie’s is just down the street from Milky Flakes in Walnut Creek, Calif., seen on Aug. 10, 2026.

Server Miga Damdinbazar holds a Hokkaido soft serve cone at Milky Flakes in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Aug. 10, 2026.

Frozen yogurt shop East Breezy is just down the street from Milky Flakes in Walnut Creek, Calif., seen on Aug. 10, 2026.

“Only business school would tell you to do a competitor analysis,” Rinchin told SFGATE in a recent interview. “What I learned at Y Combinator is that business is gravity based. When there are more options, people end up spending more because they’re given an abundance of choice. And products get better because........

© SFGate