Some of the best ice cream I've ever had was from Berkey Creamery, the store of the dairy science program at Penn State University.
Penn State Berkey Creamery ships to 48 states. Start building your cooler to have delicious ice cream, cheese, and local delicacies delivered right to your door.
creamery.psu.edu
Another place - this is one of the best ice cream I've had in the States, I think its like an hour or two outside of Boston if IIRC.
Most people aren't from VT/NH/Upstate NY where you can go to Ben & Jerry shops that get fresh deliveries from the factory and their small batch flavors. These shops are comparable to the small local (made in-house) shops, the best in the US. The brand isn't always the same between store and parlor/creamery. It's like in Oregon and Washington, Tillamook brand is a common store brand thats like mid to high tier for store bought ice cream (imo anyway), but if you actually go to one of their creameries and buy it fresh from the batches they make just for the creameries, its a whole different higher tier. I've toured their factory on the coast. Also Oregon has a lot of local shops that make their own stuff. I can think of a number of places in Oregon I like far more than any store-sold brand.
Convenience stores often started as little dairy stores. A dairy farm had little stores to sell milk, cream, and butter. These stores morphed into convenience stores.
Breyer's - Breyers is a middle of the road lower butterfat mainstream ice cream. Not ultra premium with higher butterfat like Haagen Dazs and B&J. They sell one that's "frozen treats" which uses fillers and isn't entirely of wholesome cream and then there is one that is wholely made with cream. Breyer's used to be the "good" supermarket ice cream. It was all natural and the vanilla had flecks of vanilla bean making it feel "premium". They used to be big on the natural angle, that was their selling point, but now they're using gums and fillers as well. Now it just seems to get lost in a sea of mediocre ice cream and other "frozen dairy desserts" I really put them on par with a lot of store brand ice cream now in terms of quality, store brands have really upped their game. One trick that most national brands have done is not only shrunk the package, but have pumped in more air, this makes for a very creamy mouthfeel, but also an airy product that melts really fast. I hate that airy mouth feel. If I wanted that, I'd get a soft serve cone. They are usually $5-6 a tub. Taste wise I'm partial to Haagan Daaz but they're more expensive. These aren't terrible; they're creamy and tastes like what you would expect ice cream to taste like but lacks variety and richness of the stuff Haagan Daaz and other brands in this niche have to offer. Ben & Jerrys try to be too different for some people's liking.
In terms of ingredients, Ben and Jerry's is top tier, bodybuilders eat that brand a lot. They use lots of cream and eggs in their product. While breyers is loaded with sugar to make up for lack of good ingredients.
Acme is a super dense custard based ice cream made up near mt baker. Very different experience than Breyer's or haggen Daaz. I think it's like 8-9$ a pint. I was super impressed the first time I had it.
If HD is a 10, that's the bar; I would put these Breyer's at a solid 6 to 7.