If a child drops their ice cream, should the shop replace it free of charge?

[LittleRa]

I witnessed this today. At the seaside, at a popular Italian ice cream/gelato store, takeaway window. The family in front of me- mum, dad and two kids. They got their ice creams and as they turned, the dad said to the eldest child about 8yo “don’t spill ice cream on your England shirt” She put her tongue out to lick and licked too hard and the whole scoop fell off onto the ground. Cue tears from the girl and the dad huffing and puffing. He came back to the counter and seemed to be expecting it to be replaced for free. The person behind the til said so sorry she dropped it but we don’t do that, the dad was saying but I’ve just bought it, but she’s literally just dropped it and sighing loudly. In the end he did get his wallet out and pay for a new one though.

YANBU- it’s the parents’ responsibility to monitor the child’s ice cream and if the inevitable should happen, they need to pay to replace it.
YABU- the shop should replace it for free.

As an aside, I got my DD’s hers in a tub with a spoon

It probably wasn’t attached to the cone very well. I don’t think a replacement for a child is out of the question.

The idea that people are looking up ice cream vans on trustpilot before getting a 99 is absolutely hilarious.

It's missing the point to say "it's only 50p" when you're talking about very small-ticket items. It's the same principle as when people complain about little corner shops having a minimum spend when paying by card and brush off 'only 50p' or whatever as a small amount to arbitrarily forfeit.

If your average sale is two or three quid and you're expected to factor 25% of the retail turnover into wastage and replacing every purchase when careless customers have dropped or damaged it, that's going to have a huge detriment on your business. Even the ones where seagulls swoop down and swipe your food: yes, it's very frustrating if that happens, but the shop doesn't employ and train the seagulls.

Nobody would ever expect to buy a luxury car for £50K and assume that the dealership could simply afford to swallow an arbitrary loss of £12.5K on every car for whatever reason that was the fault of the customer.

I really wouldn't care if google reviews said 'meanies wouldn't replace my kid's ice-cream cone'.

I just wanna know if the ice-cream tastes good.

@FlumpyPoodle

I really wouldn't care if google reviews said 'meanies wouldn't replace my kid's ice-cream cone'.

I just wanna know if the ice-cream tastes good.

Yeah but you would care that the shop has just 3 stars. It would drop them down on searches

I must admit have never searched for reviews on ice-cream shops. It's an impulse purchase when I'm passing. I'd imagine it's the same for most people.

@UrAWizHarry

The idea that people are looking up ice cream vans on trustpilot before getting a 99 is absolutely hilarious.

Not everywhere that sells ice creams is a van on the sea front.

What about bricks and mortar places like ice cream parlours?

Too many negative reviews bring your star rating down and drop you off the front page of search results on google and other social media sites.

I certainly google places to get food and ice cream before going somewhere, and I'd pick the place with the 5** stars over the one with three

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

It's missing the point to say "it's only 50p" when you're talking about very small-ticket items. It's the same principle as when people complain about little corner shops having a minimum spend when paying by card and brush off 'only 50p' or whatever as a small amount to arbitrarily forfeit.

If your average sale is two or three quid and you're expected to factor 25% of the retail turnover into wastage and replacing every purchase when careless customers have dropped or damaged it, that's going to have a huge detriment on your business. Even the ones where seagulls swoop down and swipe your food: yes, it's very frustrating if that happens, but the shop doesn't employ and train the seagulls.

Nobody would ever expect to buy a luxury car for £50K and assume that the dealership could simply afford to swallow an arbitrary loss of £12.5K on every car for whatever reason that was the fault of the customer.

Entirely different. 50p isn’t bad reviews.

worth bad reviews

YANBU.

I doubt if you dropped your brand new TV outside curry's they'd say no problem, we'll replace that.

But it seems to be the suggestion that loads and loads of kids are dropping their ice-creams - maybe because their parents should have bought them more child-friendly tubs instead. Is it worth effectively spending a quarter of your take on buying good reviews (or as blackmail money to prevent bad ones)?

I too doubt that many people seek out the 'best' ice-cream kiosk when on holiday - you usually just walk past one and think "Ooh, yes, I could just go one of those". Even if you do seek out reviews, most people can tell the difference - and make appropriate consumer choices - between '1-Star: disgusting ice-cream, rude staff, dirty premises' and '1-Star: my child dropped their ice-cream outside and the shop didn't give us a free replacement when we went back and hinted at/demanded one'.

It's never occurred to me to google an ice cream van/parlour.

I mean, if it was visibly dirty in there then I wouldn't buy one.

At the ripe old age of 30-odd DH came to visit my family by the sea and dropped his ice cream straight away. Before he could even react the server passed him another, smooth as anything! I thought it was a great gesture and even more so for a child but I wouldn't have expected/demanded it.

Of course you don't get a freebie 😂 That's why I once lost a lovely mint choc chip to my son 🙄

If the scoop fell out on first lick, it wasn’t pushed in enough

Would have been nice for shop to replace

Equally I would have paid another £2 etc for another scoop

If someone crashes their new car seconds after driving it off the forecourt should the dealer replace it for free?

If there’s a fault with the car, definitely.

Of course the shop shouldn't replace it for free! Not their fault if a child drops their ice cream. Some people are so bloody entitled, it's embarrassing.

Absolutely not the company issue no!
Of course they shouldn't expect it to be given again when it's not theory fault and nothing to do with them.

However my own dc have dropped a few and they've never not been kindly given another.

@Reallybadidea

Can't pay the bills with nice, they have to do that with profits they get from selling product.

Well, this is true but they wouldn't have lost much in the way of profit from giving away 1 scoop of ice cream, but they might have gained a bit of repeat business from that family.

They got the repeat business - the dad bought another one.

I can imagine some shops would give another but they are not obligated to abs the father did sound entitled. Also not sure why it matters she had just dropped it because it stil meant the ship giving a other scoop of ice cream away.

It's a shop, not a charity for kids who drop their ice cream.

It's a difficult question as I am leaning towards the shop not replacing as this scenario occurs probably several times in a day and the ice cream shop can't be expected to replace every time it happens.

However I have worked in the industry of distributing ice cream to shops and I know the markup on single serve scoops is huge.

Absolutely not. What kind of freeloader would expect that!?

If the scoop fell off just from licking then it was not pushed on properly, you reasonably expect to be able to lick the ice cream.

On the car analogy - It you bought a brand new and as you drove off the steering wheel came off in your hand as soon as you turned it and you crashed then i would expect the garage to pay.