£3 for a bloody ice cream!!

[Ilovegreentomatoes]

Live in south east not sure if that has any relevance. Just doing some walking and stopped of at an ice cream van.Got a small ice cream (one scoop) and been charged £3! Am shocked. Not brought an ice cream from a van for years but are these the prices? And if so how do families with kids afford this?.
Maybe I was just ripped of but AIBU to think things like this are ridiculously expensive and how does a family with a couple of kids afford things like this?

I don't think £3 would surprise me, and I'm oop north where it's traditionally cheap. The last thing I bought from an ice cream van was a small ice lolly and that was £2. You're paying for the upkeep of the van etc. and they have to make enough to cover themselves out of season. I agree the prices should be clearly displayed, though.

£1.40 for a 99 at the school gates (NW England). Flake included but they are very tight with the red sauce IMO.

recently paid £2.40 for a single scoop cone of pomegranate gelato to take away from a cafe in Edinburgh Old Town - it was glorious.

Worst rip-off was in the US a couple of years back. The beach cafes wanted FIVE DOLLARS for those mock-Cornettos that are a quid a box in Aldi. We drove the 10mins back to town to the Ben and Jerry's cafe where I think it was $3.50 to have two scoops of much nicer ice cream to eat in.

@QueenBee52 How does a dairy farm produce milk without the cows being constantly impregnated and then the milk that should be for their calves taken for human consumption? As a PP said, I’m not a vegan but that’s how dairy milk is produced.

And I think having animal welfare at the centre of farming is a bit of an oxymoron. You’re really just doing the best of the worst.

Exactly this. There’s lots of ‘clever’ language used around farming and animal products to make people feel ok about it all.

Just returned from holiday on the south coast. Had an icecream pretty much daily. Never got change from £10 for 3 icecreams, so i think £3 + is pretty standard!

maybe your visiting the wrong Farms

Animal welfare standards aren’t worth the paper they’re written on to be honest. Farming requires using animals, there’s no ‘kind’ way to do that regardless of what language and awards are put in place.

@Ilovegreentomatoes

May not be a first world problem but not great for low income families. *@hashbrownsandwich* perhaps you are one of the netmums billionaires on here.

I wish! I live in an expensive part of the country but work for low money for the NHS.
£3 for an ice cream doesn't surprise me though.

When we go to the beach we go in a local supermarket and buy a multipack of magnums can't buy scoop ice-cream anyway due to child with nut allergy. But it is also considerably cheaper.

We went to a zoo the other week, family of 6, all had an ice cream and no change from £20 but that's what we would expect unfortunately. If we couldn't afford it, we wouldn't go.

It's £2.80 here at the nearest ice cream outlet, they are cheaper than in the city

The reality is you aren’t just paying for ice cream the vendor has to buy the ingredients, insure the vehicle, put fuel into the vehicle and pay themselves a wage. The weather this summer I don’t doubt has caused a decrease in sales and of course come winter no one will want ice cream and the vendor needs to be prepared for that.

However cheap it is, it's always going to be unaffordable to some, such as the person who runs the ice-cream van that you want to sell their products at an unprofitable price.

They have to run the van, probably pay a lot for a good pitch and are running a business that is very weather dependent.

If you think it's not worth the money, you don't buy it, buy it less often or get ice cream from the supermarket instead. No-one's entitled to be able to buy anything they want at a price they think is acceptably low.

Where was the ice cream van OP?

Standard here as well (for one scoop) but it’s made by a local company and tastes really nice.

It’s just a seasonal treat for the children but I suppose most things with them quickly adds up.

If you were struggling for money you would check the prices first.

If money's tight and there's no price list you could just... ask?

@Ilovegreentomatoes

I guess the bigger picture is low income families should get more help or prices need to be more realistic in relation to what people earn.

How much income do you think an ice cream man takes home a year?? I bet he'd be classed as low income too.

It was a grotty looking ice cream van inside a park playground area.

We sent the kids to the van on Newborough beach (Angelsey) 10 years ago, with a £20 note for 5 cones. They came back with the ice cream but said we owed the man another tenner as they were £6 each

I paid £10 for 2 icecreams today was £5 for 2 scoops.

Where have you been if you are genuinely surprised at this pricing?! Remember they won't make anything over Winter and suffered over lockdowns

I didn't ask because I naively expected to pay around £1.50. Like I said I don't buy from ice cream Van's very often and despite living in the south east I'm.from.what is considered a deprived area.Now if I was buying from central London I wouldn't be surprised but round here £3 is a lot of money to most people.

I really do sympathise and quite agree that more employers need to pay NMW+, however, I also have some sympathy with the Ice Cream Van Person who probably earns NMW or less on an annual basis.

Really also depends on the Ice Cream too, is it Mr Whippy or Hockins.

I bought 2 99s and a mint choc chip cone for £4.50 today. The van also does these amazing sundaes for £3 with biscuits and sauce etc. I was talking to DS about how they charge really fair prices and as a result there is ALWAYS a queue whenever you see their van and people are super excited when they’re in the village. Reasonable prices = happy, repeat customers.