£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?

As in not a day out at the coast or tourist hot spot.

I feel your pain. It also frustrates me to pay £3 for an ice cream for my child that's far too much for them to eat. I wish ice cream places would do smaller cones for children! They'd have my custom much more regularly if they did

Bring ice creams / lollies from home or pop into a corner shop to grab some from there instead? I never buy from ice cream vans because (a) I don't like their ice cream, (b) they're overpriced, (c) they pollute the environment.

@labazslovesliving

about the right price for car boots etc round here and though its cheaper to buy some from supermarkets to be honest its not the same is it?

So you make a choice, save money or have the 'experience' of getting it from the ice cream van.

I grew up in a large family so money had to go a long way. We were often told we could have an ice cream but we had to walk one way on a day out (maybe a mile or two, so not far) we couldn't afford ice creams and the bus both ways.

Or we could have ice cream two or three times as often if it came from the supermarket not the ice cream van.

Most people have to make compromises, we can't afford to have all the treats all the time, that's life.

1 scoop! Flipping eck! Agree £3 is standard, but not for one scoop. I’d want a flake in there too for that!

@0blio

Now OP, you know that living in the south east of England means you have to pay £10 just to go out your front door, don't you?

It's all very well people saying 'well these are the prices', but if everyone refused to pay them the prices would have to come down 🤷‍♀️

If everyone refused to pay then the shops and ice cream vans would shut.

We live in north London where prices are ridiculous for lots of things. But our lovely local ice cream van does a scoop in a cornet for £1 or £1.20 with toppings/sauce.

It might not be a tourist spot but I bet the ice cream van had to pay for that pitch.

I don't think it's standard for the South. In the last few weeks we've had ice creams in Henley, Reading, Windsor and Marlow. Also the ice cream van that visits our village. They were never more than £1.50 each. Most were £1 each. The fancy ones were more, but we all had a single Mr Whippy with a flake. Maybe it's standard for London, I don't know?

Yep I checked the price at a van in Bristol a few years ago and gasped and didn't buy. Not used a van since. Rather buy at national trust , country park and small cafes.

@sittingonacornflake

I was in Stratford upon Avon last week by the river and the 3 nearest ice cream places were extortionate.

Icecream van: cheapest icecream was a small (I mean small!) mr whippy with a flake £3.50!!! No.

Icecream boats: mr whippy but with a sauce swirled through it. Option not to have a flake and to be fair it was pretty big but £3!! Did go for this. Desperate times.

When you're buying for a small 1 year old you just want a tiny bit of Icecream on a small cone and really it should be £2 or under!

When I took GC there we got icecreams from McDonalds, I think they were about £1 that was with a flake I think. It isn't far from the river.

I realise this is a bit late for your visit but might help if you go again.

@Ilovegreentomatoes

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.

Just for future reference, scoops seem to be much more expensive than mr whippy etc everywhere

@Ilovegreentomatoes YANBU at all!

An ice cream van comes around our way 3-4 nights a week from March through to October. Not the same one, but any one of 4 or 5... We never go (no kids at home for quite a while.) But back in May, we had just had a spicy pizza, and both had a sweet tooth, and we heard the tinkling of the ice cream van, and I said 'oooh let's have a 99!'

Shot outside with a fiver in my pocket, and said 'two 99s please, with a flake - just single cone ones.'

£5.40!!! £2.70 each. I nearly passed out. Maybe I am not up to date with prices, but fuck me!!! I said 'sorry I only have five pounds,' and he said 'I'll wait while you pop back to your house, there's 3 more people coming here, so I'll be here a few minutes.'

So I had to walk home with the 2 bloody ice creams, (melting as it was hot!) and get DH to hold mine while I went back to the ice cream van. He didn't even acknowledge me either when I got back, so I waited 20-30 seconds and just pushed in front of the woman he was serving and said '40 pence!' stuck it under his nose, and went back to my house.

It was only 2-3 minutes of time to go to my house and back to the van, but by the time I eventually got my 99, it had pretty much turned to shit. I was so fucked off that I never went to him again.

tl;dr Bit of a rant sorry!!!

At a National Trust place in Surrey today it was £2.75 a scoop. 75p for a flake I was a bit shocked but bought them anyway what do I think it was worth?

I guess if you can afford to spend £1.75 for example on an ice cream the you can afford £2.75

iMO The extra £1 extra doesn't make it affordable or unaffordable it's just our perception of what an ice cream is worth.

If money is tight I wouldn't be buying any ice creams out in the first place

Sorry, it took more like 4-5 minutes including going from the van to my house, then back to the van, (with the 40p) and back to my house again.

I do think £3 for a basic Mr Whippy soft ice cream with just a basic cone is a rip off... it isn't the same as going to an ice cream parlour/Baskin and Robbins stand, etc, and the price should reflect that.

It is a lot for one small scoop! I bought my DC an ice cream each in St James Park next to Buckingham Palace the other day and they were £3 each for the biggest Mr Whippy I've ever seen with a flake. I mean you got a lot for your £3 seeing as it was central London.
But yeah life is expensive, ice cream from a van isn't an every day expense though. School holidays can hurt a bit financially

Our lovely ice cream man charges about £1.20 for an ice cream with a flake, sauce and sprinkles.
He's great! He does a hot waffle with 2 big portions of ice cream and sauce and chopped up strawberries for £2

I'm in the South East and would expect to pay £2.50 max for 2 scoops. £3 is daylight robbery.

Yea this is the price outside of London too (Scotland) ice cream van is a treat akin to a day or a meal out. Normally they are bought in multi packs or tubs from supermarkets and are affordable.

£1 is about right for what you got

Maybe from the supermarket. But from a van, they have to pay for petrol to keep the engine running which gets it there and then stays on to power the refrigeration - insurance and servicing and maintenance of the vehicle, a reasonable wage for the person serving the stuff, plus the turnover from a van isn't a fraction of what a supermarket will sell in a day. I don't actually think 3 quid is all that bad for an occasional treat.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

??? Not sure what’s going on. I don’t have the address that you’ve offered though.

I know what you mean op. We are low income and I regularly have to say no to my son to the ice cream van. I talk to him about how if you go in the shop you can buy a lot more ice cream for your money and he understands this. But he's only 3... I spent £5 a couple of months ago on 2 ice creams it's just a complete rip off!