Comment by rsynnott
2 years ago
> Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup.
This feels very contrived; who organises a supermarket like that? "Where's the ice-cream?" "Which flavour? We keep them separately, to make an anecdote work."
(Like, the moral of the story still works, but the specifics feel very dubious...)
Lots of stores have end-cap coolers which have product they really want to sell in there, usually at a discount.
I could def. see Vanilla Ice Cream being in that container for a while for whatever reason.
Or it could be a small/local grocery store and the owner/manager really likes Vanilla, and did it for their own convenience.
But I guess that would make the timing part be obvious and kind of ruin the "fun" of the story. Though I fully agree, the difference between "front of store" and "back of store" icecream couldn't be that much and also doesn't make much sense.
Or I could imagine something like a Sonic drive-through, where you often pull up in to a slot and turn off your car, but only until your order gets brought to you by a bellhop:
- works when I order a burger (burger takes a few minutes to cook)
- doesn't work when I order a hot dog (those are hot and ready to go)
or something like, works when I order a chili dog (because they have to heat up the chili)
> Or I could imagine something like a Sonic drive-through, where you often pull up in to a slot and turn off your car, but only until your order gets brought to you by a bellhop
.... Wait, that's still a thing? Not American, and my visits there have only been to urban areas, but I had kind of assumed that this was something present in films from the 1960s, not, like, 2023.
Hell, I'm skeptical vanilla is the most popular flavor, although that may change by year.
At the very least, chocolate is neck and neck and on the only sales chart I could find (which I think was for the UK?) chocolate sold more than vanilla.
Could be also that it was certain large shipment they wanted to get rid off. My local hypermarket does have freezer sometimes with icecream next to check out lanes with lot off other stock they want to get rid off.