First Published:
8:06 AM PDT, July 29, 2022
The ice cream truck jingle is a classic sound of summer, but rampant inflation is melting away profits and threatening to drive this all-American staple off the road.
Andrew Miscioscia, owner of Andy’s Italian Ices in New York, has put the brake on his ice cream trucks because of rising costs.
“It’s just not worth it for me to have a truck out there all day long sitting there hoping and praying to make money. that’s basically what it is at this point,” he told Inside Edition.
Diesel is $7 a gallon in some states. Vanilla ice cream has reached $13 a gallon. Even the cost of sprinkles has doubled to $60 a box. And then there’s’ sugar cost, which Miscioscia said was $60 a bag, but is now $67 a bag.
In Los Angeles All American Softy owner Mike Musantry says he’s also struggling to keep his fleet of five ice cream trucks running.
“I was spending about $30,000 a year in gas and now I’m spending 60-70,000,” he told Inside Edition. “It makes me angry but what can I do about it? What do you do? Fold? I’m not going to fold!”
“The ice cream truck, unfortunately is becoming a thing of the past,” The North American Ice Cream Association says, according to The New York Times.
Inflation is also taking a big bite out of breakfast.
A staple of New York City breakfast is the classic bacon egg and cheese on a roll. At the Roosevelt Deli in Manhattan it cost Inside Edition’s Steven Fabian $5, when just a year ago it was $4.
“Bacon is certainly up about 10 per cent in the last year. Eggs are up over 30 per cent in the past year. They go into all kinds of classic dishes,” a manager from the deli told Fabian.
How about Dunkinflation? Dunkin lovers across the nation are complaining on social media about rising prices.
A medium iced coffee that cost $3.25 in 2020 is now $4.05 in some stores.
Someone from Dunkin told Inside Edition “prices went up in all of the stores.”
