With blazing temps across the country, you'd think that business would be booming for ice cream truck owners. Well, not so much. Grim reports in The New York Times and The Boston Globe suggest that ice cream truck owners are struggling amid rising gas prices and widespread inflation, and we could be nearing the end of the ice cream truck era altogether.
Steve Christensen, the executive director of the North American Ice Cream Association, was quite blunt with his prediction for the future of the industry, telling The New York Times that ice cream trucks are "unfortunately becoming a thing of the past.”
Among the crippling costs ice cream truck owners have been struck with are $7 a gallon diesel fuel and $13 per gallon vanilla ice cream. Even sprinkles are coming in at $60 for a 25-pound box.
“These have been the worst years for ice cream trucks,” Brooklyn-based ice cream man Carlos Cutz told The New York Times. “I’m going to try to do the best that I can to continue with this business. I’m feeding my family, and I can’t leave a business I haven’t tried.”
Further north in Boston, Frank Sacchetti Sr. and Frank Sacchetti Jr. are also feeling the effects of inflation. According to The Boston Globe, as owners of Boston’s Best Frosty Ice Cream (a fleet of six ice cream trucks), the duo has had to increase prices on their frozen treats by 20 to 30 percent.
“We’ve been able to roll with the price increases and the increased overhead. So far our margins have been able to accommodate it, but there’s always a question of whether that’s going to hold true in the future,” said Sacchetti Jr.
Looks like the death of the Choco Taco is the least of our concerns.
