A gift shop in Carmarthenshire decided to sell the iconic 99s for just that after inflation and the cost of living crisis driving up the prices of the iconic sweet treat. The Beach Shack in the popular seaside village of Pendine is the go-to shop to get your buckets and spades, inflatables and balls before heading out to the beautiful beach nearby.
But the shop had another thing to shout about this weekend, as its owners - husband and wife Andy and Julie Sweetman, decided to slash the price of their cones for one day to make them accessible to everybody, selling their 99s for 99p on Saturday, June 10. The prices of the soft-serve ice cream in a waffle cone, which usually comes with a chocolate flake, sauces or sprinkles, have been widely debated recently.
With inflation and the cost of living hitting the whole of society including the nation's ice cream vans, many of our readers shared their experiences of being charged upwards of £4 and £5 for even a single cone in some places. Some people described only being able to buy ice cream as a "special treat" as they couldn't afford it. You can read more about our readers' reactions here.
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Following the debate, Andy and Julie Sweetman, who have been running the shop for five years, decided to launch this unique campaign which they've called '99 for 99'. Andy said: "We do free sauces and sprinkles anyway, which a lot of people don’t do - they charge for them.
"And we just thought maybe this would by a good promotional thing, but also we could do it so that it's accessible for everybody. Last year, I was doing a small Whippy for £1.50. At the moment, a small Whippy is £2.50, which is still competitive and you get a pretty nice ice cream for that. But if you come to our shop - as I’m sure that most of our customers would tell you, you will get an ice cream worth your money."
When asked about how the soaring costs had affected them as a business, Andy said: "Unfortunately, it’s just the times we are living in. I’ve noticed - not as much as with Whippy ice cream, but scoop ice cream has gone up this year and the nice waffle cones are really expensive.
"At the end of the day, as much as you want to give value for money - and we do try and give value for money, you’ve still got to try and make money as well, haven’t you? It’s a difficult balance. Pricing going up has definitely had an effect on us as a business.
"Last summer for example, a lot of our high-end items - the stuff that are really expensive, your body boards, your body suits and so on - people did shy away from it because it's too expensive. Say if you have two kids and you come, you've got two body boards that are £35 each - that is £70 spent before you've even started.
"What we did find - we sell inflatable rings or 'floaties', what we found was that maybe two years before, people would come in with their children and they'd have two body boards. But last summer, people were buying two rings, which are half the price - you can have two rings for £20 really. I did notice that, a lot of people weren't buying their body boards, they were buying the rings."
Andy said he was excited to launch the business' new campaign. "Last year, when we did the small Whippy for £1.50, that was really, really popular," he explained. "So, if we are doing 99 for 99 then it will be busier I would have thought. I'm going to make sure I have plenty of mixture before I go. We'll see how it goes!"
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