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Comment by kortilla | Hacker News Reader

> I don’t know, but the cost of a scoop of ice cream in the states is like $4…

Only in hip ice cream places. $4 is about the going rate for those 1.5 quart (1.4 liter) cartons at the grocery store.

The grocery store is always going to be cheaper. $4 is the low end of a single scoop in the bay area. And not for some hipster, plant-based organic ice cream either, this is at a regular parlor like Fenton's.

Dairy Queen. If “regular parlor” is followed by a restaurant not present outside of the bay, it’s not going to be representative.

At the Baskin Robbins closet to SF (Daly City) a single scoop is $3.59. After tax that's pretty close to $4 for the most chain-est ice cream I could think of. (The DQ doesn't have photos of their menu on Google maps).

Dairy Queen doesn't serve ice cream. Not being snobbish or pedantic here – soft serve is a separate kind of product. Dairy Queen doesn't call it ice cream (probably because it legally cannot be)

Baskin Robbins is by far the most ubiquitous ice cream chain in the Bay Area and a single scoop is right around $3 as of a few months ago.

I’m not sure why you mention Fenton’s. I’m only aware of a single location in Oakland and I would describe it as fairly high-end. Perhaps not “hip,” but definitely very “retro” stylized. Very Instagramable. Long lines.

There's not a lot of chains in the bay. This is really the most basic one I have been to.

Hip places charge like $15 for a cup of ice cream and do weird (but tasty) gastronomy gimmicks like liquid nitrogen freezing or maltodextrin usage. You pay more than $4 at normie chains like coldstone.

Coldstone serves 5-12oz plus toppings made and mixed on-premise. Something like a food truck cup or cone is closer to $2. Baskin Robbins is perhaps $3 for a one scoop cone. But like the other user said, many Americans would rather buy a half gallon or gallon from a grocery store or c-store for $5 and eat too much of it. :)

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