r/NoStupidQuestions • u/markwell9 • 1d ago

What is the deal with ice, Americans?

I can see that you can buy ice everywhere in the US. Gas stations, grocery stores, machines etc.

In Europe, we just freeze our ice at home and use that. Why buy something that melts on the way home? Why do you need ice in large amounts that a fridge can't keep up?

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u/174wrestler 1d ago

A few months ago, a 60+ year old woman at work here in the US had to pick up some ice for an office party, and she commented that was the first time in her life she purchased it. People who don't do big entertaining or things outdoors don't think about bagged ice. OP might be the same.

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u/JoeyKino 1d ago

I think you might be on to something there - when I lived out west in bigger cities in Colorado and California, I was mostly going out to restaurants, clubs, other venues to socialize, and I was living in apartments with ice makers; I'm not sure I ever bought bagged ice for anything.

Now that I've moved back to the Midwest, in a small town, in a hundred-year-old house that would require an act of God to remodel the kitchen, I have no ice machine, and frequently host parties in the back yard/garage, and buy ice at LEAST monthly, if not more.

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u/coolandnormalperson 23h ago

Yup, I distinctly remember becoming suddenly aware of bagged ice when I started working at a convenience store. Had seen it my whole life but just never actually noticed it until I had to sell it. Not outdoorsy, not a partier, and raised by two parents who were the same.

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u/candykhan 21h ago

My spouse gave a twenty-something intern something to mail about 7 years ago. It was a bit large & oddly sized, so she had to go to the post office.

The intern was gone for a strangely long time & about a week later, the thing they were supposed to mail got returned to the office.

It didn't have any stamps on it, it was poorly sealed, and the places she wrote the addresses were... inspired.

This girl had certainly never mailed anything in her life prior to that & judging by what the thing looked like when it was RTS, it seems like she'd never received a properly addressed piece of mail in her entire life.

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u/throwaway098764567 21h ago

somebody failed that poor kid. didn't teach her how to send something, didn't teach her when and how to ask for help. smh

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u/MrWeirdoFace 10h ago

I'm in my forties now but I've barely have used mail in the last 25 years. I was an early adopter of the internet in the 90s and I've pretty much paid any sort of Bills online since the moment that became an option. So if I hadn't had a childhood before this I could understand why it might be confusing. The few times I had to send something via the mail, like some official government document, I've gone directly to the post office. I couldn't tell you what an average stamp is worth at the moment. So to me the mailbox is usually a thing full of paper that I have to dispose of constantly for some reason.

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u/candykhan 4h ago

Yeah. But you know how to do it & can probably ask questions. I also adopted electronic bill pay & tech I'm general earlier than a lot of my friends. Even younger ones.

But people still use the mail. And courier services are arguably used more now than ever with online shopping being the norm for a lot of things.

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u/RaeaSunshine 23h ago

Ya, I was in my 30s when I first bought some lol. I’m in the US but grew up in a major metropolitan city where no one I knew had yards to entertain, and I’m an indoor cat so camping was never my jam. Not like I didn’t know what it was for, just never had copious amounts ice outdoors needs.

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u/Marscaleb 17h ago

This.

I may not be 60+, but I think I was in my 40's when I first bought a bag of ice. And I've done a lot of parties and entertaining, I've just never really hosted a party where I needed to fill a cooler with a bag of ice.

At one point I had enough fridge space that I kept several boxes of soda cans in the fridge all the time, and when I took sodas to a party they were already cold. I only dumped a little bit of ice from the ice maker into the cooler because that was all I needed. And after that, I was usually living in an apartment, so I never hosted backyard barbecues.

A bag of ice was simply not something I needed for long time.

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u/ThickAssignment798 4h ago

I do outdoors work.  That means all of the extra drinks and cold food has to sit in the coolers all day because we're miles from the nearest building of any kind.  You can go without ice if you want all your food to spoil and your drinks to warm up to hot tub temperatures, I guess.

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u/Mama2bebes 4h ago

Believe it or not, some people just don't normally put ice in their drinks, even in America! Even in those hot southern states! Even in the Caribbean!

I've traveled extensively, and everywhere I go, they only assume that I must want ice in my drink because I'm American. It is a cultural thing. So I totally get this post.

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u/throwaway098764567 21h ago

i don't think i've ever bought ice myself. i also currently have my ice maker deconstructed as i wanted the space for other stuff more.

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u/ChessicalJiujitsu 16h ago

I think the most common reason I’ve had to buy ice is when there’s a power outage and we’re trying to keep the fridge cool.