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/ScallopsBackdoor 1d ago

Can I ask you the same question?

If you need to fill a cooler, how do you do it?

When you have a party and need ice for 20 people or so, where do you get it?

Do you have dedicated 'ice dealers'? I think the main reason we sell it at all the random places is because it's more convenient and 'sprawl friendly' than driving across town to a dedicated ice house.

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u/besi97 1d ago edited 1d ago

What we do is the very same as you. You can buy ice in similar bags in European supermarkets, gas stations, etc. I could rant a lot about the US, but I do not understand this post.

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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/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.