Ice cream

Some preliminary conclusions on the "ice cream" survey. As a side issue, "iceberg" is a single word and originates from the Dutch word "ijsberg", wondering why in English it is still a contraction.

The "ice cream" survey is pretty simple. I ask for an ice cream of € 2,00 with the instructions: "Mixed, but no chocolate flavour". There are three ideas here. The first being that I don't like chocolate ice cream and do not care about the flavour otherwise, and the second is that I have the feeling that selecting the flavours is part of the price. Obviously, the third idea is to get more ice cream compared to following the standard pattern because of the high-level social interaction. Results so far:

• Schwedenplatz, Vienna, Austria. Did not have ice creams for € 2,00, so I had to pay a little bit more. Otherwise I got what I bargained for. (BTW. Probably the best place to buy in Vienna, confirmed from local sources.)
• Ootmarsum, Netherlands. (Ootmarsum is the oldest town in the area were I live and it attracts a great many tourists.) First the girl behind the counter was confused. They measured the price in the number of "icecream balls", given that I had not stated the number of balls the standard task could not be executed. An ideal opportunity for a little discussion and in the end I got seven different flavours for € 1,50. The KM perspective here is that of mutual benefit. She learned something new, namely that there are customers who don't say which flavours they want, and I got a discount.
• Steenderen, Netherlands. The owner explained to me that he would give me an ice cream for € 2,00; despite the fact that it cost € 2,10 in reality (€ 0,70 * 3). Thereafter he ignored the "mixed flavours" request so I still had to specify them. This enterpreneur will go broke soon.

For the American readers: in Europe ice cream is not measured in liters / gallons.

Comments

[Martin Roell]

Thank You! :-) You made my day.

[Anjo]

Hi Martin,
I'll try to extend the survey to Germany. You probably already know they answer :-).
Anjo.

[Martin Roell]

I will co-research this. :) I wonder if we get different results. And if we do, what that might mean. (I was going to write something about different reactions of icecream-vendors to unusual requests based on the age of the requester here, but I fear it would be too easily misinterpreted. ;-))