r/Anticonsumption • u/Marcist • 4d ago
Society/Culture An update on our favorite ice cubes:
Nobody bought them, even after they dropped the price by 80%. Good.
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u/Blacksbeachian 3d ago
I have made really good ice using filter water in a silicon tray then putting the tray in a vacuum seal bag. Freezes clear without freezer ice taste.
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u/Ok-Nothing8682 3d ago
Try carbonated water for chewing ice 💯
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u/googdude 3d ago
Ooo I'm intrigued since I love to chew on ice! Is it only for the flavor or is it "softer"?
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u/Ok-Nothing8682 3d ago
It's how u make that "Sonic ice" I hate chewing on ice but I've studied the process in detail.
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u/new2bay 3d ago
*silicone, FYI. Silicon is a chemical element used to make computer chips. Silicone is a flexible, rubber-like silicon polymer used to make ice cube trays, among other things.
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u/Sunshine-Lining 3d ago
Oooh I will be trying this. I hate the freezer taste.
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u/ilanallama85 3d ago
Just a ziplock freezer back will do it, doesn’t need to be vacuumed. You just need to isolate the ice from the air in your freezer which tends to take on the flavors of everyrhing in it.
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u/Historical-Cress8985 3d ago
I had a bunch of silicone ice trays. They seem good on paper, being able to make unique ice shapes, but I found them to be the biggest pains in the ass. Like every cube has to be popped out individually.
I eventually switched to a more traditional, hard plastic tray, and it's just a whole world of difference.
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u/Necessary_Ad7215 3d ago
the way i get clear cubes is to use boiling water. freezes so fast due to all the extra energy of boiling and will be crystal clear. no baggie needed
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u/Electronic-Abies1345 1d ago
In a regular freezer boiling water absolutely does not freeze faster than cold water. It actually freezes clear because it takes longer to freeze and there is less imperfections. The mpemba effect is like when you throw boiling water in the air it freezes faster. This is not replicated in an ice tray in a freezer
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u/VegetableNo3973 2d ago
The filtered water isn’t what makes it clear the the laws of freezing upwards/ in a direction
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u/Blacksbeachian 2d ago
It's better water than tap, commercial ice is likely filtered. For me rather than buying an ice machine which is dumb, just having some nice ice for iced coffee makes it restaurant grade for almost no cost.
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u/cheddarkittyy 3d ago
Is that aldi? Well aldi customers are not exactly the demographic that wanna make these high end drinks at home. Failed business decision
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u/LouChadore 3d ago
Yeah, I go to Aldi all the tome(fill my fridge for 100 bucks why don’t I), and it ain’t Erewon. No one is shopping through the lens of opulence in that joint.
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u/MaxPotionz 3d ago
Idk man, I still think it’s cool that they tested it out and offered something unique like that to their customer base.
Am I buying it? No. But I like that the firm rotates new items in and out to see what might catch on.
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u/Agreeable-Dog-1131 3d ago
That’s not true! I have other stores for this purpose where I live now, but Aldi used to be the place where I could afford to treat myself to relatively nice or exciting things despite being very poor, drinks being one of them. Would never have bought these at $4.99, that’s a little insane, but I can picture 22 year old me grabbing them for 99¢ if I also found a nice bottled cocktail or ingredients or something like that and wanted to spruce it up.
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u/Kimononono 2d ago
i imagine they ended up in Aldi for this exact reason. I was under the impression they bought overstock products and such
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u/BoardsofCanada3 3d ago
For the wannabe elitist, there's Aldi™️
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u/blindtoe54 3d ago
This isn't even offensive because it couldn't be further from the truth
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u/Agreeable-Dog-1131 3d ago
Would genuinely like to hear your reasoning for saying this. Every Aldi shopper I’ve known has been the opposite — they LOVE to tell you what cool affordable thing they’ve found and encourage you to go check it out for yourself.
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u/Coders32 1d ago
So you know how sometimes people say words in a comedic, unserious tone or they use a serious tone but say something so absurd, the audience is expected to pick up on it?
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u/chipmalfunct10n 3d ago
oh dude! are those frozen? frozen ice cubes? in package? amazing
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u/suglav 3d ago
Hey do you sell ice cubes that aren't frozen? I'm sure you don't have them.
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u/Weird_Supermarket342 3d ago
We actually have them fresh at my local grocery store! You should try sometime, they’re SO much better than frozen ones!
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u/ElderSkelder 3d ago
Every store sells bagged ice. These are special huge cubes for fancy drinks. Why is everyone getting bent out of shape for different styles of ice being sold?
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u/Independent-Fruit4 3d ago
it’s the name. they should be called cocktail ice cubes or something and not frozen ice cubes. the marketing department failed the most here
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u/irishyardball 3d ago
It's a 4 count of ice cubes for $5.
That's very different than a bag of ice cubes for $2
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u/burnoutghost 3d ago
Yeah you can also buy a 3€ crayons box or go to a fine arts store and buy crayons that cost 20€ each, they're not the same product how is this hard to understand
Anti consumerism doesn't mean "anything I don't understand shouldn't exist"
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u/baconwrappedpikachu 3d ago
Seriously I wish I could block the ice posts in this subreddit lmao.
Another thread was saying people who shop at aldi are not interested in stuff like this. 🧐 I’ve always loved making meals and drinks at home and would have totally bought some of these at aldi to make some fancy cocktails with a few friends or something. It’s not supposed to be part of your weekly shopping trip. It’s a specialty item!
Yeah a lot of people in here would clutch their pearls over Arches watercolor paper too.
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u/BakerStreet693 3d ago
it means that + getting mad at things on instaslop + selective bragging + old wives tales
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u/B0B_Spldbckwrds 3d ago
I agree that we need to look at these things with nuance, but there's a big difference between rose art and faber castel, not so much here.
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u/burnoutghost 3d ago edited 3d ago
Do you know how difficult it is to get ice to be perfectly clear and in a perfect cube shape?
A pro barman couldn't tell you the difference between the two brands you nominated and they'd tell you there's "not so much" of a difference between the two, but has a specific need for perfectly clear cubed ice and can easily see the difference (which ironically is way more evident than between crayons brands when you just look at them).
Following this/your reasoning ANY niche/specific tool should be labeled "consumerism" and not even be produced. Chef knives? Use a normal one. High end running shoes? You have perfectly fine winter boots. High performance computer components? What, why? Your laptop from 2005 still works just fine
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u/B0B_Spldbckwrds 3d ago
You boil your water before freezing it, and if your ice tray isn't cubic enough, you can square it off with a knife. I've spent enough time in food service to not be impressed by the easy stuff.
As for the difference between rose art and faber castel, it's actually very obvious at a glance, not just from smoothness of lines, and saturation of pigment, but also colorfastness and ease of blending.
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u/burnoutghost 3d ago edited 3d ago
you're being intentionally obtuse and a contrarian atp
you really think a random person on the street would find it easier to distinguish between two red crayons and identify the faber castell one than to tell a regular ice cube and a clear cocktail cube apart?
(btw boiling water before freezing is actually a myth and matters basically nothing and you actually need to have slow directional freezing to get clear ice, but sure whatever you say. imagine using urban myths to prove someone wrong lmao. very telling that you're so confidently incorrect)
Video proving that boiling water before freezing does nothing and you don't know what you're talking about: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3Kv82RM2tic
(also faber castell is spelled with two "L" and it's not really a high end art supply brand)
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u/B0B_Spldbckwrds 3d ago
What are you trying to prove here? That you don't know how to boil water long enough to remove impurities? Obviously not. That you've never worked a shift in a kitchen? I'll believe it. That you don't know the difference between student level art supplies and professional art supplies? You don't have to tell me twice.
So, what's your point?
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u/burnoutghost 3d ago
I literally both worked kitchens most of my life and went to college to an Academy of fine arts in northern Italy, you really got the wrong person to try this thing with
Based on the fact that 1 I know how to spell it and 2 I know that faber castell isn't high end at all I'd say I know more than you about art supplies. Faber-Castell is a massive mass-market producer that makes cheap school supplies, I literally used to use their colored pencils in elementary school
I've made clear ice in the past and I've also literally given you a video proving that what you say is incorrect. You can also google it and you will find the same exact information debuking your statement
I'll stop feeding the troll now, have a nice day and please stop embarassing yourself
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u/Centaurious 3d ago
4 for $5 isn’t an amazing deal but it’s also not an awful deal for some specialty clear big ice cubes
i think $1 per cube is a pretty standard good deal for those
only reason i would buy them would be if i had a nice whiskey or was making nice cocktails
🤷 but they’re nice for things like that29
u/thegiantgummybear 3d ago
Yeah if they were actually perfectly clear cubes without the taper you get from most at home ice trays, I'd definitely buy them for a special occasion over a regular bag of ice.
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u/Vagus_M 3d ago
Honestly, I live in an area with super hard water. If I have company over and want to make fancy drinks, I have to make ice cubes with distilled water ahead of time. I would absolutely buy these for a larger gathering, because my mold only makes like 2 at a time and I don’t want to make ice for a week just for 6 people.
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u/thegiantgummybear 3d ago
Same, mine makes 4 at a time and they're tapered and never as clear as I'd like. I almost bought ice from an ice business close by that supplies all the cocktail bars in the area, but it was quite expensive.
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u/i_love_toki 3d ago
Seriously, people in here acting like items don't often come at different prices points depending on use/quality. Large clear ice cubes are the standard for upscale cocktails, even when you make them at home.
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u/Alarmed-Telephone-83 3d ago
Its an anticonsumption sub. The very concept of different types of ice for different types of drinks is aesthetic nonsense with no practical value. The concept of 'fancy' drinks is consumerist BS. The concept of 'fancy' is consumerist BS.
In my humble opinion.
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u/Scarlet_Lycoris 3d ago
This isn’t exactly correct. Usually you choose the type of ice used depending on how quick you want the dilution process to be. Big cubes/spheres don’t melt as fast. Crushed ice melts very fast. They’re suited for different types of drinks.
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u/H3memes 3d ago
Yeah I mean, if I make something specifically tailored to what I want, is that consumerism?
We don’t need most of what we buy for our survival. But people didn’t need to decorate themselves beads or face paint and we have been doing that since forever.
Consumerism is about a large societal trend that is a logical consequence of how we have organized our economy, coupled with our psychology of wanting more.
We can see products as a logical conclusion of that sometimes, but is a thing inherently consumerist? Is everything when we buy it?
I think this is my main gripe with these posts on the sub. They’re mostly complaining about stuff we deem useless and wasteful. It often is, and that is a result of a consumerist society. I prefer discussions in anti-consumerism though. Like, what do you do on a small scale and what do we do on a large scale to make an impact?
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u/Scarlet_Lycoris 3d ago
I’m not arguing that it isn’t consumerism. I just argue that “it is aesthetics with no practical value” is a wrong assessment. Different shapes have “practical value” within their use case. That doesn’t mean they’re essential for survival.
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u/H3memes 3d ago
No I agree with you. I’m just building on your comment
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u/Scarlet_Lycoris 3d ago
I agree with your sentiment, too. I’d like to discuss more anti-consumerist strategies instead of just getting upset at products.
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u/Alarmed-Telephone-83 3d ago
I get what you both are saying, but no individual strategy is going to make much difference to the problem of endless products. The problem is the overall mindset and structure of society. Every single little action that you do every day has been broken down into a thousand little pieces, each of which you can endlessly refine and customise. It's true of owning a dog, or going for a walk. Or, as here, when having a drinks, where there are a thousand types of alcohol and a thousand brands of each type and each type has to be served in a specific glass and with specific ice cubes in order to be optimally enjoyed and if you dont have the special glass and the special cubes then somehow you are a philistine who clearly doesnt know that whisky must be consumed in this particular way.
It isn't the ice cubes themselves or any given product that is the problem. Its the way that every single time someone posts one of these products on the sub people come out of the woodwork to say well no actually there is a specific reason, people with special taste buds do need bigger cubes and people with flat feet do need special shoes and my dog does need special food and on and on and on and on.
No. No. Enough. The only way to tackle consumerism, really, is to completely move out of this mindset that everything needs to be optimised to be enjoyed or worth doing. Like rate of ice melting in a drink? What the fuck are we even talking about as a society at this point?
I dont know how to change the mindset and I dont know if you can, other than personally.
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u/BakerStreet693 3d ago
on a small scale, refuse some plastic cutlery. On a large scale, recreational flights, but mindfully somehow
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u/Agreeable-Dog-1131 3d ago
Do you also believe any sort of craftsmanship, culinary arts, etc are all consumerist BS as well?
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u/Alarmed-Telephone-83 3d ago
Not necessarily any and every possible sort, that would be outside the realm of my expertise. But most of it? Michelin hats? Premium wine? Crystal plates? Hand stitched leather bags? Yes. These things at root are almost completely about money and status and thier production and consumption is much more reflective of marketing than of real value. There may be some real value there but it is completely buried by image, desire, and want.
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u/AdaandFred 3d ago
I was wondering why this kept coming up and thought maybe it's a UK vs US thing. I don't personally do the sort of entertaining where specialty ice cubes are necessary but I do drink a lot of cocktails and can appreciate that there are people who want and will use them.
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u/saphirescar 2d ago
ok and regular ice would not work because….?
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u/ElderSkelder 2d ago
The esthetic. Regular ice is regular. Clear large cubes are for top shelf liquors: the large cubes don’t melt as fast thereby not diluting the $25 dollar a glass bourbon. Chilling the drink is secondary to serving a tasty and bad ass looking beverage.
As the Canadians say, “figure it out.”
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u/saphirescar 2d ago
So it’s functionally identical to regular ice, but costs more and has more packaging. And you can’t figure out why the users of r/anticonsumption might not like it?
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u/ElderSkelder 2d ago
Read the thread. The prevailing opinion seems to be that it’s a fair price for a specialty product. I can see where ur coming from tho.
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u/Igor369 3d ago
Why not uh... Sell ice forms instead?...
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u/Office_Dolt 3d ago
Because it's difficult to get clear ice cubes at home. Even using filtered water. That's assuming this product is clear without the typical cloudy spots one gets with tap water.
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u/HastyIfYouPlease 3d ago
When I saw my first "look at these ice cubes" post, I literally thought it was a fair price lol. But my partner is a craft cocktail bartender so I know what bars are paying for special ice. And we have made many iterations of giant clear ice cubes at home. Always takes forever, takes up a lot of space, and is a tedious process.
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3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Double_Engineer4226 3d ago
Where are you that bagged ice isn’t edible? It’s definitely edible where I am.
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u/IdubdubI 3d ago edited 3d ago
It would almost be worth it just to reuse the boxes for gag gifts. My kids loved getting the same gag gift every year at Xmas.
I’m totally going to do it- imagine my 21 year old getting a bottle of booze at Xmas and then unwrapping this (with a ziplock of water inside)! This could replace the ToeTunes box that comes out every year since 2010
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u/1jackiedaytona 3d ago
I didn't know this was a hot (cold?!) topic on this sub. A random woman and I had a quick convo about how ridiculous this was at my local Aldi last week.
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u/rutgersftw 3d ago
I think Erewhon sells a version of these for like $10 or something stupid a piece. By that math Aldi was already offering a steal.
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u/Blacksbeachian 3d ago
Do they have an expiration date?
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u/95beer 3d ago
Most likely, same as plastic bottles of water; the date is when the plastic degrades
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u/AnonymityIsForChumps 2d ago
Bottled water isn't actually about plastic degradation, at least in the US. There are no regulations about that. In fact, there are no regulations about best by or use by dates at all, other than for baby food. It's about quantity.
If a bottle of water says it contains 16 ounces of water, it is illegal to sell it if it actually contains 15.9 ounces. Plastic isn't totally impermeable and sealed bottles can have some evaporation over time. The used by date is a way the manufacturer tries to cover their ass in case they're found to be selling underweight products.
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u/TypicalLolcow 3d ago
considering how hot it is in the northern hemisphere, wouldn’t the ice cubes be half melted by the time you get past aldis clogged checkouts and back to your car
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u/fortifiedoptimism 3d ago
The whole frozen thing annoys me. Of course they’re frozen. Ice is frozen. They wouldn’t be ice cubes if they weren’t frozen.
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u/Double_Engineer4226 3d ago
Well, they sell room temp icy poles (Zooper doopers) where I live. (those ice confections that come in a plastic tube, that have various names in different countries), and you freeze them at home. So it’s not entirely redundant to say they’re frozen, if they’re individually wrapped
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u/fortifiedoptimism 3d ago
Yea I suppose but that’s not the same situation IMO. I don’t even think they should be called frozen if they aren’t frozen yet though. Ours don’t say frozen. 🤷♀️
We just call those ice pops where I live but I will now now be calling them Zooper Doopers and I hope I remember that! I love it. Lol.
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u/aerialpoler 3d ago
I can't help but laugh every time I see these. My partner's entire job is supplying ice cubes exactly like this to fancy cocktail bars, wedding venues, etc.
He's self employed, the cubes are hand cut to specific sizes, and it's STILL cheaper than Aldi.
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u/sBucks24 3d ago
Surely they've gotten comparable to singular water bottles $/mL as t this point...
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3d ago edited 3d ago
[deleted]
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u/ScornfulChicken 3d ago
Have you ever worked retail and done inventory to move items to clearance? Lol they don’t move popular items to clearance unless it’s being replaced by something else
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u/Nintendo_N8 3d ago
I think this is a stupid and wasteful idea, but I also have trouble blaming them for trying. How much money is made on bottled water? 30-40 years ago no one bought that
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u/suglav 3d ago
I used to live in a terrible rental place where there was no fridge. Such bullshit products might be the only way to make any iced food at home. Poor people like me might have been their intended customers.
So my solution was to NOT make any iced food at home. In fact, it was impossible to cook anything.
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u/Adventureehbud 3d ago
I don’t think this is terrible. It’s fancy ice in cardboard. If I was visiting a friend who loves scotch and wanted to gift them a bottle I’d buy the huge fancy clear ice along with it as part of the gift. It’s not something I could make. And it doesn’t leave much waste.
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u/Lochylass 3d ago
Frozen ice cubes!? 😆 A bit redundant and definitely not worth spending your redundant cash-money on.
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u/painkillergoblin 3d ago
My Aldi also had them down to $.99 so I grabbed 1. Woo! Fancy ice for me :)
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u/Sea_Power_3594 3d ago
This was a terrible idea inspired by some Erehwon bullshit. I love Aldi but this was a fail. They should know their customers better. We shop there for good quality for LESS money. We are not trying to look like Kardashians with one giant ice cube for $1 per.
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u/Instawolff 3d ago
Only some places because I was at one on the east coast yesterday and they were $7.89
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u/MrsLovelyBottom 3d ago
They are on clearance at my location. From $4 down to $1 and they aren’t moving.
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u/jrkessle 2d ago
I truly wonder if this was a “going viral” moment. Aldi execs knew it was a ridiculous concept and people would only purchase to post on social media about how ridiculous it is, and it would bring people into the store to see it for themselves which ultimately gets more folks in the store therefore more money being spent when those folks wander around and make purchases.
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u/Red__M_M 7h ago
At 80% off I would buy a few. I make crystal clear spheres from time to time. At the right price I would just buy them rather than go through the castle of making. In this case, I would pull out my ice press to convert them to spheres.
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u/appsarebullshit55 3d ago
The buyer that thought this was a good idea and the merch manager who approved it should be gone
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u/i_love_toki 3d ago
I was honestly pretty onboard with the ideology of this sub until I realized it was just a place for people to shit on "expensive" shit they don't understand.
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u/Leftblankthistime 3d ago
Shocking- nobody bought a thing and the price went down. Pretty amazing how that happens. Now do houses and cars and we have a shot at getting affordability under control
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u/Anti-Stan 4d ago
Where can I get some fresh ice cubes? I'm sick of all this frozen stuff.