# Wal-Mart Ice Cream doesn't melt, apparently **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059 "2014-07-25T21:35:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/61 "2014-08-01T01:56:32Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I can’t believe I’m having to explain that a higher price makes it easier for Haagen Daz to absorb any losses or excess costs they incur throughout the distribution process. Well certainly didn’t divine that point from your comment. Perhaps it could’ve been more explicit and I don’t think I deserved a snarky reply for asking what you meant. Sure HD margins might be higher, but they’re also buying more expensive ingredients (I’d imagine). Whatever. It’s a better product that they’re still managing to mass produce (it’s not some local dairy farm selling hand crafted gelato, after all) that people want to buy. Breyer’s chose to sacrifice that for whatever reason and I feel the product is inferior and not worth buying. Plus, they ran their brand identity on commercials about how even little kids could read the ingredient list because it was simply milk, cream, sugar and vanilla and then changed that. It made the change seem more dramatic, like they were abandoning the point of their product. ---
**Author:** ![Jay4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f1d935/32.png) [@Jay4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay4)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/62 "2014-08-01T03:34:20Z")
well ya know,there is always the option of not feeding her fatass kid junk food ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/63 "2014-08-01T13:15:56Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Well certainly didn’t divine that point from your comment. Perhaps it could’ve been more explicit and I don’t think I deserved a snarky reply for asking what you meant. > > Sure HD margins might be higher, but they’re also buying more expensive ingredients (I’d imagine). Whatever. It’s a better product that they’re still managing to mass produce (it’s not some local dairy farm selling hand crafted gelato, after all) that people want to buy. Nobody is saying that it’s impossible to produce and distribute high quality ice cream. If you’re going to go that route, you have to accept a higher percentage of loss, or spend money on more advanced technology throughout your distribution channel. I have no idea what HD does, but I’d guess they’re very tight on QC. Most other ice cream makers have found that their sales didn’t suffer when they made the switch, and that they had less loss. I think even Ben & Jerry’s started adding gums 7 or 8 years ago, which surprised me even more than Breyers. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/64 "2014-08-01T13:47:39Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > So, you think Bryers just decided to add gums for the fun of it? Your anecdote isn’t very persuasive. Never said they did. Certainly they had a reason – they could be less careful in their treatment of the ice cream, and they produced a “smoother” mouthfeel\*. But tyhey abandoned not only their original recipre, but their entire advertising campaign of long standing – not just a “for the moment” way of selling things – in malking the switch. Breyers wrote their ingredients in large letters on the side of the box and emphasized the sparseness of their ingredients explicitly in their advertising. They refused to sell “Pumpokin” ice cream because pure pumpkin didn’t taste like “pumpkin”, and product laws forbade them selling “pumpkin plus other gourds” as simply “pumpkin”, so they went with a longer label. When they made the switch, they lost a lot of customers, as this thread illustrates. I don’t have figures, so I can’t tell you what sort of bargain it was. No doubt the current management feels that people raised on the New Stuff won’t have a standard for comparison. It might be a good business decision – I haven’t studied it – but it certainly resulted in a much inferior pro0duct. Although even gum-containing Breyer’s doesn’t retain its outer shape in 80 degree heat for an hour, lest we lose track of the original point of this thread. There’s differenmt levels of adulterants. \*I wonder if this is what they mean by “gritty” – the new gum-infused product _feels_ slipperier compared to the purer stuff. If that’s what it is, and test subjects were saying the old, non-gum stuff wasn’t as “smooth”, give me gritty any day. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/65 "2014-08-01T18:00:16Z")
It’s been 7 years. I think it’s safe to say that their business decision was a good one. It would be very easy to switch back. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/66 "2014-08-01T20:01:16Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > It’s been 7 years. I think it’s safe to say that their business decision was a good one. It would be very easy to switch back. That just shows that the powers that be are happy with it. It’s still awful ice cream, even if it DOES melt. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/67 "2014-08-01T20:30:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > That just shows that the powers that be are happy with it. > > It’s still awful ice cream, even if it DOES melt. Right. It’s not as if no one became wealthy selling cut rate, low quality products to people. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/68 "2014-08-02T01:18:35Z")
It isn’t cut rate, nor is it low quality. It has a natural stabilizer in it. It’s simply a matter of preference. You and I don’t prefer it, but some people obviously do. I was just responding to CalMeacham’s comment about whether or not it was a good business decision. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/69 "2014-08-02T01:23:25Z")
Maybe if people don’t want “frozen dairy dessert” from Breyer’s, they should stop buying their Blasts line that’s filled full of candy and other stuff. I mean if you’re looking for legit ice cream to begin with, I don’t see why those flavors would appeal to you? Same for sugar free and fat free and…sheesh, you’re eating ice cream. Revel in the junk food already and eat the normal kind. I just looked at my normal chocolate flavor and it says “ice cream” with a whopping huge ingredient list of… > [@](#): > > MILK, CREAM, SUGAR, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), WHEY, TARA GUM, NATURAL FLAVOR Hmm right, I’m not seeing the problem. And I am thankful every day that I don’t have awful gritty ice cream if I take more than 6 days to eat all my ice cream (which these days is every time since it’s just my husband and I). If that’s thanks to the tara gum, I’ll take the gum. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059/70 "2014-08-09T09:50:23Z")
> [@VernWinterbottom](#): > > It’s quite a problem if a product turns to soup too quickly between the production line and the deep freezer or between the truck and the supermarket freezer case. She prides herself on her ice cream. It’s not all scarey stuff that goes into foods. Sometimes there’s really cool food science at work. It’s quite a problem if you allow the confection to warm up repeatedly, and hide the situation on refreezing [Guar gum: a cheap substitute for agar in microbial culture media](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16162142) [Xanthan gum: an economical substitute for agar in plant tissue culture media.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16331459) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-ice-cream-doesnt-melt-apparently/694059.md?page=3)