Posted on 07/31/2011 5:24:56 AM PDT by csvset
Don't let the happy music fool you. Ice cream truck wars are raging in Corolla, and it's vicious out there:
Last week, one ice cream vendor called the Currituck County sheriff on another, claiming that three trucks were following her. Another
female driver carries an electronic shocking device after getting harassed by competing male drivers.
Last year, a driver slugged another driver after he was cut off by the other truck. He was charged with simple assault.
An ice cream truck owner found the tires slashed on his truck. He could not prove who did it but believes it was a competitor.
One owner threatened a lawsuit when another vendor painted his trucks almost exactly the same, with spotted cows.
The competitor changed only the color of the spots.
"For the last three years it's been crazy," said Mark Petit, former owner of Udder Delight trucks.
"It's turned into the ice cream truck wars."
He sold the business two years ago to Stanley Lirman. Petit had started Udder Delight in 1993 using trucks painted with the familiar polka-dot cow on the side.
Over the years, vendors have come and gone, but the competition has intensified, Petit said.
Residents have noticed a difference, too.
"I see a million ice cream trucks every day," said Meghan Agresto, a Corolla resident and site manager at the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.
"My kids keep pointing them out to me."
Mary Stile, owner of ice cream trucks under the name of A Plus Lawn Care, has asked Currituck officials to pass an ordinance that would limit the number of vendors and the number of trucks for each company.
She said she knows of at least one company sending trucks to Corolla from Virginia Beach.
"I feel good about this," Stile said of the proposed ordinance. "I'm barely keeping my head above water."
Lirman, based in Dare County, could support such an ordinance, he said.
"I'm making half what I made two years ago because of the competition," hesaid.
Stile has accused Lirman's drivers of harassing and cutting off her drivers. It allegedly was one of Stile's drivers who punched one of Lirman's drivers last year when he felt he had been cut off.
But Lirman said he pays his workers by the hour and not by commission, so they have no reason to be aggressive.
"She's looking in the wrong direction," he said.
Stile presented her idea to Vance Aydlett, chairman of the Currituck County Board of Commissioners.
Currituck officials hesitate to regulate ice cream trucks but may have to if the bad behavior continues, Aydlett said.
"We'll have to take a look at it," he said.
Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com
Real headline: Ice Cream Drivers Need To Be Cool
Or: “Ice cream wars heating up!!’’.
I live in South Carolina and there are 0 ice cream trucks here, now. Not fair!
Good Humor man in a foul humor...
Aggressive ice cream vendors in total melt-down.
Me too and I haven’t seen an ice cream truck hardly anywhere since the mid to late eighties in a small town that I grew up in.
Just chill, people.
So many photos, so little time.
>>> Tempers flare in war of N.C. ice cream truck drivers
One side will win. One side will get licked.
They’d better have four wheel drive to serve all of Corolla. Much of it is past the end of the iconic Highway 12 that runs the length of the Outer Banks. Deliberately so, they don’t want the sort of commercialism that comes with a paved road, and they’re worried about the wild Banker Ponies that still run free there.
You have to drive up the beach and be conscious of high tide when you come and go. You’d be surprised at the very high-end sandcastles there, too. Not a backwater. A different place, the ocean’s definitely on the cold side for the south, barely topping 70 in the summer, whale sightings are not unheard of.
It’s a DC oriented place, draws an odd mix of environuts and the stray individualist who likes the idea of “roughing it” (sort of).
I’m far more partial to Hatteras Island well to the south, myself. Ice cream trucks all over there, too. Oldfashioned family beach, mostly cottages, retail is widely scattered. Ideal for such a thing, ice cream trucks, to come plying through toward sunset when everybody’s coming off the beach. They’re a kid magnet and they WILL get their ice cream, lol. So few of them around anywhere else, it’s odd how kids immediately know what they are without having ever experienced them.
Bah. You can get ice cream bars at Walmart for 1/20 of the unit price. Even at Harris Teeter it's 1/10. People with one child encouraging these dang nuisances and their electronic Winter Holiday music after dark in July ...
And *of course*, the companies don't want to compete by offering a better product, price, or service. No, the government has to limit competition so they can overcharge (and annoy) the customer even more. I'll bet they all vote Democrat.
Fudgesicles at fifteen paces.
Well, good morning to you too TC. Low pressure system making your sinuses ache or something, lol? We needed the rain so it’s a good problem to have.
As far as the ice cream trucks, it’s vacation time for most out there. Ice cream brought right to you. So what it’s comparatively expensive, it’s opportunity cost. The Food Lion’s 20 miles away and the local handymart stickup joint ain’t any cheaper.
Yes, in fact, I’ve had a whopper sinus headache for four days. I either have to put up with it, or take a decongestant and walk into walls.
You have a point, though. We don’t vacation as far from civilization as the Outer Banks, so I hadn’t thought through the cost-benefit there.
Depends upon where you are. Kitty Hawk/Nags Head/Kill Devil Hills is as built up as any beach town in the state. I don't particularly like eight lane highways while vacationing myself, so we're on much gentler and quieter Hatteras Island, third week of August. Compromised with the miniature golf fans in the family, Kinnakeet Shores in Avon this time, they have the prerequisite Putt-Putt. Only place on that island that does, plus the aforementioned Food Lion is there. I wanted Ocracoke Island, but that didn't fly due to being Putt-Putt deprived. I'll freely admit I don't get it. But, whatever. Keeping the peace.
Hope the beach in Avon is as fun as it was in Waves last year. The beach was actually busier at night than during the day, campfires literally dotting the beach as far as the eye could see up and down. Crazy sandcastles and sand mermaids built every day, washed away every night. Loads of people from all over the world. There was some sort of international kiteboarding championship going on that drew them, I found out after the fact.
My Dear Sir or Madame, forgive me! I didn’t mean to offend. By Jupiter Above! How is it possible that there are no conveyances delivering this wonderfully pleasing and cool confection to the children and adults of the great Palmetto State!?! It’s an outrage, I PROTEST!! (well, for Heavens sake, go to the store and get some Breyers already!).
It's Not the Heat......It's the Stupidity...
Maybe they need to consult with Obama for a solution to the problem. Oh, wait... he’s never even managed anything as big as an ice cream truck. Never mind.
We’re going to Topsail again, after Labor Day. Only about 10 minutes to a Food Lion ;-).
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