An eight-year-old girl has become a TikTok sensation after brutally taking down an ice cream van selling two screwball ice creams for £9.
Marnie, standing beside her identical twin sister Mylah in Burnley, Lancashire says the seller ‘is going to get nowhere’ with such high prices.
The youngster tells their aunt Karis Lambert, who is filming: ‘So, there’s an ice cream van there selling two ice creams with two chewing gums in it for bloody nine pounds.’
Flabbergasted and in a strong Burnley accent, she says that in her own street you can buy an ice cream for £1 or £2 each.
The cost isn’t the only thing Marnie is astounded at however.
She continues: ‘And he only does bloody card! Stood there with my cash – bloody hell.’
Karis replies: ‘That’s well bad, innit?’ Marnie agrees, while adding loudly: ‘I bet he can hear me,’ as she and her sister walk off.
The video, filmed in Towneley Park, has racked up 1.9 million views on TikTok and more than 30,000 comments, mostly finding Marnie hilarious.
Several posters also agree the ice creams in question are on the expensive side.
One, Lily, writes: ‘I’m with her on this I wouldn’t stand for £9 either,’ to which Karis, who posted the video, replied: ‘When it came to £9 on screen I said to her do you really want it, she said not for that price no I’ll just get one out of freezer when I get home’, followed by two crying laughing emojis.
Many of the comments point out how much they like Marnie’s accent, while others say the girls look like Harry Potter star Emma Watson.
Karis later told the Lancashire Post: ‘Marnie was really mad and wanted to express it on Tik Tok and now it’s gone viral.’
Speaking about the sisters, she said: ‘They are a bit like Ant and Dec. Marnie speaks her mind whereas Mylah can sometimes be a little bit quieter but she is the one who always come out with the best one liners.’
Although the video has been posted as a bit of light-hearted fun, a number of ice cream sellers have been left despairing at the take-down, reports the Guardian.
One, John Taylor, whose C&M Ices van was crowned ‘mobiler of the year 2023’, said rising costs have had a huge impact on ice cream van owners, meaning they have no choice but to put up prices.
John told the newspaper: ‘It’s not just our industry. Every industry is in the same boat. The problem is everybody perceives us as a cheap product.’
‘Everyone seems to think ice-cream should be 50p or a £1,’ which he said were 1970s prices.
‘They’re quite happy to pay four quid for a lukewarm Starbucks coffee but won’t pay a couple of quid for a high-quality ice-cream.’
He said several cost hikes, including diesel, electricity, insurance, pitch fees and wages, had led to double-digit price increases for several years in a row.
John explained ice cream van owners did not have the power of a supermarket, who can buy say 1,000 pallets of Magnums, at a cheaper price.
He added that £4.50 for a screwball ice cream was at the top end of the market but not ‘unreasonable’.
Last year, we took a closer look at the 99 Flake ice cream, which isn’t, as many assume, called 99 because it once cost 99p
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