Now here’s me thinking that triple glazing could be on the way out. I even wrote a post about it last week, exploring the idea that inside ten years triple glazing could be a distant memory. If you want to read up on that before you read on, click here.

How wrong could I be? I was so wrong, that the ever reliable Daily Mail suggested that triple glazing could be the very thing that is causing the demise of the ice cream van.

Check out the Daily Mail article here

Ready? Here we go…

“Blocking out chimes”

Here’s the reasoning that the Daily Mail presents as reasoning behind the story:

Ice cream vans are at risk of dying out because triple glazing is blocking out their chimes, it has been claimed.

There were 250,000 ice cream vans in Britain in the 1970s but now there are only 2,500.

The chief executive of the Ice Cream Association has blamed modern windows which stop children hearing the vans coming, putting them out of business.

Zelica Carr told the Daily Telegraph: ‘These windows are so thick that people cannot hear them coming, unless they happen to have opened them first.

‘Even if a van is right outside their house, people may not hear them. The whole point is to soundproof homes and keep them warm, but they are not good for ice cream vans.’

As you can see, this story was originally published in the Daily Telegraph and appears to have been picked up by this other paper. As you can see, a person called Zelica Carr has come to the conclusion that modern windows are one of the primary reasons that ice cream vans are dying a death. Apparently, modern day windows block out the sounds of ice cream vans coming down the street, leaving kids completely unawares that the van is coming down their street. Presumably all these kids are inside at all times with their curtains permanently closed. Such sheltered lives they live.

If you have read the full article on either the Mail or Telegraph sites, you will notice the distinct lack of scientific evidence provided in order to prove that modern windows are indeed one of the major reasons for the demise in ice cream vans. Those in the industry reading this will know that noise reduction a triple glazing has in fact been a flaky issue in recent months and years, with the science being refuted.

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Garbage headlines with no evidence

The fact that this is even a story is laughable. Then again, it’s August, most newsworthy institutions are on recess right now and I guess most media outlets are trying their best to fill their minor pages with something that could be classed as “news”. To most people, this will not even register as a story worth reading. But for our industry, it will register, if only through irritance-level annoyance because of the stupidity of the article.

Here’s why ice cream vans are on the decline: changing buying habits. Supermarkets are now able to provide in much bigger amounts and for better prices the very same products available out of the sides of these vans. In the 1970’s, when supermarkets weren’t the force they were, ice cream vans were kings when it came to ice cream. But this is 2017, nearly everything we could possibly need as human beings, including ice cream, is now available at a supermarket, and that is what is killing the ice cream van business. Agree with dominance of supermarkets or not, but it certainly is not modern day windows, definitely not triple glazing, that is killing off that particular industry.

This story is total garbage. There is no mention of decibel levels, comparisons between, single, double and triple glazing, modern buying habits or anything substantial to support the theory that triple glazing is a threat to ice cream vans. Inside the industry, we all know that triple glazing is even failing to make a tangible dent in residential sales.

At this point I would say that the 2040 deadline to ban sales of diesel and petrol vehicles poses a bigger threat to the ice cream van industry than triple glazing does.

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