What do Garden Gnomes and Ice have in Common?

Not much, to be honest. But they are both cash cows for different industries.

Gnomes

Garden gnomes. What are they? Why are they so popular? Why (in England) does everybody want a gnome in their garden?

Actually, they're ancient pagan fertility symbols. They are phallic symbols. Placed in a garden, they encourage the garden to grow. People who buy them and put them in their gardens are unaware of this. But nonetheless it's true. I don't know what motivates them. It's tradition - a garden without gnomes isn't a garden...

Many years ago I saw a TV documentary, where the owner of a garden centre was being interviewed. It was somewhere in the UK, a big garden centre, selling everything garden-related. Seeds, shrubs, tools, ornaments. The interviewer asked him what his best-selling product was. He didn't hesitate. Gnomes, he said. Every year he drives a new car from selling garden gnomes.

Ice

So - what does ice have to do with the price of tea in China?

I've lived many years in Southeast Asia. Mainly Thailand. Living in guesthouses, where there are no cooking facilities. Even if I could cook (which I can't LOL). So, I eat in restaurants. Of course, most restaurants are Thai-owned. In tourist centres there are western-owned restaurants. The western-owned restaurants all face the same problem. Sourcing ingredients. (And finding reliable staff and good cooks...but I digress.)

My point is this. In Thailand, a group of men will show up at a restaurant with a bottle or two of whiskey. They spend the afternoon, leisurely drinking their whiskey. They buy food, they order 'sets'. What is a set? A set is a bucket of ice, a bottle of coke, and soda water.

The restaurant makes some money from the food, but their biggest profit is from the 'sets'. These guys may order three or four sets in the course of the afternoon. Or more. Of the sets, by far the biggest mark up is ice.

Thailand is hot. When you drink, lots of ice gets consumed. A restaurant can have a box of ice delivered quite cheaply. From that box, they can sell 30 or 40 buckets of ice. Each bucket sells for 30% of the price of the box. (Don't quote me on that...I've never run a restaurant, I don't have the figures in my head...but you get my drift. The mark up is huge, that's what I'm trying to say.) That's where they make their money. Selling ice.

Most westerners opening restaurants in Thailand won't entertain the idea. They refuse to allow anybody to bring their own drinks into the restaurant. They give ice away free or sell it very cheaply. 90% of them close within a year.