By: Tomos Land, Staff Writer

Do you ever spend a long day at the beach and find yourself craving an ice cream on the way home? Since I moved to Vancouver, getting ice cream after a late night spikeball session at X̱epx̱páy̓em (Kitsilano) Beach has become a ritual. Unfortunately, the ridiculous length of the line on a summer’s evening has forced me to choose between catching the last bus or a scoop of the good stuff on more than one occasion. 

With every missed bus, I have become convinced that the root of all evil are those in front of me in the queue who insist on trying every flavour under the sun before ordering. As a diehard fan of a single scoop of chocolate in a waffle cone, I like to keep it simple. But offering samples to customers, in my opinion, has gotten out of hand, and even the ice cream stores agree! 

While some establishments are now limiting samples to two per customer, this does not go far enough. Think about it, does each member of the family of five standing in front of you really need a reminder of what blueberry ice cream tastes like? I don’t think they do, and this summer, I hope we finally say goodbye to samples for good.