Skip to main content

#ThrowbackThursdays: I Miss Jollibee Ice Craze

Scrolldrop Philippines
I think I might do a bit of a throwback post for Thursdays every now and then. Since it's summer--I could remember taking summer classes nearly non-stop. It was summertime and I was taking summer classes at the University of San Carlos-Main Campus where it would be considerably hot in contrast to Talamban. Jollibee was right next near to it. Jollibee served as a quick, affordable meal for a student. If there was one thing that I ordered after summer classes were over--it was the ice craze. The heat of the summer makes me think of this now-extinct product line.

It was that time when Jollibee Foods didn't buy Mang Inasal's 70% shares ownership. I remembered how every time it was hot--ice craze felt like the solution to it. Being a coffee drinker, I would take coffee jelly the most. Although, I also enjoyed mais con hielo. Taking a coffee jelly after classes gave me some energy to study for my summer exams. It was going on for some time so I felt it was a product line that will last a long time. Except I was wrong--the product line ceased to be and I could no longer enjoy it when I was taking my Masters in Business Administration (MBA) classes

As an entrepreneur, I wonder what exactly caused the product extinction. Jollibee Foods bought Mang Inasal by owning 70% of its shares. It was a cheap way to get refreshed from the heat downtown. Every summer class meant I would take a cup of Ice Craze. Suddenly, it was dropped from the product line. Was it really caused by the product is no longer feasible? After all, after summer classes, the product line was no longer side. Or was it because Jollibee Foods decided to focus on the year-long ice treats of Mang Inasal? I feel the corporation felt making the summer-only product may no longer be feasible. Maybe, it's because Jollibee was better off selling ice floats and ice cream making the Ice Craze an added extra cost. Maybe, Ice Craze was no longer as profitable as Mang Inasal's year-long ice treats.

Regardless, I still feel I have good memories with it. I miss it every now and then. Fortunately, Mang Inasal still sells good icy desserts. I would enjoy some of that milky crema de yema halo-halo at Mang Inasal. Though, having a little more money from before made me think that I'd buy some iced coffee from Bo's Coffee Club as if it was nothing. As a student, Bo's Coffee Club was a luxury. As a middle-class earner--Bo's Coffee Club is anything but expensive. I think I'll still miss the cheap treats. Though, I think Jollibee Foods decision to drop it off was probably due to extra costs associated with it. Hopefully, Jollibee will one day be able to revive the product so new generation of students can experience it too. 

Popular posts from this blog

The Good Old Days when Gasoline was Cheaper Under the Late Noynoy Aquino

Millennials' Voice I would like to clarify first and foremost that this post isn't an attempt to say that the late Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III's legacy was all bad. Some good things happened. However, let me be clear that it's stupid to say, " We don't need economic cha-cha because of the late Noynoy. " However, let me clear that I decided to write this because of a Facebook post called Millennials' Voice , which wrote this: Did you know that during President Noynoy Aquino's time, the price of oil in the world market was high, between $100 and $110 per barrel. But even with those high prices, gasoline and diesel at local pumps in the country were still relatively affordable.  Under President Duterte, world oil prices went up and down, from a low of $41 to a high of $101 per barrel. The big jump to $101 in 2022 happened because of the war between Russia and Ukraine.   Now, under the current president, world oil prices have gone up again to around $...

The Myth of "Invading" Other Countries Through Foreign Investors and Overseas Filipino Workers

BoardGameGeek Years ago, I could remember how "Filipino pride" seems to be required by the DECS. Some songs in the Filipino subject (or called Tagalog) tend to glorify it. One of the songs was called "Ako'y Isang Pinoy" (or "I'm Pinoy") feels ironic since it was played on an imported music player. We had discussions for years about how Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are often the unsung heroes or the new heroes. The mentality kept going on with how people desired to take a particular course not because they wanted to--it's because they wanted to go abroad. Why I wanted to take Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) was not just to impress people but also to go abroad . However, more people shifted away from BSIT either because they were eliminated (common cause) or because it was too hard for them. Some of them flat out admitted that they took BSIT in hopes of going abroad. Some were taking nursing in hopes of again-- going abro...

"Will #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba Economics Lower Philippine Gas Prices?

Inquirer Gasoline prices have increased again, haven't they?  A few days ago, I wrote  why #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba's view of gas prices is questionable . Today, I feel like writing this after several complaints on Facebook. I would like to create a follow-up post. People are complaining too much without understanding the real reason why some countries have lower prices of gasoline. Real talk. We need to talk about economic policies,  and  of course, please do a study on supply-demand analysis  on supply chain management . Let's examine the complaints made by Bulatlat Bulatlat Here's a chart from Bulatlat that compares the increase in prices of gasoline between the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. It's always problematic when people ignore simple economics. It's funny, but Bulatlat mentions this on their website: Note also how expensive our diesel and gasoline products are compared to those of our ASEAN neighbors. The estimated common price today of diesel in...

#SahodItaasPresyoIbaba Economics' Understanding of How Gasoline Prices Work

International State College of the Philippines Today is Flor Contempacion Day , and rallies are expected. However, whether it's Flor's death anniversary or not, rallies are expected for the wrongest of reasons. I would like to address this photo from the International State College of the Philippines' Facebook page. The demands here are rather clunky and stupid. We have the following demands that would naturally clash with each other, such as: No to the oil deregulation law while demanding lower oil prices. This is simply ignoring the basic fundamentals of economics, namely the law of supply and demand . They say that oil companies are greedy for gain. These rallyists probably don't really understand the difference between revenues and profits . Let's understand the Oil Deregulation Law  The Oil Deregulation Law, or the Republic Act No. 8479 , passed on February 10, 1998, under the late Fidel Valdez Ramos. Here's how the liberalization works: CHAPTER II  LIBERAL...

Learning from the Late Lee Kuan Yew's Proving Protectionist-Driven Economists Wrong About Multinational Corporations

Reading the book From Third World to First is really a must. The late Lee Kuan Yew was faced with the mentality of the development economists of his day. Here's an excerpt from "Chapter 4--Surviving Without a Hinterland" which I'd like to share from Pages 57-58: After several years of disheartening trial and error, we concluded that Singapore's best hope lay with the American multinational corporations (MNCs). When the Taiwanese and Hong Kong entrepreneurs came in the 1960s, they brought low technology such as textile and toy manufacturing, labor-intensive but not large-scale. American MNCs brought higher technology in large-scale operations, creating many jobs. They had weight and confidence. They believed that their government was going to stay in Southeast Asia and their businesses were safe from confiscation or war loss. I gradually crystallized my thoughts and settled on a two-pronged strategy to overcome our disadvantages. The first was to leapfrog the reg...