[ljf]

Someone posted a similar story on one of the other times the 500 mile email was posted - where a car would fail to start if the owner bought strawberry ice-cream from the store, but would work if they have vanilla. I love the processes that go into finding the actual issue (regardless of if the ice cream story is true!): https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cone-of-silence/

[rhplus]

I can hear Click and Clack, the Tappett Brothers, hooting and guffawing on Car Talk as I’m reading this Snopes article!

[jermaustin1]

Why'd you have to make me sad.

[satiric]

It would have made for a great puzzler.

[PunchyHamster]

> Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup.

wish modern stores optimized for customer convenience instead of seeing most shelves along the way to the usual

[xg15]

OT, but I find this a perfect example why "data-driven design" is an empty term if you don't know what it's being designed for - i.e. what metrics are used to evaluate it in the end.

Both, optimizing for ease of shopping and optimizing for stringing the customer along as long as possible rely on the same purchase data - they just use diametrically opposite metrics for evaluation.