There's a grocery store for the rich where ice cubes sell for $32. Yes, the product really exists

Skyrocketing prices are hitting every corner of the country, leading shoppers to expect higher price tags on groceries. However, the shocker this time is a bag of ice from Penny Pound Ice, branded as "ballz," which is turning heads with its steep price. It is being sold at Erewhon, the supermarket known for its steep prices and celebrity customers. The luxury grocery store had been the subject of ridicule for charging exorbitantly for the most basic and everyday items. Products on its shelves include $20 raw milk, a $26 bottle of 'oxygenated' water, and hot sauce starting as much as $40.

A bag of eight large frozen spheres is priced at a jaw-dropping $32. "That’s been the biggest hurdle: trying to explain and I guess, in a way, to justify the difference in product and the difference in price as well," Gordon Bellaver, a partner at Penny Pound, told Eater. 

He defended the product saying that people should be looking at the product just as they see luxury items. "If you’re spending $50, $60, $100 on a bottle of whiskey, or mezcal, or rum, but you’re putting in basic generic ice, it would be the equivalent, in my mind, of getting a Lamborghini and putting regular unleaded in it — it’s not doing service to the product that you’ve spent so much money on," he added.

The viral "ballz" is directly sold by Penny Pound for $28, which is less than what it costs at Erewhon. Bellaver claimed that it's not the same ice that you can get by freezing water at home. This is mainly because the water in our homes tends to have minerals like calcium and magnesium which make the ice foggy. 

Penny Pound Ice, however, uses water that doesn't allow impurities to settle, and instead, they rise to the top and are later removed, which leaves behind a "300-pound block of ice” that is cut into smaller cubes.

After this, these cubes are then sawed into shape, which again requires further steps to be molded into perfect spheres. "To achieve a two-and-a-half-inch perfect sphere, we usually have to start with about a three- or three-and-a-half-inch cube," he explained. "The raw material going into the product is already more than what the cubes are."

However, people on the internet unanimously agreed that the price was just too much for something so basic as ice. In a video posted by @lizziedushaj on TikTok, the creator showed the size of the ice balls and the fact that they looked like crystals when wet. "It's supposed to be made out of really special water," the TikTok creator says in the video. 

"I really like how it looks, and apparently when it gets wet, it's going to be crystal clear," she said before licking the ice ball and announcing to her viewers, "It tastes just like water." People in the comment section had a lot to say, "Glad you taste tested before mixing with lower tier water," writes @turtlesanwich, while another comment read, "I’m convinced we’re in black mirror. This is the last straw."