YORK, Pa. — The heatwave helps one industry blossom during the summer months. Right now, there's a large demand for ice and even though it's a frozen product, workers don't work in a cool environment for a long period of time.
If you're in the ice business, you look forward to hot temperatures. Ice is sliding out of the freezers at Good Time Ice in York, fast than they can keep up with.
“Right now, we are selling more ice than we can make in a week. So, we’re relying on our back storage that we manufactured back in March, April and May, to get us through this heat wave and this wonderful July season," said Christy Wood, Good Time Ice Accounts Receivable Manager.
A family business for nearly 150 years, a quarter of their yearly sales come from the month of July, alone. Hot summer months sustain the business.
At Good Time Ice, it's a touch-free process that takes about 10 minutes to make the ice before hot gas goes up through the pipes. Causing the ice to crack, drop to the bin then get crushed into nuggets, fine or snow ice before filling the bags but if you think it's a nice cool job.
“Selling 200 to 300 bags of ice at a stop is a lot of hard work. For the driver to get out of the truck and deliver, by hand, all those ice bags into the freezers at the stores," said Wood.
Truck freezers are kept around -20 degrees while ice is transported and loaded into the trailers.
The heat will also help fill the void of events cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Fairs are closing, weddings are canceled. All those things people use ice for, they weren’t using it for this year,' Wood said. 'So, that affected us greatly.”
Good Time Ice makes 200 tons of ice a day. That's, 1,200 to 1,3000 tons of ice a weeks and what they make is sold within two days.