Soft serve scandal: what happened to the 30c cone?

The year is 2012.

It’s the end of the school year, and I’m in the back seat of a car on the road to Canberra. The air-con, whilst on full blast, does nothing to stave off the afternoon heat. The sun bathes the surrounding scenery and road ahead in a hazy glow. Perhaps in an effort to temporarily stop the current round of “Are we there yet?”, or any further games of “Spotto” and “I Spy”, my mother deviates from the main road. I watch from the backseat as the golden arches crawl past my window, and as soon as the car stops, I leap outside. I wait expectantly for her to park the car, desiring only one thing. The iconic Maccas soft serve: that spontaneous treat that’ll instantly placate me for the rest of the trip.

Every so often, I would get an urge to revisit these lazy, childhood summer months and purchase a soft serve. While it wasn’t something I ordered frequently, every few months or so I’d find myself in line for the summer treat. Using receipts from these purchases, I pieced together the timeline of price changes for soft serves in my local Maccas.

In October 2014, the first of many price increases began. What was affectionately considered to be the “30c cone” from the day of its creation, began to be sold at 50c — almost double its original price. Then, in rapid succession, there was a 10c increase in 2016 and a 5c increase two years later. In 2021, the price reached 75c, with another 10c increase a year later in 2022.

McDonald’s has stated that as franchises, some stores sell items at different prices and the company only provides “recommended prices’’ for some items. This difference in prices