(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Wednesday's extreme heat meant business was booming at one Chicago establishment — where it's always 25 degrees.
This is high season for Polar Ice Company in Pilsen, where the 50-pound blocks of ice have been selling like, well, hotcakes.
"The phone hasn't stopped ringing until now. We open at 8 o'clock and they kept calling and calling,” said Luis Salgado, manager of Polar Ice.
He said most people want ice cubes. But a lot of people want 50-pound blocks of ice (which, according to the company’s website, go for $12 each).
"I had - what was it, yesterday? - some guy came for like 10 blocks. Just to cool his [swimming] pool,” Salgado said.
People seem to have very specific taste in ice, when it comes to the cubes, he said.
"It's just a little ice cube. And people are like, ‘Can you please measure it?’ And I'm like, ‘I don't have a ruler for that. You know, it's an ice cube.’”
The big freezer at Polar Ice Company keeps four-foot-tall bars of ice solid before each one is cut into six 50-pound blocks, all at a pleasant 25 degrees Fahrenheit.
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