We all float on

The other day at the store, I saw something in the frozen section called "Barq's Floatz," a product which was apparently a "root beer float in a cup," or something like that. I like root beer floats, and the novelty of seeing them prepackaged into such a form was too amusing to pass up. Well, it wasn't really worth it. Floatz combines something like a soft, root beer-flavored Italian ice with a fairly tasteless vanilla ice cream, then puts them together in a four-ounce cup six times and charges $4.50 for the privilege. They taste pretty good, but talk about a product that has no real reason to exist. With tax, each cup costs more than 75 cents, and I'm fairly certain that two scoops of vanilla ice cream and a can of root beer in a glass would cost less than that - and even if they did cost slightly more, you're also getting far more than four ounces' worth. I'm not sure who the target market is: people who refuse to be seen drinking a root beer float in public, but also don't own an ice cream scoop? People who think vanilla ice cream is too flavorful and root beer too fizzy? It's baffling. I may have eaten all six without thinking twice, but you can bet I wouldn't bother buying Floatz a second time.