I never understood why milk was delivered to my house as a kid. This was so random
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Our last milk delivery service died off at least a decade ago. For at least 20 years until the end it was local dairys delivering non-homogenized whole milk straight from the farm in glass bottles. Store milk is usually all homogenized so the fat doesn’t separate. Farm milk will separate a little bit so the lid gets cream stuck to it. Felt like a fancy luxury for not much more$.
It was just an artisan product that tasted better than the store version and lasted until delivery costs got high enough to not be worth dropping off 1-2 gallons of milk at a door. Then they started plastic jugging it to sell at non Walmarts until they shuttered entirely.
I can’t answer your question, but I can tell you growing up in the U.S., we never once had milk delivered in the 80s, 90s, and so forth. Of course in the 80s we drank a lot of powdered milk, so maybe other folks were doing it with an upcharge? None of my friends though.
I huge reason was a huge majority of people drank milk every meal, every day. Kids had cereal which needed milk. Families typically had one car but yet someone had to run to a market if it wasn’t delivered. The shear number of families that don’t drink much milk today makes it very hard to make a living delivering milk. There are other forms of calcium too. Milk was a staple of every meal either at home or at a restaurant. Now it’s unusual to see someone getting milk when not eating at home.
I live in a suburb of Detroit and I see one of the local dairy’s delivery truck from time-to-time. I just went to their website and see they deliver to 4 counties in southeast Michigan. So it’s still a thing.
The house I grew up in in Detroit had a milk chute near the side door where the milk man could put the bottles and take the empties. When I lived there the outside door of the chute was sided over, but the inside door was still there and opened to a shelf in between the wall.
I still have my milk delivered to my home weekly for a couple of reasons. First it comes directly from the dairy. Second it tastes way better. Third it comes in glass jars that are reused by the diary so their is no container waste. The same dairy also delivers cream, 1/2 n 1/2, cheese, sour cream, bread from local bakeries, and cheeses. This whole process eliminates my trip to the local big box super market. About the only time I go there is when I run out meat or some obscure item that can’t be delivered.
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Was? It still is at my house. Love Smith Brothers Farms and they can pry my milk delivery out of my cold, dead hands. Nothing was so wonderful as getting milk and dairy goods delivered on a weekly basis during the pandemic. Omg. It was the best.
I was going to guess you grew up in Illinois, but you said Massachusetts so I guessed wrong. Here’s what I can say about Illinois at that time: Oberweis happened.
If you live in the Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee or St Louis areas, you’ve probably run across an Oberweis ice cream shop. It’s a dairy based out of Kane County, IL, and they’ve been doing milk deliveries since the 1920s. The current owner, Jim Oberweis, acquired the company in 1986 and I’m guessing there was a huge marketing push around then because I remember everyone (including us) had those grey Oberweis coolers on their porch. This was right around when interest in organic milk* was starting to rise but before there was a Whole Foods on every corner, so the easiest way to get premium milk (and other dairy products) was to have it delivered.
Now that you can get organic and premium milk, including Oberweis, in most grocery stores, the need for delivery has dropped off. Also, Jim Oberweis got into politics, but that’s another story for another thread.
*In the interest of completeness, Oberweis claims they don’t use hormones, mimimally pasteurizes the milk and feeds their cows high quality ingredients, but they don’t actually label their product “organic” from what I can tell.
I want to know what they did back in the day for lactose intolerant? It seems like most of the population has it now.
We have neighbors who still have milk delivered from a local dairy (Crescent Ridge in Massachusetts). They also have fantastic ice cream.
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