Interview With A Milkman -1996- -2021- Extra — Quality
"Back in '96, everyone expected me," Arthur recalls. "It wasn't just milk. I was delivering cottage cheese, orange juice, eggs, and sometimes even premium butter. The relationships were personal. I knew which customers had dogs that barked and which ones would invite me in for coffee if they were up early."
The forces against them were formidable. The rise of two-income households meant no one was home to collect the milk or leave the money. The sprawling growth of suburbs made delivery rounds inefficient and long. And the final, creeping challenger came not from a competitor, but from a different plant entirely: the soy. While Dave was fighting plastic bottles, a new revolution was beginning. In 1996, the same year our first interview was set, the plant-based milk trend began in earnest with the launch of refrigerated soymilk. Over the next two decades, it grew into a multi-billion dollar industry, with almond, oat, and coconut “milks” filling supermarket shelves and drawing away a new generation of health and eco-conscious consumers.
In 1996, I was driving a classic Unigate electric float. Top speed was about 15 miles per hour downhill with a tailwind. The job was intensely physical but deeply social. By 1996, supermarket competition was already hurting us, but we still served about 80% of the street. Interview With A Milkman -1996- -2021-
When COVID-19 locked everyone down, nobody wanted to go to the grocery store. My delivery route blew up overnight. It was like 1950 all over again. Everyone wanted home delivery. But instead of leaving a note in a bottle, they were ordering through a smartphone app.
"I’ve delivered milk to families where I used to deliver to their parents. I've watched kids grow up. I’ve seen the world change from a time when everyone had milk delivered to a time when it was nearly gone, and then, a resurgence of care for the planet and local service. "Back in '96, everyone expected me," Arthur recalls
Diversification. If you only sold milk, you went bankrupt. We became a mobile grocery store. I started delivering bread, eggs, potatoes, fruit juices, and even Christmas hampers.
The journey of the milkman from 1996 to 2021 is a testament to the resilience of localized, personalized service. While the traditional model nearly disappeared, it adapted to modern consumer demands, leveraged technological advancements, and embraced the modern focus on sustainability. Today's dairy delivery services perfectly marry the romantic nostalgia of the glass bottle clinking on a quiet front porch with the hyper-connected, convenient, and eco-conscious demands of the modern era. The relationships were personal
The electric floats started dying out here too. Because my route was now thirty miles long instead of five, the old electric batteries couldn't handle the hills. I had to switch to a diesel transit van. It felt like the death of the traditional milkman. By 2012, most people thought we were completely extinct. Part III: 2016 to 2019 – The Plastic Backlash
December 23rd, 2021. Snowing. I had one customer left from my very first route in '96. Mrs. Albright. She was 94. She met me at the door—not the Ring camera, the actual door. She handed me a thermos of hot cocoa and said, "You know, Dave, my husband proposed to me the morning the milk came."