British Expatriate Network

I do. It might have something to do with one of those gallon jugs of milk only lasts two days in our house. Once they see it come through the door, all manner of milk drinking ensues. I don't like having to pop out to the shop every other day for milk and obviously won't buy more as it goes off very quickly. I only use about half a pint of milk a day for tea.

It's more like that though in UK too, the milkman is a bit of a dying breed.

Did the birthrate drop too wink

Really? I lurve hearing about what life is truly like in the UK from this forum :o

It seems that milkmen have expanded their wares to include orange juice, bread, potatoes, yoghurt, bacon etc. While the supermarkets might have a bigger share of milk than they might have in the past, the milkman has a bigger share of other perishables.

Our milkman comes every day at about 4.30am. I've never yet accosted him to add us to his round, but I am buying milk daily - either 6 pint bottles from Sainsbury's, or I'll send one of my slaves to the local corner shop for a pint or two.

yeah my best mate from school, his old man was a milkman.
lost his job 2 years ago, supply and demand see.

I only left the country 3 years ago,
then again, you've been back 6 months so you're a f*cking expert.

anecdotal, once again.

Dianey.
What about Royal Quest or Longmont daries ?
Both deliver to the door (and provide nice little cooler boxes for the doorstep) in the Boulder area.
The quality of milk from Longmont daries is fantastic and really puts how tasteless supermarket milk is, into perspective.
milk with the minimum manipulation
Yum!

I liked the milkman and his bottles of silver top - haven't seen anything as good here although as part of my new organic food diet, organic milk seems ok and lasts for ages - except when we drink it all.

Most of us have family/friends in the Uk Ameriscott, and I know one of the biggest topics of conversations I have with mine is the dying breed of the milkman :-? :roll: :roll: :roll:

Our milkman always had orange juice and yogurt etc. The best part about having a milkman was trying to nick stuff off his float.

We also used to have a baker deliver bread, until my dad came home early from work and caught him peeing up against our carport wall. Apparently he in his haste to shove it back in his trousers, he p!ssed all over his hands and trouser front. We canceled him after that, especially as the bread was unwrapped.

Wouldn't that make them grocerymen (or people) rather than milkmen then? Is it truly not fair to say that milkmen are a dying breed, if the delivery people today are not truly milkmen? Especially if they deliver supermarket style milk in cartons and plastic containers as many do, rather than the glass-bottled pints with the yucky bit on the top? (although that last bit is clearly anecdotal distance-tinted inadmissable evidence :D)

Some more anecdotal evidence for you: The last milkman stopped delivering in our neighbourhood in the UK the year before we moved here. The only remaining milkman in MIL's neighbourhood is packing it in -he will not be replaced. Got some nice statistical evidence for us then?

I imagine hearing what life is truly like anywhere is an amusing education for you. :)

The last milkman I remember, one who sold only milk and delivered, was Harry and his horse Bob. He used to wait for me at lunchtimes at the bottom of Rochdale Rd., to give me a lift home, and also to get free labour. Mine was the job of leaping off the milk cart, collecting the jug with it's little doily weighted down wie beads, bringing the jug to Harry who would fill it from the churn and then i would return it to the doorstep.
When we got to my home he would tether Bob to an upturned beer crate and come in for his usual Guinness.
Never had a milk float delivery. Used to get sterilized milk from the co=op and also that last forever milk from the supermarket in little cartons. UHV or something. When we moved to Devon the milk was brought into the pub by the dairy man when he came for his first tipple of the day.
I think the milkman has been on his way out for a long long time. We left in 1990 and couldn't get a milkman for love nor money in Exeter, which is odd cos we lived at the back of the prison and they got a huge delivery daily. lol lol 8)

Dying breed suggests to me that it is not gone but it is on it's way out.

I left the UK 5 years ago, although I have been back several times and am still in touch with my family there. As best I can remember my family and most other people I know stopped using milkmen at least 10-15 years before I left the UK, that does not mean that nobody used them but I would cetainly say that was indicative of a dying breed.

I find it incredibly patronising that Ameriscot would make a comment about how a very short time back in the UK, she is somehow an expert and we have apparently forgotten everything roll

We do have rellies at home you know, they do talk to us!

FYI, I was working at the Co-Op until coming over her almost 5 years ago, and as one of the main deliverers of milk the Co-Op were dropping rounds left, right and centre because people just didnt want to pay the premium for having their milk delivered to their doorstep.
So yes, milkmen are definatlely a dying breed.
There are some privatised operations cropping up though that sell the milk, tatties etc.

Mandy

Now, lets see - my eldest is now 13 and before I had him we could get milk, eggs, bacon, cheese, bread, apple and orange juice from the milkman. Very handy when you had little ones and couldn't get out to the shops regularly. Once my youngest was 2 we stopped having the milkman deliver milk. It was just too expensive.

If I remember correctly, wasn't there a post ages ago on the american expat site stating that one of them that posts on there had a husband who was a milkman and that he was just about to lose his job because the depot was closing down due to lack of business. But then, I'm probably wrong because Ameriscot is always right of course wink