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Milk actually has a few places in UK's cultural history, one bit of which is very relevant to the inconvenience of buying milk regularly. Traditionally, "milk
by corin_ 10y ago
Milk actually has a few places in UK's cultural history, one bit of which is very relevant to the inconvenience of buying milk regularly.
Traditionally, "milk floats" (a vehicle) would be driven by "milkmen", doing early -morning deliveries of milk in glass bottles, and they would collect the previous day's empty bottles at the same time. Wiki page has photo examples of what milk floats look like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float
This service is actually still available in some places. For example, I just checked my postcode with https://www.milkandmore.co.uk https://www.milkandmore.co.uk and they told me my milkman's name and that he delivers on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. But when I was a kid, say 20 years ago, we'd get it delivered Monday to Saturday, and seeing milkmen doing their rounds was incredibly common, with many customers everywhere. Now it's a bit of a quirky thing you don't see or hear much of, mainly because most people decided that the inconvenience of picking up from a shop was outweighed by the flexibility it offered.
- baddox 10y agoIt's interesting that you described the concept of milkmen as specifically relevant to the U.K. In the United States, milkmen are well-established in pop culture, particularly as a quaint symbol of pre-WW2 domestic life. I would have assumed that milkmen were standard in most every developed country before refrigeration became widespread. I also would have assumed it's still common in developing countries.
- corin_ 10y agoI was replying to somebody who was talking about the situation in the UK, and the knowledge I have of milkmen is from the UK - I didn't mean to imply it was necessarily unique to us.
- ghaff 10y agoWe had a milkman when I was growing up in the US in the 1960s although it was already something of an anachronism at that time as we went to the grocery story for other dairy perishables. (I drank a lot of milk growing up so having the scheduled delivery was probably still somewhat convenient.) The adjacent town to where I live did have a dairy farm that delivered until fairly recently but I'm not sure they do any longer. I imagine there are still milkmen in some places but I'm not aware of any.
- will_hughes 10y agoThe local milkman was common in Australia too, around the same time. I still recall them delivering even back in the late 80s/early 90s. The rise of the ever-present supermarket that carried everything for a lower price was the final nail in the coffin there.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> Traditionally, "milk floats" (a vehicle) would be driven by "milkmen", doing early -morning deliveries of milk in glass bottles, and they would collect the previous day's empty bottles at the same time. It used to be dominant in the US, too, and is still available in some places, so I don't think this is in any way indicative of a unique position in British culture.
- buzzybee 10y agoBesides "milk men", there were "ice men" who would deliver ice to homes. [0] Demand for ice delivery turned into a major exterior feature of early 20th century homes, and you can still find small ice doors mysteriously adorning the Victorians of SF. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceman_(occupation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceman_(occupation)
- jansan 10y agoThe first time I ever heard about the ice trade [0] and the iceman occupation was from the movie "Frozen". One of the main characters in the movie is an ice harvester by trade. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_trade
- Neliquat 10y agoI live in the rural USA. We get local milk in glass bottles once a week. I can not imagine why they dont have it everywhere. Its nice to get to know your farmers and growers. I get to specify my favorite cuts and gice direct feedback. If i had to eat walmart food I might understand going veg/vegan.