5 ms·

Other side of the coin: 1 truck delivers milk (and bread?) to an entire neighborhood, instead of 50 people driving 50 cars to get 50 bottles of milk.

gruez 5y ago
Right but what's the ratio of people making dedicated trips for milk vs people who buy it with their other groceries? I'd think most people plan ahead to avoid dedicated trips, but that's just based off my experience.
- PostOnce 5y ago
  It's hard to keep milk and bread fresh as long as other things, so you don't buy as much in advance, and therefore run out sooner. I can buy several weeks of stuff in advance, but not several weeks of milk and bread, or it'll expire, especially bread without many preservatives in certain climates. Nevermind the fact that a lot of people live in an on-demand, last-minute world. A lot of people do a lot of things last-minute, so that's a contributing factor in this equation, too.
  - gruez 5y ago
    >I can buy several weeks of stuff in advance, but not several weeks of milk and bread, or it'll expire You also forgot: meat, vegetables, fruit If anything those expire sooner than milk and bread (at least judging by the best before dates), so I'll need to go to the supermarket to buy those before I need to buy milk/bread.
    - ashtonkem 5y ago
      Meat freezes very well, and can often be bought in bulk. Vegetables tend to last longer than milk in my experience.
  - paulfurtado 5y ago
    As someone who hates making frequent grocery trips and drinks milk too intermittently to ever finish a normal bottle before it goes bad, I highly recommend buying UHT (Ultra High Temperature) pasteurized milk which does actually often have 3+ week shelf life. In the US, typically the organic brands are all UHT since they often come from farther away and need longer shelf life, but some of the cheap brands like Hood also do it.
    - account42 5y ago
      3+ weeks? Unopened UHT milk can lasts months, without refrigeration.
    - bbojan 5y ago
      To me UHT milk tastes significantly worse than pasteurized milk.
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  >Right but what's the ratio of people making dedicated trips for milk vs people who buy it with their other groceries From my experience, definitely more than 1:50.
- michaelt 5y ago
  It's pretty common for shoppers to do one large weekly shop, and a second smaller 'top-up shop' Of course, you can do things like freeze bread - but if you're going into the store for milk anyway, you might as well pick up some fresh bread / bananas / avocados while you're there.
ip26 5y ago
The third side of the coin: the milk delivery trucks in my town are the filthiest polluters on the road by a country mile.
knuthsat 5y ago
Another side of the coin, the cow milk production obliterates any savings on transport of the milk to the consumer. It's one of the most energy intensive ways to produce food. (impregnating the cow every year, feeding the cow to support more than 7 gallons of milk a day, creating insane externalities by mishandling cow poo).
- PostOnce 5y ago
  We could all live on soylent powder exclusively... We could eliminate all kinds of unnecessary food production. /s

gruez 5y ago

Right but what's the ratio of people making dedicated trips for milk vs people who buy it with their other groceries? I'd think most people plan ahead to avoid dedicated trips, but that's just based off my experience.

PostOnce 5y ago
It's hard to keep milk and bread fresh as long as other things, so you don't buy as much in advance, and therefore run out sooner. I can buy several weeks of stuff in advance, but not several weeks of milk and bread, or it'll expire, especially bread without many preservatives in certain climates. Nevermind the fact that a lot of people live in an on-demand, last-minute world. A lot of people do a lot of things last-minute, so that's a contributing factor in this equation, too.
- gruez 5y ago
  >I can buy several weeks of stuff in advance, but not several weeks of milk and bread, or it'll expire You also forgot: meat, vegetables, fruit If anything those expire sooner than milk and bread (at least judging by the best before dates), so I'll need to go to the supermarket to buy those before I need to buy milk/bread.
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    Meat freezes very well, and can often be bought in bulk. Vegetables tend to last longer than milk in my experience.
- paulfurtado 5y ago
  As someone who hates making frequent grocery trips and drinks milk too intermittently to ever finish a normal bottle before it goes bad, I highly recommend buying UHT (Ultra High Temperature) pasteurized milk which does actually often have 3+ week shelf life. In the US, typically the organic brands are all UHT since they often come from farther away and need longer shelf life, but some of the cheap brands like Hood also do it.
  - account42 5y ago
    3+ weeks? Unopened UHT milk can lasts months, without refrigeration.
  - bbojan 5y ago
    To me UHT milk tastes significantly worse than pasteurized milk.
AussieWog93 5y ago
>Right but what's the ratio of people making dedicated trips for milk vs people who buy it with their other groceries From my experience, definitely more than 1:50.
michaelt 5y ago
It's pretty common for shoppers to do one large weekly shop, and a second smaller 'top-up shop' Of course, you can do things like freeze bread - but if you're going into the store for milk anyway, you might as well pick up some fresh bread / bananas / avocados while you're there.

ip26 5y ago

The third side of the coin: the milk delivery trucks in my town are the filthiest polluters on the road by a country mile.

knuthsat 5y ago

Another side of the coin, the cow milk production obliterates any savings on transport of the milk to the consumer. It's one of the most energy intensive ways to produce food. (impregnating the cow every year, feeding the cow to support more than 7 gallons of milk a day, creating insane externalities by mishandling cow poo).

PostOnce 5y ago
We could all live on soylent powder exclusively... We could eliminate all kinds of unnecessary food production. /s