Milkmen - They can be cheaper

Iona_Penny

I have always had doorstep delivery milk and think it is worth every penny, it's always there whatever the weather. We have 4 pints delivered (in the plastic cartons I might add) Mon, Wed, and Fri. It comes before we leave the house and so gets put straight into the fridge; our milkie is really good and leaves the carton behind one of the cars and so we can always tell if he is on holiday!!

If I need an extra pint I use the tiny (and I mean tiny, with a wooden drawer for a till- must be OK though as local celeb wife uses it!) local shop, where I also buy a few bits to KEEP ME OUT of the supermarket where I nearly always buy unnecessary items.

Plus 'Tom the milk' told me about an overgrown plot at the local allotments and my friend and I now rent it! I think there are other ways I can cut back and I feel that we need to use or lose this great service; besides it's his livlihod too.

TheMilkman_3

Its great to have found this site, getting feedback and knowing what customers think, of us milkman.

We usually start around 2am and get back to the yard around 11am, although we may come to you only three days a week, we go else where the other three days a week, so in actual fact we have to learn 2 rounds, I might have to work nearly 60 hours a week, we don’t get over time, as the job is start to finish.

But what makes it all work while, is when some one says thank you, or when you spend a few minits chatting to elderly person, and watch the smile on there face when they see you walking up the path.

What can be disheartening, is when some one phone complains when you have accidentally left the wrong milk, or haven’t had time to call for the money, this goes on your peg and is recorded against you.

When there are some many options available to pay your milkman, leaving a cheque out, posting in cheque, direct debit, or if possible just leaving out the money.

But I do enjoy the job, inspite of the long hours, calling on nearly 300 customers a day, that means getting in out of the van over 600 times a day, walking up down your path same amount times, this is not including paper the work when I get back to the yard, making sure all your Christmas orders get to you on time, so next time you see your dairy crest milkman, give him a pat on the back, or big kiss I would like to thank every one that has a milkman, for keeping him in a job I love you all.

Iona_Penny

Recent news items also suggest that as Mr Tesco and Mr Sainsbury 'bully' the farmer into accepting minimum price for their milk, dairy farmers are a dying breed.
Perhaps we should all accept that we NEED to pay a couple of pence more for our milk or we will end up importing it from across Europe, and getting milk that has been flown from Spain (at what environmental cost etc ) so the supermarkets use milk as a 'loss leader' makes no sense to me at all.
Maybe we should petition for a fairer deal for the dairy farmers, esp after foot and mouth etc I thought we were going to value home producers more.

dannahaz

I've found it really interesting reading this thread, as I am the only person I know who has a milkman.

We started getting milk delivered a couple of years ago when we had a leaflet through the door asking if we would be interested. At the time, what clinched it for me was that he guaranteed to have the milk on the dorstep by 5.30a.m, and as my husband and used to get up at 6, we could guarantee having milk for tea.

It was wonderful. No more running out of milk and having to pop to the shop before we could have a cup of tea. It took us a while to get our order right (so we didn't have too much/too little), and now we have milk three times a week.

The other thing we have strated to get from the milkman is cat food. He supplies Felix, which is one of the brands we were feeding to the cats anyway, and his price was competitive. Now we don't have to open a tin of tuna becuase we forgot to get cat food.

Now I have Kefir, I've had to increase the milk order.

Our milkman leaves us a bill once a month, and then I leave a cheque out for him. It's all budgetted for, and it's no hassle.

It's more expensive than the supermarket, but (for us) it's worth the extra money. It's worth it for the convenience and the reliability, and I'm pleased to be supporting someone elses enterprise.

thriftlady_2

I'm seriously thinking about getting a my milk delivered now

Is there a website that finds me a local milk delivery ? Dairy Crest don't deliver to Worcester. I'd like milk in glass bottles if poss.

Might I be better off buying the milk in my local farmshop which is unhomogenised and from a local dairy and cost £1.05 for 4 pints ?

doddsy

I get my milk delivered as it is the only milk I can find that has not been homogenised. Even the organic milk in Sainsburys, like Rachels Organic for instance, has been homogenised
doddsy

thriftlady_2

Waitrose' milk is unhomogenised - DS2 hates it, he sieves out the lumps of cream.

doddsy

I think my nearest Waitrose is Droitwich as they have just closed down in Kidderminster.

pigpen

I can go into a shop and just buy milk.. no problem at all.. I go in, walk to the milk with maybe a slight tendancy to a quick check on the reduced fruit & veg for us as we use loads. I don't buy sweets or junk food, I don't even look at it.

I buy milk at £2 for 6 litres (2x 3L bottles).. which is around 25p a pint!! Milkman charges 55p a pint!!!!!!!!! which I think is disgustingly overpriced!! Besides which he isn't veyr nice and not even nice to look at.. my mother actually stopped having him because he is so unpleasant on the eye, as well as his mean manner.. he just isn't a nice person... and scared her first thing on a saturday morning when he wanted paying lol.

We use around 4-5L a day so I couldn't afford a milkman if I wanted to.

Our milk cartons (plastic bottle) go in the recycle rubbish so not in a landfill.

I won't be changing to a milkman EVER!!! not at those prices.

Debt_Free_Chick

pigpen wrote:

I buy milk at £2 for 6 litres (2x 3L bottles).. which is around 25p a pint!! Milkman charges 55p a pint!!!!!!!!! which I think is disgustingly overpriced!!

It's not, I'm afraid. It's just about profitable at this price.

Supermarket milk is cheap, because the supermarkets use them as a "loss leader" i.e. come in for cheap milk, but buy other stuff.

Dairy farmers selling to a co-operative/milk producer get about 19p per litre. The additional cost to process, bottle and then deliver to your doorstep is another 20-25p which doesn't seem unreasonable when you include the cost of paying the milkman and running the vehicle.

BTW I only pay 46p a pint for my milk.

I fully understand those who buy only on price, but in a few years time there's a danger that all our dairy farmers will be pushed out of business and we'll only have imported milk .... produced to heavens' knows what standards (or lack of!).