Is home delivery milk and bread viable now?

Lorax · April-12-09, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

In the Balduck Park area that would be the produce truck of Tom Lappicola [[a Marseilles St. resident). Back in the 1960's he used to drive down the streets around Balduck Park and 48224 area.

I went to school with Tom's son? - Bob Lappicola- they lived in Grosse Pointe at that time.

**reddog289** · April-13-09, 01:00 AM

They still had the milkman back in the 70,s on my block in the burbs. I cannot recall seeing the milkman on either one of my Grandparents streets during that time. I could tell who got their milk delivered because they had galvanized steel boxes on their porches then.If the customer is willing to pay for the milk delivery then it must be viable enough to keep the service as Calders does.When the "honeymooners" were living under my roof, The "son in law" and I wished that the milkman was still around. Went through almost a gallon a day.

**turkeycall** · April-13-09, 02:37 AM

Originally Posted by grumpyoldlady

. . . here in rural Minnesota .

grumpy, you mentioned rural Minnesota. I know it's a big place but, the mother of my Spring Garden bride of 33 years was born and raised in Avon, MN [somewhere very near Lake Wobegon

]. Are you anywhere near there?

**gnome** · April-13-09, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by diver1369

I was rescued from a house fire by a milkman doing his route.

That is a tantalzing lead-in. Sounds like quite a story. Care to share the details?

**iheartbooks** · April-14-09, 10:06 AM

We still had egg delivery every Saturday well into the mid 1990's in our neighborhood at 8 Mile and Livernois. It is still odd for me to buy eggs at the store. Bud had been the delivery guy for probably 50+ years. The best part wasn't the at-your-door service; it was the eggs-- the freshest eggs you would get if you didn't have your own chickens. The fruit and vegetable trucks still showed up occasionally, too, until about 1998.

**grumpyoldlady** · April-14-09, 10:52 AM

Turkeycall......We're roughly 75 miles northwest of Avon. Northwest of Alexandria and east of Fergus Falls. Not too far off of I-94.

**jcole** · April-14-09, 11:05 AM

One of the reasons home delivery was viable back in the 50's and 60's was that most women were stay at home moms, and most families only had one car. So, during the week, when dad was at work, mom needed some way to get fresh dairy and baked goods into the house without asking her husband to stop on the way home. With the advent of more women working outside, it wasn't such an issue to do the grocery shopping on the way home from work instead of on the weekend. Also, most families, even if the mother is stay at home have 2 vehicles now, so home delivery isn't much of an issue.

**grumpyoldlady** · April-14-09, 08:11 PM

I don't think home delivery of anything in Detroit is viable...the delivery people would be frequent targets for robbery or worse. I wonder how many homes still have open and usable "milk chutes" on the side of the house? It was an easy way to get in if you locked yourself out...just find a skinny kid to crawl through and open the door. Our house didn't have a milk chute...we had a metal insulated box that sat by the side door. Have a friend that had a milk chute that opened into a broom closet. She heard thumping and bumping in there and opened it and her cat jumped out carrying a live rabbit! Now days, it might be a burglar doing the thumping and bumping.

**BigHitter7** · February-01-10, 07:47 PM

I would be interested in the Wayne creamery bottles.

**Hermod** · February-01-10, 08:03 PM

In the 40s and 50s, we had home delivery [[Borden's). Some of the neighbors had Sealtest and for a long time, Sealtest used horsedrawn carts for delivery. We also had the Mills Bakery delivery man and the two Italians with the open backed truck full of fruits and vegetables.

The supermarkets killed home delivery. In 1961, they deliverymen and their wives did a protest at a Great Scott, filling up baskets with milk and then just leaving them in the aisles. Home delivery just couldn't compete pricewise with the discount supermarkets.

**lizaanne** · February-01-10, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by Bearinabox

Hah, yeah. As a kid, I was fascinated by milk chutes on houses [[my house was one of the few in the neighborhood that was built without one, since the side of the house facing the driveway was all bedrooms), and couldn't for the life of me understand why my neighbors kept sealing them shut. I still think they're pretty cool, but I think I have a slightly better handle on the concept of people breaking into houses and stealing stuff than I did then.

This is why milk delivery will never work again - you can't do it without a milk chute!!!! LOL I used to crawl through ours when I forgot my house key, man my dad would get all over me for that. He would tape it up from the inside so the cold would not get in and I would ruin his awesome tape job. hehehe

Anyway - when I was in England a couple years ago [[my husband is British), people still have home milk delivery there. I loved seeing all the little white bottles of milk sitting on the front stoop - made me feel safe for some weird reason. I guess if you can trust your neighbors to not mess with your milk it can't be that bad of a place. Oh - and this was NOT in London or some big city, it was in rural little villages. Can't wait to get back there again. Mmmmmm.

DetroitDad · February-01-10, 09:46 PM

Yes, it does, along with other groceries and countless other items. I believe the Pharmacy in Brush/Cass Park already does prescription deliveries.

**mwilbert** · February-01-10, 09:48 PM

There is a tradeoff between density and price--if you have more deliveries in a given area, you don't have to charge as much per delivery. But the idea that you couldn't do home deliveries in Detroit at all is contrary to reality--UPS delivers stuff in the city all the time--even food.

Food deliveries make sense for people who can afford to pay to save time, and for affluent shut-ins. I don't know how many of either of those are around in the city.

**RO_Resident** · February-01-10, 10:17 PM

Oberweis offers home delivery of milk and other groceries in portions of the metro area.
http://www.oberweis.com/web/homedelivery.asp

**Det_ard** · February-02-10, 12:22 AM

Peapod makes it work in a number of other metros.

**MikeM** · February-02-10, 12:26 AM

My neighbor here in Grosse Pointe gets weekly delivery. Schwan's or Schwietzer's or something similar.

**jcole** · February-02-10, 02:01 PM

Originally Posted by MikeM

My neighbor here in Grosse Pointe gets weekly delivery. Schwan's or Schwietzer's or something similar.

Schwann's is mostly frozen food.

**iheartthed** · February-02-10, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by Neilr

Fresh Direct operates in many NYC neighborhoods. NYC has the density that I think is required in order for this service to work. Also, many buildings have doormen who can accept deliveries when the resident is no at home.

http://www.freshdirect.com/index.jsp

I don't think the density of NYC has much to do with it [[they service the NY metropolitan area). Fresh Direct is an online grocer, so it would operate pretty much the same as any delivery service.

**MikeM** · February-02-10, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by jcole

Schwann's is mostly frozen food.

Okay; the cow on the truck made me think it was dairy.

**trotwood** · February-02-10, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by lilpup

I think home delivery of grocery orders, not limited to milk and bread, would be much more viable.

I've been looking for something like that for some time.
In 1990 my cousin used to have milk,cheese,eggs,pastry,and such delivered to her home. I can't remember the name of the company that delivered though.
The last store I know of to have home delivery in Detroit was a store on Woodward in HP. It was a small convience/party store so selection was limited but they delivered things like milk,bread,etc.
It came in handy when I didn't feel like going out for smaller things I'd forgotten at the market.

DetroitDad · February-02-10, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by mwilbert

There is a tradeoff between density and price--if you have more deliveries in a given area, you don't have to charge as much per delivery. But the idea that you couldn't do home deliveries in Detroit at all is contrary to reality--UPS delivers stuff in the city all the time--even food.

Food deliveries make sense for people who can afford to pay to save time, and for affluent shut-ins. I don't know how many of either of those are around in the city.

That makes sense in theory, but in reality it's only the small condos, row houses, duplexes, and the like that are the least time consuming and expensive. Suburban areas take twice as long because of the winding roads and high traffic, among other reasons. High rises and skyscrapers are even more time consuming than the others because it can take awhile to park, sign in, and wait to get in an elevator.

Some of our buildings can be excruciatingly slow. I have waited as long as ten minutes for elevators in and around Detroit.

**GOAT** · February-03-10, 12:24 PM

Richards farm in Essex County Windsor bakes his own bread with his own field grown wheat, mills it on site and delivers it to customers along with other flour for baking. Check him out at the burgeoning Downtown Windsor Market now into it's second year.

http://www.downtownfarmersmarket.ca/

**One Shot** · February-03-10, 12:53 PM

What was delivered to the homes with the 1' x 1' metal doors? I've noticed these in alot of homes in the suburbs that look like 50's 60's homes. Was it the milk chute? Did it open to the inside of the home?