Apr 10, 2020 07:24 AM
(UK, inews) Milkmen are in big demand in coronavirus pandemic: Andrew Nuttall’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing for the past two weeks. His job delivering milk from his dairy farm in Blackburn has become so busy in the pandemic, he is passing customers on to other milkmen in the area. “The phone’s still going now,” he tells i. “It’s screwing up our heads a bit.” He has been working in the job for 30 years so is this the busiest he’s been? “God, yeah,” he says, laughing.
As the UK follows social-distancing rules, more people work from home, shops close, and stock is low in supermarkets, milkmen are seeing a boom in business. Simon Mellin, co-founder and managing director of the Modern Milkman, a milk delivery service based in Lancashire, Leeds and Manchester, tells i he’s seen a “huge upsurge” in new customers, with business quadrupling over the past month, and existing customers ordering more milk than before.
While milk delivery has become popular again with some eco-friendly families who want to avoid buying plastic, milkmen have seen a comprehensive downturn in business since the 1970s. [...] Now, the UK is looking to milkmen again... (MORE - details)
(UK, NYT) Onetime Relic, Then Hipster Fad, Milkmen Embrace Flood of Clients: ... The story is the same across the north of England. Almost all milk delivery services contacted by The Times have placed notices on their websites or added voice-mail messages warning prospective customers about the high level of demand; many have updated their Facebook pages to thank people for their patience.
Robert Orton, a milkman in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, has seen such a spike in interest that, reluctantly, he is having to turn away prospective customers. “I can only take new people if they live on streets that I already go down,” he said. “Otherwise, I just can’t do it. It’s been mad.”
[...] For an industry that seemed, for a long time, to be edging toward irrelevance, it is a seismic shift. Until recently, milkmen were seen as something between a luxury and a vestige of a forgotten past: something people had fond memories of as children, but not really necessary in the modern world. (MORE - details)
RELATED (US --> Connecticut): Modern Milkmen of Oakridge Dairy (company site)
As the UK follows social-distancing rules, more people work from home, shops close, and stock is low in supermarkets, milkmen are seeing a boom in business. Simon Mellin, co-founder and managing director of the Modern Milkman, a milk delivery service based in Lancashire, Leeds and Manchester, tells i he’s seen a “huge upsurge” in new customers, with business quadrupling over the past month, and existing customers ordering more milk than before.
While milk delivery has become popular again with some eco-friendly families who want to avoid buying plastic, milkmen have seen a comprehensive downturn in business since the 1970s. [...] Now, the UK is looking to milkmen again... (MORE - details)
(UK, NYT) Onetime Relic, Then Hipster Fad, Milkmen Embrace Flood of Clients: ... The story is the same across the north of England. Almost all milk delivery services contacted by The Times have placed notices on their websites or added voice-mail messages warning prospective customers about the high level of demand; many have updated their Facebook pages to thank people for their patience.
Robert Orton, a milkman in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, has seen such a spike in interest that, reluctantly, he is having to turn away prospective customers. “I can only take new people if they live on streets that I already go down,” he said. “Otherwise, I just can’t do it. It’s been mad.”
[...] For an industry that seemed, for a long time, to be edging toward irrelevance, it is a seismic shift. Until recently, milkmen were seen as something between a luxury and a vestige of a forgotten past: something people had fond memories of as children, but not really necessary in the modern world. (MORE - details)
RELATED (US --> Connecticut): Modern Milkmen of Oakridge Dairy (company site)