Milkmen / women will go the way Blockbusters went – they just cant compete with competitors, cant supply what customers want and wont survive on us feeling charitable.
They sell a product that’s the same whoever sells it. So they have to compete on price and service.
Sadly, I think that’s the long and short of it. It’s probably still viable if you live in the Outer Hebrides or some middle-class remote rural armpit with a name like Wibblington Upon Flange, or if you’re elderly / infirm and can’t lug a gallon of milk home every time you venture outside, but for most people the elephant in the room is that there’s little compelling practical reason to have milk delivered these days.
I get the whole “supporting local business” thing – when I was born my first home was our family-run dairy farm – but at the point where customers are paying a large premium to buy exactly the same product they could just pick up with the rest of the groceries, really they’re just making a nostalgia-fuelled charitable donation. And it’s hardly surprising that local farmers are struggling if that’s the farmers’ primary business model. So then they’re forced to be reliant on selling to supermarkets, and the supermarkets know they’ve got them over a barrel.
Back when my folks delivered milk, the customers’ choice was “local farmer” or “no milk today thanks.” My grandparents used to have a horse & cart where they’d ladle out fresh milk from a churn on the cart. Easy enough to make a business when your customer is basically everyone. That’s just not viable any more.
I think what’s needed is a unique selling point, and maybe a broadening of service. Still-warm freshly baked farmhouse bread delivered for instance, I’d pay for that in a heartbeat.