RE: A Day In The Life Of a Land Pirate - Living Free!
but long gone are the days of the milkman!
We had "Brødboksen" for a while, but they eventually went bankrupt.
They were delivering bread, juice, milk and other breakfast products to the door, in the early morning, internet orders could be made all until midnight for next-day delivery.
The milk was the typical pasteurized and homogenized stuff delivered in the typical milk carton, but the juice was freshly made and delivered in milk-style-bottles, and the bottles was supposed to be returned by placing them outside the door (inside their thermo-insulated delivery-boxes).
We rarely used it because it was expensive and because my wife typically would haul things from the shop, but I loved the service, it was really nice to get fresh bread. I miss the service, and I'm quite sure it will reappear. Indeed, the brand was bought by a competitor "Morgenlevering", but last time I checked them out, they were missing the most important thing in their assortment - milk!
So I believe on the return of the milkman, just a slightly more modern variant, delivering more things than only milk (particularly freshly baked bread and juice) and accepting orders all until midnight.
I just rememebred I was an "assistant" milkmen for some months around the age of 12 ('96) must have been, and i guess that was the last milkman eras in Uk until like you say it become "expensive" (thinking now, the wages proberbly just didnt go up) and then suddenly there were supermarkets!.. That sounds great with fresh bread every day, hey wait this is still running in Norway?! anyway time I watch some documentry and relax.. tec 7 tomorrow?
In Norway the milkman was gone long before my time, and Brødboksen got bankrupt, so they're not running anymore.
I was in Russia first time in 1998, and then they still had another kind of milk delivery service - every morning people would be queuing by the milk delivery tank truck, with their own containers! I believe this service lasted into this millennium, maybe it still is a thing on the remote country side.
I think the thing that really killed daily milk delivery (and the tank car delivery) was not the supermarkets, but improved hygienic conditions at the farms and good pasteurization at the diaries. It's no point with daily milk deliveries when the milk can stand for two weeks in the fridge without getting bad.
The flipside is that one cannot easily make sour milk at home anymore. The milk from the diary doesn't go sour, it goes bad. Milk directly from the farmer is a big no-no here in Norway due to laws and regulations, one has to know a farmer (or be a farmer) to get real, fresh milk.