Interview With A Milkman -1996- -2021- [exclusive] Instant

We became frontline workers overnight. The apps crashed from the surge in demand. People were terrified to go to stores, so they turned back to the oldest delivery system in the book.

If you could leave a note on every doorstep now, what would it say? Interview With A Milkman -1996- -2021-

Whether in 1996 or 2021, the job demands a pre-dawn lifestyle. The routes still typically begin between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM to ensure that fresh dairy is on the doorstep before the morning rush hour begins. We became frontline workers overnight

Our interview begins in 1996, a time when the job of a milkman was often described as an "anachronism." In Tustin, California, a milkman named Jim Fiore was seen as part of a "dying breed." During their heyday in the 1950s, milkmen were a common sight across the country. In the Pasadena area alone, there were 16 dairies offering home delivery. By 1996, only about 150 milkmen remained in the entire Southland, most working for a single dairy. If you could leave a note on every

Slowly, the notes stopped appearing. The wire crates on the doorsteps vanished, replaced by mass-produced plastic containers bought during weekend grocery runs. Our customer base shrank to the elderly who couldn’t travel, and the purists who swore milk tasted better out of glass—which it does, by the way.