The milkman has just been!

[briebuiltthiscity]

It’s just before 2am am up in bed but not asleep and heard what I think is breaking glass outside. So I dash to the window.
Live in a small cul-de-sac and there have been a couple of catalytic converters stolen from cars recently and this I I’m going to catch a car thief in the act.

It’s a milkman doing a delivery! Is this the time they come now?!

[Oldraver]

My OH gets up at 4 am, the milk is always waiting

[RealisticSketch]

OP you now need to start a new thread in AMA titled 'I used to live on brick lane'....

[Oreservoir]

My ds’s first job at 14 was a milk round. He used to get picked up at 4.45am, guess who had to wake him!
Occasionally we’d oversleep and there would be a thumping on the door.
He loved the job and the money but I was glad when he changed to something with more sociable hours. Also if there were two working one had to stand on the back of the cart in between locations and the fumes made him feel sick.
I saw a police car pull a cart over one day as he drove through traffic lights with a teen hanging off the back.

[HelloDaisy]

Our milkman comes between midnight and 2am and has done so for at least the last 5 years.

[seven201]

My neighbours one comes at midnight. It's so annoying!

[bigbluebus]

My milkman used to come at 9.00am which then got gradually later and later so I cancelled him. This was pre Covid and in the days where you actually used to leave the house so milk was on the step all day (which was fine in the Winter but not the warmer months). I would have loved him to deliver in the wee small hours.

[FamilyOfAliens]

@SantaMonicaPier

Ours comes around 6.30am. Off topic but now I can get locally delivered organic milk in a glass bottle I'm never going back to supermarket milk in a plastic carton!

Same here. We switched to organic milk when it first came out about 5 years ago. We’ve had milk delivered since 1993.

Ours has also just started doing oat milk in glass bottles, which we also use for porridge etc.

Ours comes on the dot at 11.30pm.

The only time the service wasn’t fantastic was during the first lockdown when they couldn’t cope with the influx of new customers. I waited an hour and a half in a queue to log into my account! I often wonder how many of those customers stayed, or whether they just used it for convenience at the time.

[Hailtomyteeth]

I thought milkmen were extinct.

[problembottom]

Yes my milk and bread are delivered at about 1am I think. Never heard them but my baby once guzzled so much milk with her multiple wake ups we ran out at about 2am. I told DP to check the doorstep just in case and there it was, life saver!

[FedUpAtHomeTroels]

Our milkman comes before midnight. In the cold of winter he comes around 8pm, it's cold enough for the milk to sit on the doorstep all night if we don't see him pass.

[Scarby9]

About 30 years ago a friend's dad woke at 2am to see the security light on at the house opposite.

He got out of bed and peered through a crack in the curtains and saw a figure sloping up the 'wrong' side of the car on the drive of the house next to the one with the security light on. He rang the police, who came and swooped.

It was the milkman, who was trying to deliver silently and unobtrusively. He'd parked his van at the bottom of the cul de sac and was attempting to keep out of the reach of triggering the security lights by hiding behind vehicles and bushes like some kind of creeping assassin. I suspect the challenge livened up the early hours for him too.

[Frenchdressing]

Mine also sells cheese etc and a ‘best of local’ box so you can buy pastries and cakes. I love it.

He comes about 5 and I’m sometimes awake and I love the sound of the electric float. Feels nostalgic somehow,

[Arobase]

I've heard ours delivering just after midnight. However, it was a bit counter-productive, because we found that bread he was supposed to deliver once a week was often not turning up, and we concluded it was because foxes got it. So we cancelled that element of the delivery.

[Arobase]

@Hailtomyteeth

I thought milkmen were extinct.

Certainly not. We were really grateful for ours when we were both self-isolating recently.

[FamilyOfAliens]

@Arobase

I've heard ours delivering just after midnight. However, it was a bit counter-productive, because we found that bread he was supposed to deliver once a week was often not turning up, and we concluded it was because foxes got it. So we cancelled that element of the delivery.

That’s strange - when we order bread it’s in a thick brown paper bag (as well as its own packaging). It would be unusual for a fox to detect the smell of bread through two layers of packaging!

It might have been stolen - this happened to us just once when the delivery used to be at 5-6am. Whoever it was took the milk carrier too!

[Beautiful3]

Pre covid the local milkman used to come around 4/5am. Since this pandemic, hes been coming around 2/3, thinknits because he has to fit more deliveries in.

[HighInTheHills]

@FamilyOfAliens foxes have an amazing sense of smell and could easily smell bread through two layers of packaging. They are wily little buggers too! 🦊

[APurpleSquirrel]

We've been using Milk & More since before the pandemic & were so thankful we did once lockdown hit.
Our milkman delivers anytime between 3-7am but we have also got the milk bottle insulater.
We prefer being able to support local farmers, pay a fair price for fresh milk delivered to our door 3 times a week, use less plastic & my personal favourite reason, not having to sniff milk to see if it's gone off 🤢

[Arobase]

That’s strange - when we order bread it’s in a thick brown paper bag (as well as its own packaging). It would be unusual for a fox to detect the smell of bread through two layers of packaging!

Ours was delivered just in its own polythene wrapping. As I think it had small holes in it to stop condensation the fox would have been well able to smell it.

I don't think it was stolen because the milk and orange juice never disappeared, and you would think a thief would take them also.

[Brenna24]

I have wanted to have milk delivered for years. For the same reasons as most posters: fairer price for farmers, reusable bottles better for the environment, fewer food miles, don't have to store as much in the fridge or go shopping more often. Up until now we lived in a city centre flat and they don't deliver there due to access (fair enough). We moved to house in a village in December and now have a garden and a milkman. Just in time for the best lockdown too.

[Judashascomeintosomemoney]

My Dad used to be a milkman for Unigate/Dairy Crest. It used to work on a franchisee basis and lots of the milkmen had two milk rounds (or more) just to make enough money to live on. Hence some of them would be delivering their first round at 2/3am then back again to the depot to load up for the next round at 6am. They did their own ordering, loading and unloading. Tough job. I used to go sometimes to help him. The cold, omg the cold! Nothing like putting your already frozen fingers inside icy empties to load up the crate

[StarlightLady]

I gave up on having a milkman long ago, because it used to arrive too late. It was often out there all day while l was at work. That was a security risk too.

In addition, there was never once an offer of additional services which milkmen were famous for. How rude! 😂

[taleforthetimebeing]

My milkman comes about 1.00am I am often still up.

[HettieMills]

Ours has starting coming really early. Sometimes even the night before. 11.50pm last night 😮

[FamilyOfAliens]

I don't think it was stolen because the milk and orange juice never disappeared, and you would think a thief would take them also.

I think you underestimate how many thefts are opportunistic! Most thieves take what they can easily carry.