FULL CIRCLE: THE EVOLUTION OF FOOD DELIVERY

The neighbourhood milkman used to be a common sight, but residents of some UK cities are now more likely to have their dairy products delivered by robots.

- Anna Richards

PULLED PORK BAO delivered with one click by a Deliveroo rider on a motorcycle. Co-op's own-brand vodka brought to the door by your Uber driver to replenish depleted supplies mid-house party. A supermarket home delivery in enough carrier bags to make a large, plastic parachute, complete with thimble-sized jars of honey where you messed up the size ordering online.

The predecessor of Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and a hard-fought, carefully scheduled home delivery slot from Tesco, was the milkmanonce a regular sight on British streets, now somewhat of a novelty. For the 19th and much of the 20th centuries, most homes in Britain had their milk delivered by the milkman. As late as 1980, almost 90 per cent of UK households had milk delivered to their door, but by 2016 that figure had fallen to a mere three per cent. Milkmen, it seemed, were to join the ranks of redundant jobs; town criers, lamplighters and pinsetters.

During COVID-19, milkmen made a comeback from the brink of extinction, with the UK's largest milk delivery service, Milk & More, adding 25,000 new clients to their database during the first month of the pandemic. Housebound and worried about the next national shortage (what would follow toilet paper and bread flour?), companies got creative. Stone House Urban Winery in Hagerstown, Minnesota, even began delivering wine to their clients using their dog, who became affectionately known as Soda Pup.