Coronavirus brings the return of the milkman
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. — As soon as the glass bottles start clanking, neighbors rush to their windows.
Between the curtains, they spy a deliveryman carrying a crate of milk from his truck. He places the bottles in a box on a nearby porch, along with some other necessities, like eggs. What is this, the 1950s?
No, it’s business during a pandemic.
While some may consider the milkman a relic of yesteryear, New Jersey milk delivery services are experiencing a surge in orders as supermarket-wary residents stay home due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“The uptick in new customers for home delivery is unbelievable,” says Ed Seabridge, owner of Suncrest Farms, a milk delivery service in Totowa.
“We’re probably averaging somewhere around 90 to 100 calls a day,” Seabridge, 67, says. “It’s just nonstop.”
He delivers the goods — whole milk, 2%, 1% and skim, organic optional — in a truck painted like a cow (license plate: COW 54).
Among new customers, Seabridge hears a common refrain.
“‘I didn’t know the milkman still existed.’ ”
After all, the once-vital profession is now largely associated with a bygone time. The business started to decline with the rise of supermarkets and spacious refrigeration cases. In 1963, about 30% of consumers still received home milk deliveries, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey. By the early aughts, home delivery accounted for less than 1% of sales.
However, some delivery businesses — and their glass bottles — have maintained a small grip on neighborhoods. Other purveyors of doorstep dairy sprung up after the initial fall of the industry, trucking along during the rise of newer food subscription services that bring groceries and organic produce to people’s doorsteps at a time when many consumers have embraced a farm-to-table ethos.
Of course, milkmen deliver to other places, too. But due to shuttering schools, day care facilities, offices, restaurants and catering halls, Suncrest Farms lost anywhere from 40% to 50% of sales. New interest in home delivery has helped to soften that blow, Seabridge says.
“I had somebody call from Maryland and somebody call from Pennsylvania,” he says. “It’s crazy. Some of these people are in a panic mode, think they’re never going to get food again.”
Suncrest’s four delivery people bring regular milk, as well as soy, almond and Lactaid milk, to homes in an area spanning Bergen, Passaic and Essex counties, from Fort Lee down to the Lincoln Tunnel and west into Short Hills and Summit. In addition to the vintage milk delivery method — glass bottles — milk is also available in plastic jugs and paper cartons. In recent days, customers have also been ordering more nonmilk products like orange juice and yogurt.
Seabridge says his prices are comparable to convenience stores, but he calls his hormonefree grade A milk “the Rolls Royce of dairy products.”
Falling back on an old staple of American culture has its benefits, he says. For one, reliability.
“We’ve never missed a delivery,” Seabridge says. “Hurricanes, Superstorm Sandy, everybody that was supposed to get their milk that day, gets their milk that day.”
For Deanne Landress, of Maplewood, milk delivery will always be an “essential” business. She has been depending on Seabridge’s deliveries for 15 years.
“He never does not come,” she says — whether it’s a blizzard or, as now, a global viral outbreak.
“It is such a calming thing in a difficult time to know that every Monday morning I get milk, eggs and butter,” Landress, 64, says. “It’s always there before I wake up. It’s really nice.”