Before the Covid Pandemic, I always bought Cravendale Milk from Asda. It tasted perfect, but the main thing was that due to how it is processed it lasted much longer than traditional milk.
Once the Pandemic first started we were not allowed out (or it was a major risk if we went out for legitimate reasons), and getting milk became an issue. Even if you risked going to a shop everything had been panic-bought anyway. So I signed up to Milk & More, which is as close to a traditional ‘milkman’ you can get these days.
They were a lifesaver. Milk (and eggs and fresh vegetables, plus plenty more) were delivered three times a week. The ‘plenty more’ wasn’t all exactly my taste (much of it was vegan nonsense), but they supplied fresh onions and fresh carrots, which were. Yes, it was more expensive than from Asda, but it was available by regular delivery without having to go out.
Now, I am a person who likes to stay faithful to a supplier unless they annoy me somehow beyond a certain point. So when they stopped doing onions I didn’t move away from them. And the fact that some deliveries of carrots involved things that were as limp as an uncooked Frankfurter just meant I stopped buying them. And the additional fact that some specialist eggs (as well as normal eggs) were sometimes not delivered due to ‘stock issues’ still didn’t deter me. As I say, they were a major help during the Pandemic.
Even when the price of a 2 pint bottle of milk (my main reason for sticking with them) went up from £1.50 to £1.62 I didn’t flinch.
But I have discovered today that the price of milk from Milk & More has now increased to £1.95. And along with a change to the delivery schedule – which wouldn’t have been a problem in itself – that is just the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I can buy 2L (4 pints) of Cravendale from Asda (and most other places) for £2.10. That’s half the price per litre. So I am afraid my loyalty has run out of steam.
Part of the problem is that I also get groceries for the old lady who lives next door. She has all the signs of early dementia – she forgets she’s not given me a grocery list every week, then forgets she’s given me one when I’ve chased her for it, then she forgets the Carved In Stone weekly Asda delivery every Wednesday even after I’ve ordered (even though I purposely gave her a laminated card with strict instructions on it many months ago, which she has on her hall table but never reads). Every single delivery (and every handover of a bottle of milk) she asks ‘how much do I owe you?’, no matter how many times I explain that I give a her a fortnightly bill to avoid her cheque book running out too quickly. And every time I hand over a delivery, she asks ‘will a cheque be all right?’, and so I explain it all again.
In spite of all that, she is a demon for ‘Use By’ dates. I arrange the milk in my fridge in date order, and since I know that milk is perfectly fit to drink as long as it hasn’t curdled I am happy to use it a week or more after the ‘Use By’. But she isn’t, even though I have explained it to her numerous times. Some deliveries only have a ‘Use By’ which is a day or two after the present, and she doesn’t even like that. To make matters worse, my dad – who is almost blind and is 93 years old – is usually the one who deals with her on the milk front, and no matter how many times I have told him that the most recent milk is on the bottom shelf on the right, he insists on giving her a bottle from the top shelf on the left (the oldest) when she comes round. So she will come back several times, which annoys him and causes problems. If he just gave her a bloody bottle from where I’ve told him it wouldn’t happen.
So on the one hand, buying Cravendale again – which is good for ten days when unopened, and seven once it is – is going to be good for me. But on the other hand, I am not looking forward to explaining it to the lady next door. Because I just know she will remain rigidly fixed on the concept of the previous 1L bottles and shorter shelf life every couple of days, and wont be able to adjust to 2L of much longer shelf life milk once or twice a week.