Forum Topic

Very few deliveries now!

We used to have deliveries of milk, newspapers, fresh fish from the south coast, veg from the farm, the knife-sharpening service, coal, manure and a few other items, but they have all ceased to operate now. Why is this so? They were very convenient and always fresh. Sad really.

Gerry Tan ● 4198d12 Comments

We still get a milk delivery.  We love not having to rush out for a pint of milk especially when it is snowy.We don't take full advantage of the delivery which can be three times a week but just have milk delivered twice a week. It makes it easier to use up if there's too much for some reason and we always have UHT in the cupboard if we want to make a white or cheese sauce or custard or hot chocolate when nobody can tell the difference.  I hate UHT milk in my tea and on my cereal so if there is no fresh milk I'd choose mint tea and toast for breakfast but somehow we just seem to manage it better nowadays.It is really good if you have a mobility problem though as you can order lots of other things online through the milkman to be delivered.  It is such a shame that they didn't get this system up and running the way it is now before the supermarkets managed to strangle the market using milk as a loss leader.If you think it is a lot more expensive than the supermarket then think about what else you bought just because you popped into the supermarket and whether you were tempted because you had to walk right through the store with the smell of newly baked croissants being pumped through it and whether everything is cheaper - and whether you intended to buy so much more when you went out.Comparing price for price does not give you the full picture!

Philippa Bond ● 4194d

I recommend the fish man from Dorset who drives up to Kew Village Community Market and presents a wonderful display of fish, clams, crabs etc., depending on the catch of course!  He will be there tomorrow....first Sunday of the month.  It's from 10am to 2 pm and there will be lots of other tasty treats as well....oh and music to boot.  Hope the weather improves.  Catch a 65 bus and get off just past the Maids of Honour teashop...walk back to the traffic lights and take the right and follow up the road as if going to Kew station. Enjoy

Pamela Kay ● 4197d

The Grimsby fish truck was a regular site in Northfields.When he started turning up at 8:oo a.m. on Mondays with 'fresh fish' the game was up as there was no time to get to Ealing from Grimsby from an auction that only started two hours earlier.

Nigel Brooks ● 4197d

My Times is delivered every morning to my Kindle at a third of the price of a hard copy, anywhere in the world where I can get a 3g signal or find wifi.

Susan Kelly ● 4197d

We would never buy fish from a van that came to one's house, but about twenty years ago, we were friends with two men who trawler-fished from the Dorset coast and they used to make a trip in their fish van most Fridays to Ealing and offered fresh place, lemon sole and cod/haddock in season etc - really fresh and reasonably priced(cash on the nose and no questions asked!). They don't trade any more, but a man from the North East comes every so often and offers frozen fish fresh so they claim - we don't buy from them.

Gerry Tan ● 4197d

Seems to be more delivery vans on our roads than ever (groceries, furniture, white goods, books, CDs, booze, Chinese, pizzas etc etc - even manure I gather. Now "on-demand when ordered" and not just doing the local rounds.

Philip Coe ● 4198d

"We sadly live in a throw-away society..."I think you're correct Nigel and I think I'm guilty - I used to collect pieces of string, rubber bands, wrapping paper etc to use again - now I throw them all away! That's progress I guess.

Gerry Tan ● 4198d

Or you go to the excellent wet fish shops in Ealing.I would never buy 'fresh' fish from the back of a van. They used to stink and fresh fish doesn't.

Nigel Brooks ● 4198d

I think there are many more deliveries now, instead of the fish-man driving his van to your house and you making your choice, you now choose on-line and the fish is couriered from Scotland.

Fred Hunt ● 4198d

Down to cost Gerry I'm afraid.Fewer and fewer people take a daily paper, few, if any, in cities, use solid fuel.We sadly (but not house) live in a throw-away society so the knife man would spend half his time explaining that you can actually sharpen a dull edge.We have but ourselves to blame for the demise of door-to-door services.

Nigel Brooks ● 4198d

Our local newsagent shopkeeper says he can't get reliable young boys to deliver so early in the morning, therefore the newpaper delivery is a bit 'iffy' these days. So our kind shopkeeper uses his car to deliver and his wife has to mind the shop - therefore instead of an early delivery we sometimes get the papers mid-morning - so we cancelled the order. Sad but true.

Gerry Tan ● 4198d

Newspapers are still delivered

Jack Ryan ● 4198d