When did it stop? When did it start again?

Local bakers, whose big oven was on display inside his shop, used to dress up in white and bring trays of crumpets around on winter Sunday afternoons. Shouting out “Muffin Man”
The big tray of crumpets was carried on his head and at the start of his round, he had two teenaged boys each carrying a tray of crumpets too.
Only he was left by the time it was our streets turn

My son has worked for Ocado for 13 years, they were still quite a small company when he joined them as a driver, with just the one base in Hatfield

I can remember having a booklet for ordering from Sainsburys for a 'click and collect' type service. You ordered over the phone and collected from the store in the mid-late 80s.

I was born in 1953...we had a fresh fish van every week and a butcher and fizzy drinks man (Corona?) Local greengrocer would call on a Wednesday for an order and deliver on Friday
My mother walked 2 miles to the nearest post-office which also sold cheese from a huge marble counter!

Happy days.. this changed by the 60s with first supermarket opening in our nearest town .
I think the old ways made people more selective and organised with meals , and less waste for sure.

I was born in 1951 and all through my childhood outside Glasgow the milk was delivered every morning as were my parents' newspapers and when I was old enough my weekly comic was also delivered. And the post twice daily Mon-Fri and once on Saturday.

The butcher's boy came every Saturday with the weekend roast, and if my mother hadn't time to go to the butcher's she phoned and asked for whatever she needed sent up to the house, and put on her account.

My father being a GP did the same if he ran out of anything needed in the practice he phoned the nearest chemist and a girl came up with whatever vaccine or drug he needed.

When I was very small (under 5) the milkman drove a cart and horse and until four or five years after he had got a lorry, the bobbin man still came by horse and cart. He sold damaged or broken wooden bobbins made in Nielston for the English Sewing Thread Co. and Coates Mill in Paisley plus the end pieces of the wooden poles the bobbins were made from. We used them for kindling the fires.

Smokeless fuel zoning of the 1960s knocked his business on the head, but the butcher and other shops still delivered orders when my father retired in 1980 and my parents moved away.

I have thus no idea when they stopped doing so, or even if they did, nor do I remember my grandmother or great aunts saying that messages, as they are called in Scotland hadn't been delivered during either world war - there were plenty of boys under call-up age desperate to earn money during the wars when their fathers were at the front or dead.

In the 1950s in Glasgow, we had a standing order at the Co-op which was delivered in a wicker basket every Saturday, the van came back later to collect the empty basket. Milk, papers, meat, coal, pop, all delivered. Fish van came on Friday. Mail twice a day. We used to take a bowl out to the ice cream van to be filled up. It all began to stop once we got a car, round about 1961: my mother took great pleasure being driven to the shops by my dad! Ringtons still delivering, my elderly neighbour has tea and biscuits delivered every fortnight!

We had food deliveries in the late 1950s.

In the 60s, the milkman and baker delivered. The grocer and butcher would deliver mum’s order which she would phone in.
In our present village, the milkman stopped delivering in the nineties. We had a butcher come round in a van until the noughties and the fishmonger delivered until just before lockdown.
In the 60s we also had the bag wash and the laundry come round, even though we had a twin tub.

Drina01

From when I can remember 1959 and into the 1960s Mum stopped going to the Hadrian grocery store, where a lady would retrieve numerous items from behind the counter one by one and pour sugar into blue bags ! We had a Saturday morning delivery by a lovely boy on a big black bike with a basket on the front. Changed her life ! Well almost, she still cooked a full meal everyday at lunchtime for which we all had to come home and sit down for. How Dad went back to work on a full stomach I’ll never know !

I remember the blue sugar bags, and also the grocer cutting and wrapping lovely butter from huge blocks in the shop. I remember the shop well, but think that it closed before we moved from there in 1966 as small supermarkets started to open.

NotSpaghetti

I suppose some of us would have stopped using- or even noticing these services if we were out at work. Ours tended to come during the day. Obviously the milkman was an exception as he came very early.

We had a milkman up until 1976 when we realised that the milk sat on the float until mid-afternoon when it was finally delivered, warm and off.
I know that Milk and More still deliver quite a few things in many areas, but virtually everybody has a fridge now so a daily delivery isn't so important.
I suppose we do our "top-up shops" for things like milk now in one the many corner shops that are around, our local shopkeeper is wonderful, very responsive if somebody suggests something new that he might sell.
Like many others we can no longer get a daily newspaper delivered, but it's just a short walk.

When I was small , I asked my Grandma about the French beret wearing cycling onion sellers .

Our conversation would go something like this :

They grow their onions in France and then , they cycle over here to sell them .

But how do they cycle over the sea ?

That's their secret .

I didn't see her shoulders shaking with silent laughter .

Germanshepherdsmum

You must young! In the 50s and 60s I can recall the butcher and fishmonger delivering and also the Coop van. Not to order, we didn’t have a phone. They carried goods from which to choose. Also the mobile fish and chip van until that ended after a dreadful accident.

My grandparents lived in a village with no shop in the 50's and there was a grocer's van that arrived once a week with stock from which to choose. Also a fish van, though I don't think that came as often. I'm not sure about a butcher, it was a farming community so I'm guessing that the meat was bought locally.
When I was a child there was a delivery of "pop" - fizzy drinks, initially in those old beige stoneware bottles.
And we must never forget the Betterware man who arrived with his suitcase to take orders. I think that this company is still going online.

Yeah i remember the co-op stamp books in 60's-70's too and tesco stamp book i think we had in 70s.

In France around the villages they still have the local butcher, baker and grocer’s going to outlying houses on certain days, individually honking their horns to alert their clients of their arrival.

And in 70s to 90s there was always a neighbour selling Avon or Tupperware or giving a Tupperware or later an Ann Summers party.(my mam called them 'those sex parties') Hilarious! 🤣😂😆Avon are having a renewal i think, with shops now- and someone came around with the booklets other week too.

I can remember the butcher, baker and fishmonger delivering to my Nans village in the 60’s. I used to love going out with her to have a chat with them and see what they were selling.

When I was a child in the 1940s - 1960s we had milk, bread and Corona soft drinks delivered. The bread delivery (Co-op) was my favourite as it came in a horse-drawn van and I could stroke the horse. If my mother was out and I had to pay the bread man I had it drummed into me that I must remember to say our Dividend number so we didn't miss out on our "divi". I can remember the number to this day! I didn't like the coal deliveries as my mother made watch out of the window and count the sacks as they were brought to the coalhouse to make sure the coalmen dlivered the right number and didn't swindle us.

Also when they built bigger supermarkets some of them (in mid 80's to mid 90's)provided a free pick up coach to take us to supermarket & back- there were certain stops en route.That would be something worth bringing back i think for those who prefer shopping instore who maybe not have their own transport or a bus pass.Im sure it would be worth it for the stores.🤔

Yes we had pools man and insurance man.some neighbours had the 'provy' man- i wasnt sure if he was from providence insurance? But i think some of the neighbours had a loan man as well and they got small loans & paid it weekly(our next door neighbour had one)my mam didnt need that but she did pay money into a christmas club each week up till christmas and then they delivered the toys she had chosen from a booklet or some such. Also there was a hamper club come round for those who wanted it.

In 60’s and 70’s we had bread, milk, papers, bleach etc, lemonade , coal . All by delivery in Liverpool. I’ve had milk delivery right the way through and fish in Wiltshire since the 80’s and since covid I’ve had fruit and veg etc from farm . Our butchers have also always done delivery.

My gran had a Rington’s man, I don’t think they ever stopped delivering! He brought tea, and sold a lot of things as well - including crockery in a design called ‘Tally Ho’ with fox hunters all over it. My mum was resigned to getting stuff from the Rington’s van for Christmas, because my Gran felt sorry for him.

Oh yes Gransey i did forget Ringtons!- probably cause in those days as a lil kid i was more bothered about the pop man & buying sweets than a cuppa! 😅

In the mid 60’s and into the early 1970’s we had a butcher, baker, Corona Pop man, Davenports beer (until my dad started brewing his own). There was also a fishmonger and a general grocery delivery. The Coop delivered an order from the book that my mum dropped off at the beginning of the week. We also had a regular dry cleaning man who would take the big woollen blankets and coats etc -and a rag n bone man. I seem to remember there was also a man who collected the pools coupon and an insurance man.

Yes even in 80's& 90's our milkmen brought much more than milk- eggs bread cheese potatoes bacon orange juice.and if you had milk tokens they just knocked the amount they were worth off the whole bill and you paid the difference.

Don’t forget the Rington’s tea man!