By Kristin Holtz, Staff Writer

Melanie Wegner has been getting milk delivered straight to her refrigerator for 20 years.

It comes every Monday at 11:30 a.m. by a cheerful delivery man who stacks her Chanhassen fridge with several paper cartons of fresh milk, which beats the taste of plastic jug milk, Wegner claims.
Plus, it saves her from impulse buying at the grocery store.

“I’m spending less because I’m not making so many trips into the grocery store. It’s just a terrific convenience,” Wegner said.
For many customers, home-delivered milk prices are relatively competitive with grocery stores, said Greg Wacek, the Wegners’ milkman.

“Home delivery may be a bit more expensive at times or may be a little less at times, but it will compare with the stores like Target or Cub or Rainbow,” said Wacek, who owns Greg’s Home Delivery.

Udderly Fresh Home Delivery owner Bill Grosse said milkmen can’t compete, however, against giant discounters like Walmart, Sam’s Club and Costco. Therefore, they must offer more than just milk to stay competitive. Ray and Frances Schmeig talk with Matt Heger

Udderly Fresh Home Delivery, which delivers Kemps milk to Shakopee and Savage, sells juice, cheese, eggs, meat, bread, pizza, ice cream, frozen food and even condiments. Grosse specializes in half-gallon milk cartons, a product that most grocery stores carry little of, preferring gallon-sized plastic jugs.

Jean Rademacher, a longtime Shakopee day care provider, said she appreciates the wide variety of items Udderly Fresh offers. From peanut butter to garbage bags, hot dogs to laundry detergent, she can order practically anything she might run out of.

“It makes it really easy, mostly for the day care. He carries a lot of child-friendly foods. Foods that kids seem to enjoy,” said Rademacher, who typically grocery shops once a month, buying everything she needs in between trips from Grosse.Bill Grosse

“As long as we can compete, there are people that don’t like going to the grocery store,” Grosse said.

Staying competitive also means being available for local commercial customers, too. Matt Heger, who owns Heger’s Dairy in Chaska, services several area businesses like coffee shops, restaurants, a senior housing complex, a day care center and even the Scott County Jail.

While many of those businesses could go with a larger dealer, they choose to stick with Heger because of his quality products, competitive prices (no middle man) and the convenience.

Tom Burkhart, owner of Burky’s Bar and Grill in Cologne, said Heger’s meat products are top of the line and his prices are hard to beat. Plus, he’s a local guy, Burkhart said.

“If I need something right away, I can go down to his shop and pick up what I need,” he said. Heger also delivers extra products to his commercial customers in-between their regular delivery days.

The recent economic downturn has been an added challenge for milkmen.

Wacek serves about 270 customers in Chanhassen, Chaska, Victoria and Waconia. He estimates he’s lost about 10 percent of his customer base.

“It’s certainly had an impact the last year or so,” he said.

Grosse lost about 20 of his 300 customers over the past few months. However, the bigger impact is that many customers are just reducing their orders, he said.

“People are watching what they buy,” longtime milkman Andy Boll said. “They just cut back some. Maybe some things they would like to have [but] just get plain milk instead. Forget the yogurt.”

MILKMEN ALL BUT DISAPPEAR

Years ago, there used to be a milkman at every house and corner. In the early 1960s, one-third of Americans were getting milk delivered to their homes. But over the past decade, the number of Americans receiving home-delivered milk is less than 1 percent.

Milkmen point to a variety of reasons for the decrease, from the ubiquity of grocery stores and greater mobility to smaller families.

The number of Minnesota milk companies and dairies has also shrunk over the years to just a few major players, primarily Kemps, Cass-Clay Dairy, Land O’Lakes and Schroeder Dairy. Gone are the companies like Oak Grove, Clover Leaf and Meyer Bros.

Boll of Montrose knows this story all too well. The former dairy farmer started as a milkman for Meyers Bros. Dairy in Wayzata in 1988.

A few years ago, Cass-Clay Dairy bought Meyer Bros. and last summer decided to discontinue home delivery. Boll was invited to become a commercial deliveryman for Cass-Clay. Instead, he took the layoff, bought one of the trucks and picked up his old account list.

Today, Boll buys all his product from Heger. He also loads at Heger’s Chaska shop. Andy’s Dairy Delivery is now an independent company, serving a wide west-metro stretch from Mound to Delano to Shakopee — approximately 500 customers.

Tom and Brigid Altman of Shakopee buy from Boll. Tom Altman said his family likes the paper carton milk, Bongards Creamery cheese and meat products Boll sells.

“We just want to support Andy [Boll] because we’ve had him for a long time,” Tom Altman said.Andy Boll

Heger is also helping another milkman get his route started. Since spring, Ryan Peckham of Chaska has been canvassing Shakopee neighborhoods in the hope of finding customers for his new milk delivery service, Peckham’s Dairy.

Peckham, 28, is using a loaner truck and buying his product from Heger. He has a Monday route with nearly 30 customers. On off-days, he hangs flyers on local doors.

The economy has made recruiting customers more difficult than Peckham anticipated. He said many people are not aware milkmen still exist, so informing them about his service and the overall convenience of home-delivered milk is his best marketing strategy.

By the end of the year, Peckham hopes to fill his Monday route with 75 to 100 customers. He would like eventually to build his own accounts in the Jordan-Belle Plaine area.

“Those communities are going to be good targets because it’s a little farther out and they have more of the small-town values,” Peckham said.

Soliciting customers is no longer as easy as it once was, Heger said. Heger recalls his dad turning customers away in the ’80s and ’90s; soliciting was still easy when he took over in 2000. But today, it’s harder to be competitive.

“I go out every week and pick up the same amount of customers that I would in one week in six months,” Heger said. “They’re out there. You just have to find them.”

Wegner, who had a milkman as a child, said the best benefit of getting milk delivered to her home is it reduces trips to the grocery store. And for a family of big milk drinkers that can be a welcome thing.Greg Wacek

“I don’t have to carry heavy loads of groceries or milk into the house because Greg [Wacek] comes right in and puts it into my refrigerator for me,” Wegner said. “All I can say is Greg is a great guy and he saves me a lot of hassle.”

With references like that, milkmen hope customers will keep calling them for their dairy products.

“It’s not necessarily a luxury, it’s a necessity,” Grosse said. “We’re out there to make your life a little easier, and if we can do that by bringing you milk each week and saving you a trip to the store, that’s what our goal is.”

Kristin Holtz can be reached at (952) 345-6678 or kholtz@swpub.com.

Read more about a day in the life of a milkman.

Read about old-time milkman Lester Menden and share your memories.

See a photo slideshow.