The Future Of........Milk!

I remember a time BBW – “Before Bottled Water”. I don’t quite remember a time BBM (Before Bottled Milk) but I do certainly remember the scepticism with which bottled water was greeted. Why, when it falls out of the sky every day and we’re surround by the stuff in Ireland, would we ever pay good money to buy water in a bottle? We laughed at Ballygowan and their posh water with bubbles in it and we rejoiced in learning to pronounce foreign names like Evian and Vittel. And we thought only mad people would buy them.

Now, we’re happy to pay more for a litre of bottled water than a farmer receives per litre for bottled milk.

So it was with some initial amusement we stumbled across the latest trend sweeping the local villages here – the “Mlekomat” or “Milk-O-Mat”. We went up and had a good poke around – it even moos at you when you walk past. Why, we wondered, would you pay for a bottle of milk when you can pick one up easily in the local supermarket when you’re doing the rest of your shopping?

Then we noticed people were using them – and using them a lot. So we started – and now we’re addicted. A litre of fresh milk at any time of the day in a beautiful glass or more functional plastic bottle, filled automatically on demand for you – and you can re-use the bottles.

The milk is local, the farmer or local co-op achieves the holy grail of retailing – the “direct sale” and controls the entire chain from supply to final delivery of product – and they get a better price for it rather than selling to a big supermarket. Best of all, the money then stays local too. And people love them – we’ve become addicted to our fresh, local milk!

So we thought, what a good idea for Ireland….. but apparently some enterprising people have already thought of it (according to a friend who saw a reference to the systems in the Farmer’s Journal), so we’ll just have to keep an eye out for the “next big thing”….

Anyone for a “Spud-O-Mat”….