In these tough times, I’d never fault a business for wanting to deliver food. Obviously, independent delivery took off in a big way in some places. I can understand people getting liquor delivered. I know what a busy day feels like.
I’d rather eat homemade pizza than have one delivered by 7-11, but have at it. But now gas stations are getting in the act here - offering delivery of pop and pepperoni, I guess. It surprised me, but why not?
What is an item, available for home delivery, that surprised you? What is the oddest item someone you know has had delivered? I’m talking by a local store and car delivery service here, not some tchotchkes from Amazon or the Interwebz.
My local running shoes and clothing+ store, The Lincoln Running Company, in Lincoln, Nebraska, will deliver your purchase to your door, using bicycles. I think maybe they will even tuck in a couple of your favorite homemade cookies from the cookie store, The Cookie Company, on request, from around the corner from them.
I dunno about delivery but there has been a bill introduced in the Arizona legislature to allow bars to offer take-away mixed drinks as an effort to help them keep their heads above water without crowding people in to catch diseases.
Of course, with a big whoop-de-do they decided just a couple years ago to allow growlers. I first saw growlers 50 years ago in Pennsylvania, a state where you couldn’t buy a drink – even beer – on Sunday… except in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
In Wisconsin and some other states, there are dairies that will bring their products like milk, cream, butter, etc. right to your house. The person delivering it is called a “Milkperson”.
Oh, what a time to be alive! These are days of miracle and wonder!
I wish we had that here. I can’t even get my butter to spread. Haven’t had delivered dairy ever, except when visiting my grandmother years ago. What is the way that looks to a distant constellation ?
When I lived in Tidewater Virginia from 1988-2000, there were two dairies that still delivered to homes. We got milk and butter and whatnot from them.
In my current home, there’s a goat dairy that delivers as a result of Covid. They don’t do straight-up goat milk, but you can get a variety of cheeses and whey crackers they produce, and they’ve paired up with farms near them to deliver eggs, meat, vegetables and fruit. For awhile they were even delivering yeast, flour and TP.
During the height of the pandemic induced toilet paper shortage, at least one restaurant around here added “roll of TP” to their DoorDash menu. And it actually makes perfect sense – at the time they were only allowed to be open for takeout and delivery, so their bathrooms were probably getting much less use, and people were having difficulty finding TP in stores. So why not sell their excess TP to consumers via delivery service?
There are probably a few lyricists consistently as good as Rhymin’ Simon. Definitely Bob Dylan and likely Leonard Cohen. But there aren’t many.
I had the good fortune to see Cohen in concert when he was 78. He started the concert by saying he didn’t know how much time he had left, was going to give it all he could, then sang for three and a half hours. I’m not sure anyone does that anymore, but would love to see Simon - plus or minus a Garfunkel - give it a go.
Anyway, it’s hard to beat fresh farm goods. You need a whisk, for starters.
In Newfoundland, you could phone the brewery, and a route man would come around and deliver a case of beer to your house. They were very busy on Fridays. A lot of people had a standing order for a case a week.
A lot of women would prepare carry-out plates of home-cooked meals in their home kitchen. You could call a taxi to go over to their house and pick up meals and bring them to you.
In the Middle East, go into shop, and the owner will step outside and clap his hands and a boy would come running with a complimentary glass of hot sweet tea for you.
During lockdown, a neighborhood lady was online delivering fresh food, and at times offered complimentary gifts (glassware, pot-holders) with orders for fresh fish or mangoes…
