Unfiltered Story #297018

This is a story about my grandfather from the late 1950s as told to me by my mom. Her dad was a milkman, back when they were common. He’d get up at 4 am every weekday to take milk to all the people who had subscriptions with his company. His company was considered one of the better milk brands, and they were not yet selling their milk in grocery stores. The concern was that if it’s in the store, who would want delivery? The local grocery store kept begging to carry the milk, and finally, a deal was struck. The store could carry the mild as long as the milk in the store was a couple of cents more expensive than the delivered milk. At first, everything was going fine, until the store lowed the price of the milk without permission. That’s when things got interesting.

For whatever reason, the milk company couldn’t or didn’t want to sue the store. The milkmen though were having none of this, my grandfather included. This was their livelihood. My grandfather was supporting his wife and their three kids on this job. He was not losing it to a grocery store sale. So all the milkmen decided to peacefully protest. Abet, not in the usual way.

On the first day, all the milkmen and their families went to the store throughout the day. They each filled up two carts, right to the brim, almost overflowing with random food from all throughout the store. They brought the carts to the checkout, and then they left without a word, leaving all that food to be restocked.

The next day the milk was still cheaper, so they thought they needed to doing something more drastic. Back everyone went. This time they took perishables, dairy, meat, anything that would go bad and stink if not kept in refrigeration. They took everything and started hiding it throughout the store. Fresh fish? Let’s put it behind the cereal boxes. Big steak? I’ll look better behind the canned peas. And so on and so forth. All these milkmen and their families. All-day. Setting up a treasure hunt of disastrous proportions.

By the end of that day, the grocery store had got the picture. The milk was quickly changed back to the previous price. and the milkmen and their families went back to shopping normally. My grandfather was a milkman until he died at 56, and there were a number of pranks he played, but this is truly one of the best.