DISTRIBUTION OF MILK 



93 



situation in several Wisconsin cities in the summer of 1916 

 is more or less typical of conditions elsewhere. 



TABLE XVII 



Extent of Duplication in Delivery Service in Five Wisconsin Cities ; 1916 l 



It would appear from the above table that each cus- 

 tomer's house is on the average passed by more than five 

 delivery wagons in Milwaukee and by two or three in each 

 of the other cities. One of the reasons for the existence 

 of a considerable amount of duplication is variation in 

 quality of milk, real or supposed. Preference for the milk 

 of a given dairyman is often so strong that a housewife 

 will insist on receiving milk from him even though she 

 moves to a distant part of the city. In order to hold such 

 a customer, the dairyman may try to work up some trade 

 in the new section. A large portion of the duplication is 

 sometimes due to the willingness of each dairyman to meet 

 the demands of consumers as to the particular time when 

 milk is to be delivered. In one particular instance it was 

 found that 20 to 50 per cent of the distance traveled by 

 certain drivers was extra travel due to the demand on the 

 part of some of the customers that their milk be delivered 

 in time for breakfast. 



1 Wis Experiment Station Bulletin 285, p. 30. 



