End of the route

By Debbie Irmen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Another American icon — the milkman — is going the way of eight-track tapes, drive-in theaters and typewriters.

Quernemoen Dairy, which has offered milk delivery in Fergus Falls since 1952, will cease operations Wednesday.

Brian Quernemoen told customers a couple weeks ago in a letter left in their milk boxes.

The closure of the dairy delivery service, which was started by Brian’s father, LeRoy, is bittersweet for Brian, who took over the business 22 years ago.

“I can’t compete with milk prices offered in the stores,” he said. “I feel bad my customers are paying more than they would in the grocery store.”

Blame the rising cost of gas — Brian uses about a half a tank of gas a day — and milk prices for the demise of the milkman. When he had to pass on the increases to customers six months in a row, Brian knew he couldn’t continue.

The business was started on a gentleman’s agreement 56 years ago between the elder Quernemoen and local entrepreneur Muggs Townsend, according to LeRoy, when Townsend offered to give him 60 milk customers and buy a Divco delivery truck to set him up in business. The deal required LeRoy pay Townsend a penny for every quart of milk sold.

“I had the truck paid off in two years,” LeRoy said.

From there, through customer solicitation and a friendly nature, LeRoy built his business to 1,200 customers, several delivery trucks and numerous helpers.

Brian began helping his dad deliver milk in 1970, at age 10, when milk sold for 10 cents.

“I couldn’t wait to go out on the route (with Dad),” Brian said. “He’d pick me up at 6 a.m. and I’d help him do the route. I was like a kid in the candy store.”

He bought the dairy delivery business from his father in 1986, in a modern-day deal that required the services

of an attorney.

Perhaps the most notable trademark of a milkman is the ability to keep each customer’s order in his head and follow those requests to the letter. The Quernemoens were no exception, though it was initially an easy thing to do when milk, thick with cream on top, was the only option, LeRoy said.

It became increasingly more complicated as more products were added. In the end, Brian sold bread, eggs, spring and distilled water, yogurt, and a variety of ice creams, in addition to whole, 2 Percent and Skim milk.

“I pretty much know what people want when I pull up to a house,” he said.

He has also watched the nutritional habits of his customers change over the years, with skim milk outselling 2 Percent in recent years.

Anticipating the writing on the wall, Brian began delivering all the routes himself about 10 years ago in an attempt to cut expenses, he said. He also offered bags of coffee from Stumbeano’s.

Suprisingly, he sold 30 bags the first month.

In addition to delivering milk and other food items to homes, occasionally the milkmen were called upon to help in other ways, such as the time LeRoy was asked to catch a loose canary flying around the house.

“I took off my boots by the door and caught the canary, but she let it go again,” LeRoy said. “It flew up to her bedroom and I caught it again and got out of there in a hurry.”

Or the times Brian has taken the trash to the curb for a customer.

One standing order came in the form of a note to LeRoy: “Please pour milk out for the cat and put the rest in the fridge.”

There’s no doubt people trusted the Quernemoens and they built relationships with their customers, Brian said. He still deposited a gallon of milk in more than one customer’s refrigerator, and he recently was invited to sit with one family and enjoy breakfast with them.

“I remember when we were kids, dad would get gifts for Christmas and we would open boxes of chocolate-covered cherries,” he said. “Now it’s baked goods. But our customers let us know they appreciated us.”

The milkmen, particularly LeRoy, also served as a welcome wagon of sorts. He used to watch homes which were for sale and when new owners moved in, stop to chat with the new family and offer his services.

“Years later, they’d tell us the milkman was the first person to welcome them to town,” Brian said.

Over the years, the milkmen hired “runners” — mostly school-age kids to help deliver the milk, and both the milkmen enjoyed those relationships.

“We had many good runners,” Brian said. “It was awesome getting to know the kids.”

The past several years, Brian has suggested to his dad that he might have to stop delivery, but found a way to continue, knowing how difficult it would be for his father to accept.

“This last time when I told him, he just sat there staring straight ahead, processing it,” Brian said.

But LeRoy knows how difficult it is to be competitive in today’s market and was prepared for the inevitable, he said, though he’s still a bit sad.

“The milk business has been good to us,

Brian said. “We made a decent living.”

He will make his last deliveries on Wednesday and is excited to begin his new job at Nelson Auto Center in the next couple weeks where he’ll continue his family’s tradition of building relationships with customers.