Photo courtesy of Colby White.
Colby White Colby's Creamery
Colby White, owner of Colby's Creamery, delivers Bourdon Dairy products from his dairy truck.
Seventeen years ago, an era ended. Barber’s Dairy cancelled its home delivery route, leaving Alabamians with bulk distribution as their only option for dairy products.
Now, Mountain Brook has a new door-to-door dairy delivery service.
“If you do research on glass bottle milk or home delivery, it has started building up again because people are trying to support the local person versus the big company, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Colby White of Colby's Creamery.
White said home delivery is more convenient than driving to the grocery store and provides products that his customers said taste fresher.
For White’s service, customers pay $3 delivery free, which he said is less than the cost of a gallon of gas. Most of his products are a little cheaper than name-brand products at grocery stores, he said.
Customers can order any of a selection Borden Dairy products, including milk varieties, yogurts, cottage cheese and Dairy Fresh orange juice. He also sells pork products, cheeses and chicken tenders from Royal Foods in Pell City and is working to add farm-fresh eggs (he currently sells Bourdon eggs) and local honey to his product list.
Customers generally arrange for a weekly delivery and can change their order from week to week or even at the time of delivery. White bills them at the time of delivery and picks up payment the following week.
White makes daily trips to Borden Dairy’s warehouse before beginning his delivery route around 3 a.m. He drops off at least 100 orders before his customers leave for work and usually ends his route around 8 a.m.
After delivering in Pell City for the past year and a half, he added a Mountain Brook route in late March.
“Back when home delivery was prominent in Alabama, Mountain Brook was the best area,” White said. “I thought they would be more receptive than other areas.”
In the future he said he would like to offer milk glass bottles to be more economical and green — another way he is working toward the level of customer service he prides himself in.
“We have personal service,” he said. “I try to deliver best product I can find so I can best serve the customer. [That way] you can know your milkman and where your milk comes from.”
For more information, call White at 362-6841 or visit the “Colby’s Creamery The Home Milkman” page on Facebook.
