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Today’s story is about a milkman who needs to change because of a startup disrupting his job. Read on 👇
📖 ⌚Reading time ~ 5 minutes
The milkman returns
Sattu sat on his black bicycle after six long months. On each side of the bike were steel milk containers, filled to the brim. He balanced his weight, as he started to pedal the cycle forward.
Like every other morning, once again he wished that this was not a bicycle, but a motorcycle. That on the sides he didn’t have milk containers, but panniers. That he was not riding to The Himalayan Apartments, but on the winding roads in the Himalayas.
These past six months had been excruciating. After losing almost all his customers, he had started looking for other places to deliver milk, but finding customers had been hard. After struggling for a few months, he decided to quit milk delivery and start looking for a job elsewhere. He was eventually able to secure a job at a food delivery startup, who even provided him with a motorcycle. But he missed the freedom that came with delivering milk.
He used to wake up around 4:00 am, go directly to the dairy where two 10-litre milk containers would be loaded on his bike, then head to the apartments where his bell used to wake up most of the people. He loved that he had the rest of the day to himself to work on his paintings. Being the son of a milkman who once owned only two buffaloes, Sattu never had the luxury to study art and make a career in it. But that had not broken his spirit – he cherished the time he had on his hands during the day. The internet allowed him to learn from the best, and also express his thoughts.
But this luxury of time was snatched when a startup came along and took his freedom.
“FreshDoodh.in,” a hot-startup that had sprung up in the recent months, had launched a fresh milk delivery service in three cities. The company delivered milk directly in their patented thermos-flask like containers which could be locked and affixed on apartment doors, solving a major problem of people having to wake up in the morning. These containers were tamper-proof, preventing cats and dogs from making attempts to spill the milk.
The concept of the thermos-flask was quite innovative, but the founders were not satisfied with selling only the flasks. Hungry for revenue, they had decided to own the supply chain as well. Picking up milk from several dairies in the morning, their delivery personnel would deliver milk through the night. The thermos flasks ensured that the milk was fresh when their customers opened their doors in the morning.
Because of the long-lasting freshness, the startup did not need many delivery men. A few delivery men working through the night were able to do the job. The startup was on a path of heavy growth, promising investors that they would revolutionize milk delivery in India for good.
After starting from operations in only ten pin-codes, they had grown to service a thousand pin codes within a matter of six months. Such massive growth was aided by aggressive discounts on milk prices, free give-aways of their patented flasks, and increased salaries of the riders.
But because of the aggressive marketing tactics, the startup was soon running out of the venture capital. The founders estimated that they would last for only about six months with the existing capital.
When they failed to raise more money from venture capitalists, who complained that the profit margins were too narrow, the founders decided to focus only on areas where profit margins were high. It was a quest for survival. They cut down operations in many areas and their marketing budgets to almost zero.
Sattu's area, as a result, was dropped from the areas served. They gave their customers a month’s notice to find an alternative before disappearing from sight. Sattu was once again back in service. Today was his first day.
The smile on his face was expressing the relief he felt. He wanted to continue doing this job until his art provided him with a steady income to sustain his life.
He reached the entrance gate of the Himalayan Apartments, smiled at the watchman, and wrote down his name in the visitor’s entry journal. He then walked to the first apartment for the day.
He had to ring three long bells before a lady appeared on the door holding a vessel for milk.
“2 litres?” Sattu asked, his eyes wide with excitement. She nodded.
Sattu looked at her narrow eyes, which had by this time lost the habit of waking up early in the morning for getting milk. She took the vessel from Sattu and shut the door in his face, no small talk at all. Sattu moved on to the next apartment.
Here, a dog started barking when he rang the bell twice. Sattu realized that the apartment had a new dog resident. A young man walked to the door, lending a vessel to Sattu. The dog barked as he looked at Sattu for the first time. He smelled Sattu’s feet before sniffing the milk jar. The door was once again shut in Sattu’s face without any conversation.
Then Sattu moved to the next apartment. Then the next. And so on.
By the end of his journey, he had not spoken to a single resident this morning, as opposed to the previous small talks and smiles he was welcomed with. The resident with the dog used to discuss cricket scores with Sattu, asking Sattu where he should bet next, but today, there was nothing despite the big cricket league starting.
Sattu came back to his bicycle and started riding when the watchman stopped him once again. He asked Sattu for a copy of his Aadhaar Card for keeping it in the records. The world didn’t trust delivery men anymore. He said that the startup had ensured all of their delivery men carried ID cards and handed a copy to the security guards if required. The building residents had, since then, mandated that every delivery person carried identification with them.
“Can these startup people come back to the society?” Sattu asked the security guard.
“Oh yeah, they sent us a notice that they might start delivering once again in a few months if all goes well.”
On his ride back after thinking through the journey morning, Sattu was convinced that things were never going to be as they were before. He had to adapt to this new reality. Instead of waking up the residents every morning, he had to find an alternative, otherwise, they would go back to the startup once it returned.
But he didn’t know how to. Could a small delivery man like him battle a startup with a line of investors backing it?
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Thanks for reading :)
Hemant