Paper boys

derekG

derekG

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What ever happened to them,my local shop has stopped delivering papers due to the paper boys (or girls) being so unreliable , I remember from my youth there used to be a waiting list held by the shopkeeper with kids names on it, times have changed.
 
Misguided fear of what could happen to them. (Mainly dictated by parents) In my daughters case she just couldn't do a round and get the bus to get to school. Yes i think there does seem to be a bit more, "why should I"
 
derekG said:
What ever happened to them,my local shop has stopped delivering papers due to the paper boys (or girls) being so unreliable , I remember from my youth there used to be a waiting list held by the shopkeeper with kids names on it, times have changed.
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Is their reliability the issue? or rather printed newspaper's decline in popularity the reason
 
The problem we have round here is the county council have a policy that 13 to 16 years olds cannot start before 7am, making it tight in lots of areas for doing a round and then getting to school on time, 16+ tend to prefer retail or waitress/waiter type jobs with longer hours.
 
As far as I know it is the law that children can not start work before 07:00. I had to get my parents consent to allow me to work the night shift before I was 18.
 
derekG said:
What ever happened to them,my local shop has stopped delivering papers due to the paper boys (or girls) being so unreliable , I remember from my youth there used to be a waiting list held by the shopkeeper with kids names on it, times have changed.
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They may blame the kids, but more likely to be the lack of custom for physical newspapers now, let alone paying for the privelege of delivery.
 
My local newsagent has a constantly high turnover in paper boys/girls. He has a permanent sign in the windows for vacancies.
I stopped buying papers a few years ago and the saving paid for two thirds of my yearly energy bills.
Newspapers are on the way out. They are basically just old news now. Up to the minute news available online 24/7.

Similar situation with milk deliveries. Used to be about 95% of houses in my locality had fresh milk delivered every morning. Now there are no deliveries. Milk has additives to keep it "fresh" much longer.
 
There's an old guy round here delivers papers to a couple of my neighbours in a new Merc coupe.
 
arclight said:
Similar situation with milk deliveries. Used to be about 95% of houses in my locality had fresh milk delivered every morning. Now there are no deliveries. Milk has additives to keep it "fresh" much longer
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We stopped having milk delivered a long time ago as deliveries got later in the morning meaning they came after we'd left for work. In the summer, we'd get home to find bottles of something resembling cottage cheese on the doorstep!
 
Oddly enough, three houses in the cul de sac still have daily milk delivered.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
There's an old guy round here delivers papers to a couple of my neighbours in a new Merc coupe.
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Maybe the newsagent. I see that happening when the paperboy does not show up.
Some paperboys have a chaffeur (mum or dad) to drive them on their paper round.
 
Locally there’s a milk delivery daily for some of our neighbours, and there’s a paper boy who delivers to a couple of neighbours.

I agree about modernisation - my news comes solely from the internet. I haven’t bought a newspaper in ten years and I stopped watching TV news about four years ago.
 
My son's a paperboy (He's 14). He's been doing it for a while now.
He goes out there in all weathers, early in the morning, even when he doesn't feel up to it. He doesn't want to let the customers down.
I'm so proud of him for developing a great work ethic.

There is definitely a call for it, although it isn't as big a customer base as it used to be. Our area is served by one proper newsagent now, who has had to fight tooth and nail to keep his business afloat, despite being attacked by "local" shops like the Co-Op (Three of them, within 10 minutes walk!).

When I was a teenager, I used to have a M-F evening paperround, and I got about £4.50 for my efforts.
He gets £18!
 
when I was ten me and a mate used to pull the market barrows into to place every day before school down Ridley road market in the east end , hard graft but a few bob in the pocket for our efforts
 
The "kid" that lives next door to us does a paper round. I see him heading off to the newsagents when I'm out walking the dog just before 7 o'clock in the mornings.

The "kid" will be 80 years old next week :)
 
2 of mine did a paper round, one of the other ‘paperboys’ was a bloke in his 40’s (had no other job), but as above, paper rounds are now much longer than when I was a kid, due to the fall in demand.
 
Marc said:
We stopped having milk delivered a long time ago as deliveries got later in the morning meaning they came after we'd left for work. In the summer, we'd get home to find bottles of something resembling cottage cheese on the doorstep!
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Same here (if it froze in winter it would force the top off, but could be salvaged) and a rural location made it worse. 2 litres of Tesco milk is about 1/3 the cost of a weeks worth of delivered milk too.
 
I can remember the blue tits pecking through the top to get to the cream on top.

I don't know anyone who still has papers delivered, and haven't for years
 
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Bloke bought a paper shop...............it blew away
Perhaps the boys went with it?

Best thing about getting milk delivered was the Orange drink, it wasn't juice, but tasted lovely.
I grew up in the east end and we were quite poor, didn't have a fridge so had sterilised milk, my old man called it Bulls milk.
Horrible stuff and glad when we finally got a fridge and could have proper fresh Red top milk.

Loads of stuff got delivered like coal and the paraffin lorry came round too, also remember the rag and bone bloke with his bell.
 
Crikey, this is bringing back more memories.

There was the bread van, the pop van and even a mobile grocers.
 
simon ess said:
There was the bread van, the pop van and even a mobile grocers.
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Same here Simon. Well a few years ago, anyway :D
I can also vaguely remember a guy coming round in a van selling pink paraffin,
 
tijuana taxi said:
Bloke bought a paper shop...............it blew away
Perhaps the boys went with it?

Best thing about getting milk delivered was the Orange drink, it wasn't juice, but tasted lovely.
I grew up in the east end and we were quite poor, didn't have a fridge so had sterilised milk, my old man called it Bulls milk.
Horrible stuff and glad when we finally got a fridge and could have proper fresh Red top milk.

Loads of stuff got delivered like coal and the paraffin lorry came round too, also remember the rag and bone bloke with his bell.
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Yep all of them , we had the first t.v in our area a huge wooden box with 12 inch screen , I vaguely remember lots of neighbours coming round to see what all the fuss was about ... coal was delivered via a round iron grid into the basement coal hole and then had to be lugged up 3 stories to our top floor flat , paraffin heaters valor I think where a godsend in cold winters
 
simon ess said:
There was a joke about Solihull, perceived as very, very posh.

Sex...what the coalman brings the coal in.
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I think that one's done the rounds! It used to be a common saying about Morningside (Edinburgh suburb, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie...)
 
We still have milk deliveries round here and a mobile shop! haven’t seen a paper “boy” in a long time but with fewer people getting papers the cost could well be a deterrent.
 
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