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jug milk
DCHP-2 (Apr 2016)
n. — Ontario & Manitoba
milk sold in returnable jugs; often in a compound, as in jug milk store.
Type: 2. Preservation — In the early 1950s, dairy producers in the US and Canada began selling milk in jugs as a way to drop prices and increase consumption. Becker's Milk, an Ontario-based chain, claimed to be the first company in Canada to sell jug milk (see Image 1 and the 1957 quotation). The term appears frequently in US and Canadian newsprint during that decade, but attestations taper off in the US in the 1960s. In Canada, however, the term retained currency until much more recently, and has only been in decline since the late 2000s.
Internet domain searches, shown in Chart 1, demonstrate the high frequency of jug milk in Canada, with Ontario leading (see Chart 2).
See also COD-2, s.v. "jug milk", which is marked "Cdn (Ont.)", Gage-5 , s.v. "jug milk outlet or store", which redirects to "convenience store".
Internet domain searches, shown in Chart 1, demonstrate the high frequency of jug milk in Canada, with Ontario leading (see Chart 2).
See also COD-2, s.v. "jug milk", which is marked "Cdn (Ont.)", Gage-5 , s.v. "jug milk outlet or store", which redirects to "convenience store".
Quotations
1954
GALLON 'JUG' MILK DROPS PRICE 41 P.C. Cumberland, Md., April 14 - (AP) - The price of milk here has been slashed by 41 per cent in six weeks because of a battle touched off by sale of the product in gallon jars.
1957
WE PROMISED YOU JUG MILK AT 55¢ NOW IT'S HERE! come and get it! Jeepers - what we started! Last February we applied to the Milk Control Board for a permit to sell milk by the jug. Three quarts for 55 cents was our promise. That's just over 18 cents per quart. What a commotion we caused.
1964
Gossip on Bay Street is that Loblaw has acquired 600,000 of the 1,108,000 outstanding shares of Sayvette Ltd., Toronto-based department store firm, as well as a Toronto chain of jug-milk stores and a Toronto dairy.
1979
In fact, since jug milk stores also sell books, we could have looked forward to seeing Becker's and Mac's Milk adult entertainment parlors with nurse-meets-doctor novels wrapped in plain brown paper and stacked at the rear of the store behind purple velvet curtains.
1986
TORONTO - When Ken McGowen opened his first jug milk store in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, in 1961, he never dreamed it would grow into Canada\'s largest convenience store chain.
1993
On Wednesday night, a clerk at Midland Jug Milk, on Eglinton Ave. E. at Midland Ave., was pistol-whipped by a gunman who demanded cash and also stole lottery tickets.
References
- COD-2
- Gage-5
Images
Image 1: 1966 ad from Becker's Jug Milk Store (The Globe and Mail, 5 Sep. 1966: 12)
Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 4 Sep. 2013
