We pack lunches for Abby at school every weekday. Sure, she doesn’t eat a whole lot, but she does love her milk. She gets disappointed when the beverage in her lunch is not milk, complaining when we have to use a juice box.
We usually pack a personal-sized container of Parmalat in her lunch. It’s great because it doesn’t require refrigeration when stored. The only problem with Parmalat is the cost.
Berta was telling me after her recent shopping trip that it would be cheaper to go through the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru in the morning and buy a small carton of refrigeration-required milk than it is to buy the Parmalat. I don’t doubt it. The Parmalat is around $2.67 for three boxes, and it seems that the Chick-Fil-A milk is around $.60 each. Being that Chick-Fil-A is on the route to Abby’s school, it woudn’t be much of a detour, either.
I was thinking about this the other day while dropping Abby off at school with her Parmalat milk box, when I noticed a weird sign in the nearby open lot. The sign read, “Swiss Farm Stores”…
It turns out that Swiss Farm Stores are a chain of drive-thru only stores that are spread around Delaware County. They are now (at least according to the big graphic on their home page) moving to Chester County, and one of their first locations seems to be right next to Abby’s school.
So what’s the deal?
Apparently, this store is just a drive-thru convenience store. You go there and order milk and bread and stuff. Does that seem weird to you? It does to me.
But after a little bit of thought, I think I might like this setup. I could buy milk in a carton for Abby in the morning, provided it costs less than the Parmalat. They also sell muffins and bagels and Krispy Kreme donuts.
Oh, this store could so accellerate my downfall.
You don’t need to leave your car. You don’t need to leave your car. That’s great if you’ve got kids. I doubt that any of the parents of children at Abby’s school will miss out on this store - it seems to cater perfectly to parents who don’t want to unstrap their kids from the car to run in for some bread or whatever. If you don’t have kids, let me assure you - the “convenience” store is not convenient when you have children with you.
I wonder how much extra we’ll pay for that convenience, and how fast the service will be, and how long the fad will last.
They should open these things near all daycare centers. They’d make their money back on the milk cartons alone.
Now… If I could just get Abby to go into school by herself, so I don’t have to get out of the car. Yeah, ok. Pipe dream.
