Greed Is a Terrible Thing – And Sometimes, Enough Should Be Enough

There’s an old saying that money makes the world go round.

Maybe it does.

But sometimes it seems to make it spin a little too fast.

At Doorstep Deliveries, we’re a small business. We don’t have enormous warehouses, fleets of hundreds of vans or shareholders sitting around a boardroom table wondering how they can squeeze another few percent out of the customer.

We have milkmen.

We have vans.

We have customers.

And, occasionally, we have a milkman standing in the rain at 3am wondering why on earth he didn’t choose an indoor job. 😄

But there’s something increasingly uncomfortable about the way business seems to work today.

When did enough stop being enough?

Making a profit isn’t wrong. Every business needs to make money.

We have wages to pay, vans to fuel and repair, insurance, refrigeration, electricity and suppliers who quite reasonably expect paying.

Profit keeps people employed and businesses alive.

But profit and greed are not the same thing.

Profit says:

“We’ve had a good year.”

Greed says:

“Good. How do we make even more next year?”

Then more the year after that.

And more again.

Eventually somebody has to pay for that never-ending growth – and all too often it’s the customer, the supplier, the farmer or the person actually doing the work.

The humble pint of milk

Milk is a perfect example.

Behind that bottle on your doorstep is a farmer who has been up since before most of us even considered getting out of bed.

There’s a dairy processing and bottling it.

There are people loading it.

Then there’s your milkman driving around in the middle of the night putting it on your doorstep.

That simple pint of milk supports a whole chain of people.

And every one of them deserves to earn a fair living.

The problem comes when somebody in that chain decides that their slice of the cake needs to become the whole cake.

Preferably with the cream on top as well. 🥛

Small businesses see things differently

When you run a local business, customers aren’t numbers on a spreadsheet.

They’re Mrs Jones who wants two semi-skimmed on Tuesday.

They’re the office that suddenly remembers at 4pm that they need extra milk tomorrow.

They’re the customer who leaves the empties neatly by the gate.

And they’re the person who waves at the milkman when they happen to be awake ridiculously early.

We know that without our customers, there is no Doorstep Deliveries.

That’s why loyalty works both ways.

We want to make a living.

We want our staff to make a living.

We want our suppliers and British farmers to make a living.

And we want our customers to receive a service that represents fair value.

Surely that should be enough?

Perhaps we need a little less greed

The world probably isn’t going to change because of a bottle of milk sitting on a doorstep.

But perhaps the principle behind it can.

Support businesses that employ local people.

Support businesses that buy British produce.

Support farmers.

Support independent traders.

And support companies that still believe a customer is a person rather than an opportunity to extract another pound.

Because there’s nothing wrong with ambition.

There’s nothing wrong with success.

And there’s certainly nothing wrong with making a profit.

But when the pursuit of more becomes more important than the people who helped you get there, something has gone badly wrong.

Greed really is a terrible thing.

Sometimes we should simply be grateful for what we’ve got.

And if that includes a fresh pint of British milk waiting on the doorstep in the morning…

we reckon that’s a pretty good start to the day. 🥛🇬🇧

Doorstep Deliveries
Supporting British farmers, local jobs and doorstep delivery.