Anthony Paustian, Ph.D.

During my sophomore year of college, I worked as an assistant manager in a 24-hour grocery store. Being the lowest link on the managerial food chain, I was given the responsibility of overseeing the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. time slot—the graveyard shift. One of my last duties each morning was to check in the daily milk delivery.

One day, for whatever reason, it dawned on me that all our milk, regardless of brand, came off the same truck. Our store carried three distinct “brands” of milk: Borden (the primary national brand with “Elsie the Cow” as its mascot), Parade (our store brand), and generic (with the boring white label and black text). All of these brands came in a variety of types including whole, two percent, one percent, and skim.

I wondered why the same truck would deliver all of our milk, so I asked the driver if he had to make separate dairy stops to pick it all up. His response surprised me. “No,” he said, “they all come from the same dairy; cows are cows.” There were no such things as Borden cows—although the Elsie campaign made a strong case otherwise—Parade cows, or generic cows. The delivery driver went on to explain the same exact milk was in each container; only the labels were different.