I just read that The Schwan’s Man era is ending November 8. Someone said the local driver here (may be more than one) had already turned his truck in. I haven’t purchased from Schwan’s in many years but I used to purchase a lot from them.
When we lived in Kentucky, Vince was gone with his job more than he was home. We lived a good ways from a restaurant and I didn’t cook a lot when Vince was gone. Chad was in middle school and then high school and I would often buy Schwan’s frozen items for meals, snacks and treats. I could sew all day, then Chad would pick something out of the freezer, I’d heat it and that was our dinner. Probably not always the healthiest meals but we survived.
The funny story is that Chad was probably barely 3. We lived in Texas and I bought from the Schwan’s man pretty much every time he came by the house. One day, I heard him drive up. Chad was sitting on his bean bag watching All Dogs Go To Heaven. He had that movie memorized word for word. I thought I could go outside, get what I wanted, and Chad would never notice I was gone. Wrong! I quickly got what I wanted, went to take it inside and grab the checkbook. Chad noticed I was gone, and he noticed my sharp little embroidery scissors were sitting on the arm of the sofa and he had cut out a big flower out of the center of the sofa in probably less than 5 minutes that I was outside. Any time I think of Schwan’s, I remember that sofa that I loved and had to replace because I left Chad unattended and went out to meet the Schwan’s man.
Here, one of our neighbors has been buying from Schwan’s since we got here and I’ve always thought about asking the driver to come by here but I know it’s healthier to eat home cooked meals and that’s what I should be doing so I never contacted them.
I feel bad for folks losing their jobs and for folks who don’t like to cook or, may not be able to cook and have used Schwan’s for years.
Deb Praus says
We also used Schwan’s when the kids were all home. Now that it was just us, I bought a lot less but still loved the ice cream, Hake fish and their broccoli plus the specials sometimes. The they were bought out and changed their branding to Yelloh. The quality suffered greatly and prices soared, even more than the stores. We have not bought for almost 2 years. It is sad to see it go and especially because it is another Minnesota icon gone
Tracy says
–We used to have a Schwans man who visited, we mainly bought ice cream, their coffee and bacon was pretty good. Wow, that was 25 years ago, we aren’t on the route anymore, but I can still remember how excited my kids would get when the big yellow truck pulled up.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I would get excited too because there was always something interesting to try.
JustGail says
I hadn’t heard this news. Sad. We used to buy quite a bit from them, at least 30 years ago. I don’t remember why we stopped. Other than the last driver seemed put out if we didn’t buy anything. And so often our freezer was half-full of half-empty boxes. Then we moved.
They did have good items back then. I remember their asparagus spears were really nice, as was their fish. And ice cream treats – can’t forget those.