State Fair’s All-You-Can-Drink Milk stand has only increased $2.90 in 70 years. Here’s how
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Midwest Dairy’s All-You-Can-Drink Milk stand has operated at a loss since it opened at the Minnesota State Fair in 1955. That’s by design: Minnesota dairy farmers subsidize the stand to keep milk cheap and get it into the hands of fairgoers.
More than 1,500 Minnesota dairy farmers sponsor the stand as a promotional opportunity, allowing Midwest Dairy to keep prices low, according to CEO Corey Scott.
“The opportunity to get milk in fairgoers’ hands is far more important to us than the dollars it takes,” Scott said.
When the stand opened, it charged 10 cents for a bottomless 12-ounce cup of milk, but prices increased. And two years ago, Midwest Dairy increased the price from $2 to $3.
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“If you look at our pricing structure, we raise the price about once every decade, which is pretty remarkable,” she said. “If you look across the fair, that’s pretty unheard of, we’re still the most economic item to get here at the State Fair.”
Scott said the booth sells hundreds of thousands of cups every year and serves 20,000 gallons of milk throughout the fair. All the milk is provided by dairy farmers in the state, including Sauk Centre’s Kate McAndrews, who said she has produced over 12,000 gallons of milk for the stand over the last 20 years.
“We’re very happy to subsidize or to work with the farmers of Minnesota to help make that very affordable for consumers here at the fair,” McAndrews said.
McAndrews said it was a “wonderful” feeling knowing thousands of people are consuming milk from her farm.
“To think that people seek that out and that they want to go back for another beverage or two, but then also to know that what they’re drinking is so healthy — it is just pure milk, so that’s probably the best feeling of all,” she said.
Most of the staff who run the booth are unpaid volunteers, Scott said. These include co-workers and friends, Erica Elwell and Mary Hedges, who have volunteered at the stand for nearly 12 years.
“I love milk, I love what it does for people, and I’m super excited to be a part of that, so that's something that I feel good serving and that I enjoy,” Elwell said.
Hedges said she loves seeing people she recognizes come back year after year to the stand.
“And I do really like when the teenage boys try to see how many cups they can drink at a time and kind of egg each other on; that's always fun,” Hedges said. “We even had one kid today that was just like chug, chug, chug, and I think he had up to eight cups right in a row.”
Bill Bibisheimer has been buying the stand’s bottomless 12-ounce cup for 40 years. He said he drinks five to six cups of milk every year.
“When I first started coming here, it was a dime,” he said. “I remember when it went to a quarter and then 50 cents; I remember it was two bucks, now it’s three.”
Although he remembers it being 10 cents, the price increase never deters him from what he said is a “State Fair tradition.”
“My two daughters were here with their kids just a little bit ago, so it becomes a tradition at the fair,” he said. “People come to the fair; they either want, you know, be it fried pickles or corn or turkey on a stick. Well, this is my thing right here. I will not come to the fair without stopping here; it’s just a ritual thing.”
You have until Labor Day to grab your glass.
