>>Unfortunately, the milkman, the iceman, the breadman and the ragman are all history. Fortunately(?), I'm old enough to remember them all.
>
>I remember the rag & bone man, with his cry "Any r'iron, any old rags-or-iron, Any r'iron!"
>The milkman's all but gone cos shops sell it cheaper, he was unreliable due to the pressure of an ever-enlarging territory with ever decreasing no. of customers. How about the pop van?

I still remember umbrella man soliciting down the block (an old gipsy man)
Boy did he have loud sales pich! I bet you 70 percent of people in old neighbouthood could spell it out for you if you wake them the middle of the night!

If he was salesperson in US he wld have been rich I can guarrantee you.
Such persistance! Sometime my mother would simply loose her patience, and
give him perfectly normal umbrella (he fixed it last month!) just in order to be able to go back and watch the rest of TV show ...

He is probably dead now, and so is umbrella mending business.
It is called consumer society. People here throw completely fixable washing machine for instance, because is cheaper to purchase new one (with 2 year guarantee) then having the same guy to come and fix it again in 6 months.
Factories as Bhav said, do not make them as robust as before with simple idea to sell another unit 3-5 years later rather then after 20.
The same goods 15-20 years back wld hv been consider 'C' production.
Way of life today.