Products that have gone downhill

[wodin]

School lunches.

During my commute home last night the talk show host was commenting on a proposed increase in the cost of school lunches. It turns out that if approved, the cost will have doubled in the past five years.

A little modeling in Excel shows that for the cost of something to double in five years requires an average annual inflation rate of just under 19%.

When is the last time you have heard of an annual CPI increase of 19%? Makes me wonder, has someone been fibbing to us ‘bout the inflation rate!

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by wannabee

Manners!
When I was a kid, even if you were the first at the bus stop, when the bus came and an adult was present, you let the adult on first. Mainly because manners insisted that a child should give up their seat for an adult. My wife told me today that while at work in a radiology practice full of sick people, children accompanying an adult because of school holidays occupied seats with their parent while sick adults stood and could not sit on the empty children's seats available for children because they are too small.

and . . .

R.I.P.
Good Manners
Born in antiquity
Ignored to death by Generation X

It's funny that you mention that. I still to this day seem to let my elders go first (and I'm in my mid 50's).

A case in point. I do Meals on Wheels deliveries, and on Fridays, two other gents also pick up from the same kitchen. Both are older than I. I Might get there first, well before the kitchen opens, but normally leave last. One of them who is asian tends to barge in and grab what he needs regardless of what others are doing; the other gentleman I just tend to let in front of me.

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by crich70

Comic books. When I got them as a kid they had a decent page count and were reasonably thick as a result. Not now, and of course the price for comics went up as the page count went down. They used to have comic 3 packs too. 3 comic books for $1.25 but that is long gone I'm sure.

i was just talking to my dad about comics and i expressed amazement that they're even still around, at least in the printed form. i would have figured that they'd all be digital and borderline animated by now.

i remember when comics made the jump from $1 to $1.25, it felt like the end of the world lol.

the last time i looked at a comic they were hovering around the $3-$4 mark and had the page count of a pamphlet. add in the constant reboots,restarts and crossovers youre looking at a nice chunk of change for what generally used to be a dirt cheap hobby. what was wrong with 12 issues and an annual?

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

i was just talking to my dad about comics and i expressed amazement that they're even still around, at least in the printed form. i would have figured that they'd all be digital and borderline animated by now.

i remember when comics made the jump from $1 to $1.25, it felt like the end of the world lol.

the last time i looked at a comic they were hovering around the $3-$4 mark and had the page count of a pamphlet. add in the constant reboots,restarts and crossovers youre looking at a nice chunk of change for what generally used to be a dirt cheap hobby. what was wrong with 12 issues and an annual?

Although the increasing prices and the increasing number of crossovers are a factor, for me what has hurt comics the most are the continual reboots and restarts. Used to be, it was easy to follow a series. There might be an occasional crossover but it wasn't a problem if it was handled well (especially if the characters are related in some way, such as the friendship between The Flash [Barry Allen] and Elongated Man).

I'm mostly a DC Comics reader, and since I started collecting in 1975, I've been through four reboots (Crisis On Infinite Earths [COIE], Zero Hour - Crisis In Time, Infinite Crisis, and Flashpoint/The New 52). Each has added more complexity and more confusion, and things that should be simple no longer are. Often, the simplest questions take many paragraphs to fully answer.

To provide an example, I'm a long-time fan of "Legion Of Super-Heroes" (LSH). When I started reading it, it was a great series that kept me coming back issue after issue. For me when it was at its best, it was on par with movies like "Star Wars" and TV series like "Star Trek."

However, after COIE LSH has gone through so many changes that, before "Flashpoint," there were three different versions of the Legion and each of them was in continuity. Now, once again, the series has been rebooted and I'm not sure what is going on (Which is now the real Legion? What is its history? How many of the previous stories are still valid?).

For this reason, I'm finding it more and more difficult to invest myself in this series, or any series. I'm getting to the point that there's no point in it since what I enjoy might soon be rebooted away once again.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by wodin

School lunches.

During my commute home last night the talk show host was commenting on a proposed increase in the cost of school lunches. It turns out that if approved, the cost will have doubled in the past five years.

A little modeling in Excel shows that for the cost of something to double in five years requires an average annual inflation rate of just under 19%.

When is the last time you have heard of an annual CPI increase of 19%? Makes me wonder, has someone been fibbing to us ‘bout the inflation rate!

Sorry, I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I was just truly shocked to learn that the price of lunch is going up in the Sandwich Isles!


Back on topic: Can openers. The kind that you grip and squeeze to pierce the lid, then twist the handle to run a cutting wheel around the inner edge and lift off the top of the can. These days it's rare to find one that grips tight enough, with a wheel sharp enough to actually cut through the lid.

[The Terminator]

Big Mac's

[TGS]

Life!

[crich70]

Re:Manners I agree that they aren't what they were. I remember some time back I was talking to the pastor of my church and his eldest child (whose 14) addressed him as 'sir' which was unexpected. You rarely see kids showing that much respect to any adult anymore. When I go somewhere via cab I usually get in the back seat because I know many elderly people also take the cab when going places like grocery shopping and Dr. Appointments and often they have trouble getting in so I leave the front passenger seat for them since they need the leg room to get in and out with their canes. Sometimes it seems like common courtesy itself is a lost art. For example if one person has only 2 items at a checkout lane and someone else has a full cart courtesy would seem to say let the person with only the 2 items go first, but it rarely happens that way. The value of a $ has gone downhill too. My mom remembers going to the movies in the early 60's with $4.00 or so and not only being able to get in & get a snack and drink but having change left over. Now days you can't even get in the door for that amount. I remember seeing a special titled "long long ago" about the early movie theaters where people talked of how the customers were upset when admission went from a nickle to a dime but now look at it. You might as well stay home and buy the DVD with how much you spend for one person to get in.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by The Terminator

Big Mac's

What has gone downhill about Big Mac's Terminator?

[The Terminator]

Bigger price, smaller size.

[wannabee]

My mom remembers going to the movies in the early 60's with $4.00 or so and not only being able to get in & get a snack and drink but having change left over.

My mates dad would give us twenty bucks. Four of us would see a movie buy an ice cream and a drink each and because it was a double feature do it all again at intermission.

Those were the good ol' days.

[Bikeridr]

Originally Posted by The Terminator

Big Mac's

Originally Posted by crich70

What has gone downhill about Big Mac's Terminator?

Originally Posted by The Terminator

Bigger price, smaller size.

Oh, I thought you ment taste.
Well, to me it (and it's competator Whopper) taste like cheap cardboard anyway. Does not even subsitute as basic survival food

[crich70]

Originally Posted by wannabee

My mates dad would give us twenty bucks. Four of us would see a movie buy an ice cream and a drink each and because it was a double feature do it all again at intermission.

Those were the good ol' days.

I've only seen a double feature twice in my life that I recall. Both were at the local drive in theater which is owned by the same people who own the theater here in town. One time it "Jurassic Park" and "The flintstones" and the other it was "Changing Lanes"and "The Sum of all Fears". Mostly you're lucky if you get a small selection of coming attractions and maybe a pixar cartoon short depending on the movie.

[HappyMartin]

I cant believe how many people are complaining about food portions getting smaller. We are mostly getting bigger and obesity is an alarming problem. Do we not need smaller portions of stuff like ice-cream?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

I cant believe how many people are complaining about food portions getting smaller. We are mostly getting bigger and obesity is an alarming problem. Do we not need smaller portions of stuff like ice-cream?

I don't think there problem is so much the size of the portions HappyMartin as it is with the fact that the cost of those same portions is going up. If you get less coffee or peanut butter or etc. you should pay less than before not more. Of course the factories that produce the food products and hence the stores that sell them don't seem to agree that that should be the case.