Products that have gone downhill

[xg4bx]

i just saw an ad for a candy bar called "air delight", its pretty much a candy bar with little air pockets in it.

now my cynical eye immediately saw that it was nothing more than hersheys trying to save 1/100th of a penny on chocolate by selling it as a new product. just like "tubeless" toilet paper, merely a way to save a pittance on materials yet sold as a "green" product.

ice cream has gone downhill big time. i'm only 33 but current containers of ice cream are half the size they used to be and seemingly shrinking by the week yet they still have the nerve to charge top dollar for them. twinkies and snack cakes are 1/3 of the size they used to be.

anybody else know any other products that have gone downhill either in terms of quality or head scratching cost-cutting measures?

[GA Russell]

Razor blades.

I'm a member of shavemyface.com, and we discuss where you can order good double edge blades. The ones they sell in American stores are terrible!

[Joybells]

block chocolate - they may have the same 'footprint' but no way are they the same thickness.

[Phogg]

Radio Flyers have gone downhill.
Uphill, you gotta pull 'em.

[JSWolf]

The iPod had gone downhill fast. Apple cares not at all for how bad it sounds. They use cheap parts in the sound section.

[wodin]

Have you bought an "original" sized Jamba Juice smoothie lately?

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Radio Flyers have gone downhill.
Uphill, you gotta pull 'em.

My Radio Flyer had rubber tires on steel rims, a metal handle and me and a couple of friends could fit in it.

I'm glad to see they're still red though!

[wannabee]

Wagon wheels were much bigger when I was a kid.



and packets of biscuits had many more in them before they stuffed those plastic spacers in them.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The iPod had gone downhill fast. Apple cares not at all for how bad it sounds. They use cheap parts in the sound section.

I think most portable audio players have gone downhill since they've moved to non-replaceable batteries. When the battery on my perfectly good audio player wears out, I end up buying a new player because it is too expensive and/or too difficult to replace the battery in the old one. Meanwhile, my old CD/MP3 player that uses both standard and rechargeable AA batteries is still useable and will be until the device itself wears out or AA batteries are no longer available. Although the audio player would have to be larger to accomodate replaceable batteries, it would be worth the tradeoff to me.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I think the best example, which has thankfully been corrected, was Coke deciding to change their forumla. They utterly destroyed a fabulous product with tinkering.

[RainingLemur]

Toys - Transformers used to be great. Now, not so much. I had a few stashed in a box at my moms from the way-back-when machine, and pulled them out recently since my nephew was talking about playing with his Transformers. Aside from the one he made with legos, he now plays with my old ones. Nerf guns have really disappointed me, too. Now there's just too many moving parts, and if one goes kaput...you've got a nice brightly colored paper weight.

[HomeInMyShoes]

This thread would be remiss without mentioning the phase that describes the downhill descent of pretty much everything, even TV shows that it was coined for. Go Fonzie.

Lego has become so specialized that the imaginative possibilities are more limited now unless you're special ordering sets of bricks outside of your local toy stores.

[Rumpelteazer]

Incandescent light bulbs.
In the past they used to have a sort of build in fuse now they don't. When a light bulb breaks it occasionally shorts out. When it's on an ordinary switch you won't notice but when you use a dimmer switch you will have to change the fuse in it more often. When you have a dimmer with no fuse you might have to regularly change your dimmer switch.

This will soon be a problem of the past, of course. Energy saving light bulbs are hard to dim (even the ones that are supposedly dimable have problems) and LED bulbs bring a whole set of their own problems when you want to dim.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I hate trying to find a decent light colour from the new energy efficient lightbulbs. Anyone got any recommendations for good brands/options. Generally they are cold blue-white and make everything look terrible. I almost prefer flourescent over many of the energy efficient light bulbs out on the market today.

[Pookeysgirl]

Laundry Detergent and dish detergent. You get half the bottle at double the price nowadays.