Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[Zombie_61]

Dime stores.

They've been adjusted for inflation.

 

[3fingers]

They've been adjusted for inflation.

And updated with crappier crap.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It would be interesting to draw a real comparison between the stuff you could get at Woolworth's in 1939 and the stuff you get at Dollar Tree today. Consumers Union did a pretty thorough job of testing merchandise at all price levels in the late 1930s, and much of the private-branded stuff Woolworth sold compared very favorably with the nationally-advertised brands. But like today's dollar stores, Woolworth's and the other dimestore chains also featured a lot of shoddy, imported schlock merchandise: the quality of the Japanese-made doodads you could buy in a prewar dime store was just as cheesy as the Chinese stuff you find in the equivalent sort of store today.

We had a Woolworths, but the favorite dime store of my youth was McLellan's, a dark, shadowy store with a snazzy aluminum front and the merchandise all laid out on long tables on the inside. It was the place to go for crappy school supplies, including Big Chief tablets that had already started to yellow, pencil boxes with lids that came off in your hands the first time you used them, and tinplate Globe Of The World pencil sharpeners that took all the wood off your pencil without ever leaving a decent point.

 

[Trenchfriend]

And sadly, they first refurbished and modernized the aged 90s-supermarkets and then, they filled the new comfortable space with the 1 Euro-displays and made the modernizing useless.

 

[shazzabanazza]

@shazzabanazza
Hi, I'm glad to see you back here!!

Thanks Trenchfriend, its been a while...a long while LOL

 

[Zombie_61]

And sadly, they first refurbished and modernized the aged 90s-supermarkets and then, they filled the new comfortable space with the 1 Euro-displays and made the modernizing useless.

About 5-10 years ago they remodeled a local supermarket and completely screwed it up. They added rows of shelves in order to provide more products, but moved all of the shelves so close together that you can barely get two carts side-by-side in the aisles making it almost impossible to pass other shoppers. As if that wasn't bad enough, they decreased the length of the conveyor belts at the checkout stands so drastically that you can't even put half a cart's worth of groceries on them, and certainly not leave enough room for the person behind you to put their goods on the belt. The end results of their efforts are that it now takes longer to navigate your way through the store, and longer to pay for your stuff and get the hell out of there. Idiots.

 

[scottyrocks]

Unfortunately, many designers fail Ergonomics 101.

 

[ChrisB]

The end results of their efforts are that it now takes longer to navigate your way through the store, and longer to pay for your stuff and get the hell out of there. Idiots.

That is exactly what they want, the theory being that the more time you are there, the more you will buy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's the same reason why every few years most grocery store chains will randomly rearrange the placement of products in the existing aisles. They don't want you getting too familiar with where to find any given product, because if that happens too many people go right to what they want and ignore other merchandise. That's why the bread was on this side of the store and suddenly it's on that side and then eventually it's back on this side again. The Boys don't miss a trick as they drag us around like the puppets we have become.

I miss the little neighborhood stores that only carried one line of canned goods, one brand of potato chips, and one brand of cheese. Variety meant the bin of dented cans with the labels peeled off -- Grab Bag 10 Cents Each.

 

[BobHufford]

"Cold Duck". My grandparents and uncles used to drink this on occasion. It may still be around, but not where I shop apparently (not that I'm actively looking for it).

 

[Zombie_61]

That is exactly what they want, the theory being that the more time you are there, the more you will buy.

I know that's their intent, but it doesn't work on me. I hate shopping, so I perform it like a surgical military strike--I get the items on the list, I pay for them, and I leave.

 

[Haversack]

The local Trader Joe's tends to rearrange their stock every six months or so. Mild aggravation ensues for both customers and staff.

One, (admittedly post-war), item that seems to be disappearing from store shelves is frozen orange juice concentrate. The same local Trader Joe's just admitted that this product has been discontinued and will not be restocked. This seems to a trend. Looking around at other supermarkets, the selection of frozen juice concentrate is shrinking. The replacement is cartons or plastic bottles of 'fresh juice' at triple the price. Having grown up on the product of three Valencia orange trees I have made an accommodation with the frozen concentrate. (Some better than others). I'll not do so for an equivalent product at three times the price.

 

[sheeplady]

I use frozen juice concentrate to sweeten a number of desserts I make. I too have noticed it's decrease in availability. I may have to someday learn to make my own...

For now, I've found shopping at a groceryy store that older people shop at still carries concentrate. The little grocery store in my town carries a variety, but 1/4 of our town residents live in the retirement community, making their clientele much older than average.

 

[Fading Fast]

I know I've read several articles over the last few years that orange juice consumption is plummeting as it is no longer a breakfast-table staple - too "sugary," "habits are changing," "Millennials don't like it" are a few of the reason I remember the articles referencing.

My guess, this is part of the reason you are finding it harder to find frozen concentrate in stores. Also, with the move to "fresh" everything, I bet frozen concentrate is suffering even more than orange juice is in general.

All that said, I remember having frozen concentrate as a kid in our house, but my grandmother always had "fresh" store bought juice in a carton. Thinking about it now - I don't remember asking why then - I'd bet my grandmother was a generation before the "miracle" of frozen this or that took off; whereas, my mother was just the right age for it.

 

[Paisley]

I miss the little neighborhood stores that only carried one line of canned goods, one brand of potato chips, and one brand of cheese. Variety meant the bin of dented cans with the labels peeled off -- Grab Bag 10 Cents Each.

I buy my groceries at such a place. Three aisles with a lot of local food. As a health food store in a bad neighborhood, they're struggling. With Whole Foods in downtown Indianapolis now and the nearby Coca-Cola bottling plant being turned into a food hall, it may go under--or the neighborhood may revitalize and bring in more business.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I know I've read several articles over the last few years that orange juice consumption is plummeting as it is no longer a breakfast-table staple - too "sugary," "habits are changing," "Millennials don't like it" are a few of the reason I remember the articles referencing.

My guess, this is part of the reason you are finding it harder to find frozen concentrate in stores. Also, with the move to "fresh" everything, I bet frozen concentrate is suffering even more than orange juice is in general.

All that said, I remember having frozen concentrate as a kid in our house, but my grandmother always had "fresh" store bought juice in a carton. Thinking about it now - I don't remember asking why then - I'd bet my grandmother was a generation before the "miracle" of frozen this or that took off; whereas, my mother was just the right age for it.

I always liked to eat the frozen concentrate out of the can with a fork. Very satisfying on a hot day.

 

[Fading Fast]

I always liked to eat the frozen concentrate out of the can with a fork. Very satisfying on a hot day.

It's funny, but to me, at, say, six, orange juice was frozen concentrate mixed with water - what my grandmother had was "her" orange juice, but not "real" orange juice. Overtime, it all comes into focus, but at that young age, what you have in your house is what the thing is.

And I don't ever remember trying it from the freezer - never occurred to me I guess.

 

[sheeplady]

I always liked to eat the frozen concentrate out of the can with a fork. Very satisfying on a hot day.

My parents once caught me doing this when I was a kid. Their mood was not... pleasant. (My parents would scoop out half the concentrate container and mix it up with twice the water. Then they'd put the other half of the container away for the next week... so I was essentially eating the next week's OJ.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

What a lot of people don't realize is that even the "fresh" juice in a carton or bottle is partially reconstituted: "flavor packs" made from "orange by-products" are added to make the product taste and look more orangey than actual real squeezed juice. Because these "by products" are part of the actual orange -- mostly peelings and processed pulp -- they don't count as artificial ingredients, so the product can still be marketed as "all natural," even though it's every bit as highly processed as frozen concentrate.

Chalk up another one for The Boys, and bear in mind that there's only one way to get real, fresh orange juice -- squeeze it yourself.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I know I've read several articles over the last few years that orange juice consumption is plummeting as it is no longer a breakfast-table staple - too "sugary," "habits are changing," "Millennials don't like it" are a few of the reason I remember the articles referencing.

I'm 34 & I had OJ with my breakfast just yesterday.