Stuff you took for granted that no longer exists?

[Confusednbemused]

Was saying to my daughter how I used to go to Boots or Superdrug and take free perfume samples to try at home before deciding what to buy and it occurred to me I've no idea when that stopped and the little strips of paper became a thing!!

What inanimate or service level thing do you miss which you used to take for granted?

Galaxy truffles in boxes of Celebrations. Particularly difficult at this time of year.

Attendant filling the car with petrol

Actual shops. Clothes shops, department stores especially. I walked past our still-empty Debenhams this week and thought how I miss going in and buying a lipstick and a coat and trying on trousers and seeing ACTUAL THINGS in the flesh rather than buying online and sending half of it back.

Local bank branches (our nearest small town had four bank or building society branches when I was a kid; now, none).
Local police stations and the local bobby who would shout at kids doing stupid shit and point out why it was stupid ('...and if I see you doing that again, Mike, I'll be telling your mum.')

Totally took bra shops for granted. So nice to try on two sizes and decide then and there rather than outlay for 2 sizes and have the faff of returning!

Cabana chocolate bars. The absolute dogs. I’ve been in mourning since about 1992… 😭

Processed cheese blocks in foil.

Thoughts and prayers for you. 🥰🥰🥰🥰 I also struggle with this tragic situation.

The truffle eggs at Easter are the same !!! I stock up then add them to the celebrations tub !

My youth!

Woolworths. Great shop, should've been protected at all costs.

The sausage egg cheese bagel at McDonald's I'm still bitter about it

Being able to live anywhere in Europe, or just go on holiday without checking your passport validity in the same way.

DD can't even live in her birth country now.

My peace and sanity at this time of year 🙃

Customer service

Blind date and Saturday night tv in the 1980s!

Chocolate wagon wheels and penguins that actually had chocolate in them. Now they're basically poison

Department stores. I very much miss Jenners in Edinburgh, especially at christmas. It was beautiful. The tree, the lights, the toy department. The beautiful clothes and all the Ladies who shopped there and would stare down their Morningside noses at children who ventured unsupervised upstairs to the millinery or lingerie departments.

Home telephones. Although maybe more the idea that people weren't always available. (I've just had a call from my mother asking if my dog wanted a fluffy blanket for christmas. The dog! That's not an urgent interruption to my working day!) We took lack of communication for granted.

Connected to that is not making firm plans and sticking to them. My kids have half hearted arrangements via Snapchat to maybe catch up or shop or something and it never happens. The old "meet you under the Fraser's clock at 7pm" arrangements don't exist any more!

Oh, and chocolate that isn't just palm oil. Where has the nice chocolate gone?

I miss department stores, especially at Christmas. And I'm old enough to remember most shops in town having chairs so shoppers could have a bit of a rest.

Texan bars, Duncan's chocolate candies (may still be available in Scotland?) and Cadbury's chocolate before the recipe changed.

Oh yes! The Generation Game too

Government services like police and roadworks and bin collection and so on. Our town used to look nice - clean and tidy - and you could get the train to the city regularly but not any more. And yes, you could go in a bank! Rememer that! I've had such endless trouble this year with Barclays Business who always want you to go in but don't actually have anywhere you can do that.

Chocolate that tasted nice and not like wax. I've stopped buying it tbh.

I did just go to a local factory and buy some furniture direct off the owner and it was absolutely amazing. By which I mean I sat on the things, he told me the prices, I asked for some adjustments, he made those changes that week, brought everything round and put them in my rooms and I then paid him a reasonable and not excessive amount of money. I'm absolutely staggered by the experience. I'll never do anything else now! So that's sort of the opposite of taking things for granted I suppose 😂

This, with knobs on.

Doesn't even have to be good, sometimes I just need to talk to someone, a real person, to ask a question. Yes, I know you've got a website, and if it answered my problem I wouldn't be ringing you, and going through the 8 circles of AI hell, would I?

(...and breathe...)

Weekend Chocolates, well sweets rather than chocolates. I used to love these as they were less boring than Milk Tray etc.

A flight coming with baggage and food & drink as standard.

Or just how much of a nicer experience flying used to be.

BA ‘Club Europe’ (short haul business class) is more or less what the old economy flights used to be like.

The NHS