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?

My eyebrows

Wilko and Woolworths. You could buy anything and everything in both.
Body Shop in the 90s, so colourful, now it's just white and bland in there. Their Vitamin E soap and Cola Bubbles.
Saturday shopping in the 90s as a teen.
Jane Norman. So many memories, my go-to holiday wardrobe for years.
Debenhams and BHS, my Mum's favourites.
Tammy shoes were awesome.
Being able to buy from France pre-brexit, the joy when the big white bag arrived with my new clothes in!
Life before Covid...especially for those who are still struggling to just live as a result and whose lives can't or won't be the same. Sending love to you ! 💐
People being nicer to each other before everyone got so entitled!

@PrincessHoneysuckle my Greggs doesn't have them out on show but if you ask, they have soft bread rolls in the back. Not sure if it's all of the them but my nephew works there and brings me a pack back after each shift but they're available to anyone, might be worth asking next time you're passing one ☺️

I miss any kind of critical thinking. People post any old rubbish on social media and morons lap it up. The tree in Trafalgar Square ‘is pathetic’ because ‘Sadiq Khan is a Muslim’ - this has been a meme that’s been all over social media.

Being able to just jump in the car and go for a drive, we used to do it with the kids often when they were small, 20 plus years ago. Now the price of fuel is ridiculous and the roads are crowded and full of roadworks.

Real people answering the phone, no waiting in an automated queue guessing which button to press.

Also independent shoe shops, used to love the variety of shoes. More expensive but they lasted.

Also appliances actually lasting more than 7 years. Things were better made then.

No palm oil in everything.

Bournvita malted hot chocolate powder

McDonald’s Vegetable Deluxe burger when it was an actual vegetable burger and not 2 weird dippers.

The McPlant is no substitute and is processed rubbish.

People dressing in a nice way. I was in a rather lovely restaurant recently and was a bit sad to see people eating their food wearing baseball caps and wearing what used to be considered sports attire.

I miss proper rubber sink plugs on a chain in the basin-none of this mechanical plug business that always breaks and is a bugger to clean.
And incandescent lightbulbs. I hate buying bulbs these days as you can never guarantee the quality of light you're getting.

Oh yes, banks. All four banks local to here have now closed, absolutely nothing now closer than a 45 minute bus ride away, and we're in Greater London. Just an ATM in Morrisons left.
I don't even know where the local police station is, and the sorting office is half an hour away.

I can remember when Oxford Street had literally a dozen shoe shops near Selfridges. No proper shoe shops left near here now, though there are some "sort of" shoe shops in the local shopping mall. Many department stores have gone too, so you're very limited in where you can go for shoes.

Yes lovely Dickens and Jones with the hair salon and great clothes and Debenhams

The mental security of feeling that most other people knew how to drive. Here in South London it’s like I’m permanently driving through an episode of Wacky Races. I feel that most other drivers may have obtained their licences in places where you just have to drive between two cones in a straight line to pass or just bung the examiner.

My children being little. I'd love to re live my pregnancies, births ( without the pain) and at least the first year. They are grown up now and living happy lives but I miss that time so much. It went far to fast. I'd love to really savour every moment.

Six monthly dental checkup

I miss schools that allowed you to form your own opinion, rather than modern schools where children are indoctrinated with the state approved doctrine.

Woolworths
Dorothy Perkins
WH Smiths
French Francs (still have too many in boxes)
Netto
The CoOp house and home store
Body Shop
minis
Free parking in central London
Assisted Places at schools
….the list goes on

This!

still absolutely devastated to this day.

Phone boxes. Loved using them as a child.
Getting through to the doctors within 5 minutes and getting an appointment for that morning with no issue!!

Also this, everyone looks the same…..recently visited family in Italy - people still take care of themselves there.

Marks & Spencer had these plain crisps that were like sticks, but they were like maize, not the thin ones they still have. They have them in salt and vinegar now but i hate that flavour. I miss them every time i am in the shop and remember they don’t exist anymore

Oh yes, Dickens and Jones was a wonderful shop, they spent a lot of money doing it up not long before they closed it. Even the grotty one in Richmond has gone now. Simpsons on Piccadilly was amazing too, much better than Harvey Nichols.

Not a Debenhams fan I'm afraid, though their shoe department was great.

M&S have an awesome bra fitting service you can book as do John Lewis and most big department stores. You can do it on-line then go in for the appointment and once sized pick what you want.

My DH has fond memories of being able to park by a meter in Cavendish Square behind John Lewis, or near the museums in South Ken.