Page 13 | Stuff you took for granted that no longer exists?

Confusednbemused · 2025-12-19T11:38:25+00:00

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?

RedPanda2022 · 20/12/2025 21:21

Post offices
Bank branches not 2hrs journey away

Little jars of spicy bean pate
cadbury chocolate being chocolate

suburburban · 20/12/2025 21:23

2010Aussie · 20/12/2025 21:19

I work for the Library Service in my area and libraries are now little more than children's play centres with games, toys, crafts, jigsaws etc. The kids leave stuff out all over the floor and tables and the parents just walk away and let the staff tidy up. They also leave the children to chase around the library using moveable stools as chariots, jumping on the bean bags and generally making a thorough nuisance of themselves and potentially causing a danger to other library users - particularly elderly customers. We spend more time trying to get the kids to behave themselves than we do processing books.

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I remember in the 90s my dc being told off by librarian

HorribleHisTories15 · 20/12/2025 21:24

@angela1952
we DH decided to drive into south Ken a couple of years ago to visit the Science Museum, and parking was £15 for half a day on a half excavated building site. DH has never again suggested such transport for an outing, especially as he had to hobble back to pay more as we naturally couldn’t get around the museum in half a day with three kids including one in a pushchair. #postCovidmadness

Pinepeak2434 · 20/12/2025 21:33

So many things feel off these days. I miss:
Reasonable utility and council tax bills.
The high street and department stores are now dead.
Sugar in drinks and food has mostly been replaced with sweeteners, which leave an unpleasant aftertaste and give me headaches.
Customer service is frustrating - I’m tired of having to use WhatsApp when something goes wrong, only to be ignored.

Speaking of customer service, I recently had to contact my council, and the call handler’s tone was incredibly curt. It feels as though everywhere, supermarkets included, now act as if they hold power over the public.

Supermarkets are becoming harder to navigate - my local Sainsbury’s has narrowed all the aisles and put doors on the fridges, making it difficult to move around and often meaning only one person can reach a product at a time, that combine with scanning my own shopping has increased the time I’m spending in the supermarket.

The joy seems to have been drained from everything. Even something as simple as buying Christmas crackers today felt joyless they were dull, and many no longer contained the snap.

GlitteryRainbow · 20/12/2025 21:44

Biotex. Nothing cleans my whites so well.

Beekman · 20/12/2025 21:48

Why do people miss banks? What do they do in there that can’t be done online? I appreciate not everyone can or wants to do stuff online but if you’re posting on Mumsnet, you can probably handle the Barclay’s app or whatever. Also, the banking hubs are excellent.

angela1952 · 20/12/2025 21:57

HorribleHisTories15 · 20/12/2025 21:19

@angela1952me too!! I swear that my mum used to park in front of the Natural History Museum in the 90’s (a la Mr Bean), and we once parked near to Harrods! Others tell me that I must be lying. 🤥 I am not lying!!

it was a time when museums were only free on Sunday and DH used to take our 4DC there to give me a break. Yes, you could park there free on a meter at that time, you were not lying. And park off King’s Road too, all over London really.

KeepAwayFromChildren · 20/12/2025 22:00

Badbadbunny · 19/12/2025 13:55

Pubs, discos, etc of the 80s. Things were so fun, friendly and "innocent" back then. There were pubs everywhere, lots of people in them, so chances were that you could randomly go into one and easily find people you knew from school, or neighbours, or work colleagues, etc. No stress about not going in on your own, you'd soon find someone/several people to chat to even if you did. Regular discos in the function rooms of pubs every Friday or Saturday nights somewhere local, again, always someone there you'd know and just innocently dance the night away. A quick snog (or two) during the slow dances if you were lucky, then a bag of chips on the way home. You didn't need to go to the "clubs", especially if you were younger and didn't want the "harder" club scene, i.e. drugs, sex, etc. It was all so much more easy and innocent.

Nowadays, pubs seem to be polarised, they're either "old man locals" that are virtually dead, or they've turned into family restaurants with little or no "drinking" areas and in either scenario, virtually no chance of randomly bumping into friends etc to chat to. You'd really not go into either type on your own. They don't have discos unless they're special booked functions that aren't open to all. If you want a "dance", you have to go to the clubs, which are usually nowadays pretty horrible places with shady people, drugs everywhere, lots of overt sex, etc - again, not the places you'd go into on your own. And of course, very little chance of either being within walking distance of home, so you have the added cost and inconvenience of buses/taxis etc (if you can get one!).

I really long for the 80s style of easy, free and innocent pubs. I really loved the freedom of just randomly going out for a drink at night to one of our several locals and knowing I'd find friends there, etc., without the stress/faff of making prior arrangements etc., and if there wasn't anywhere, you'd just walk down the road to the next one. You'd make so many new friends, being "friends of friends" etc and quickly have large numbers of people you knew and could chat to.

I feel really sad that today's youngsters don't have that same experience and not surprised at all that so many have MH problems, insular, introverted, etc., as socialising is something you can practice and the more you do it, the more people you know, the easier it is and the more "friends" you make.

This describes my youth totally. We had the choice of three discos in our nearby town on a Friday and Saturday night. I would knock off school or college, go out on the Friday night, sleep on a mates sofa, borrow some of her clothes and go out again on the Saturday night without going home.

I considered that I had a hundred mates because .....I did. We could all get lifts to out of the way parties, and discos and always get a lift home even if it meant on the back of a motorbike without a skidlid.

A crowd of us would all go back to someone's to watch the late night Hammer House Of Horror films into the early hours.

I was feral by comparison to today's kids but I was responsible (apart from the skidlid thing) in general. I couldn't have called home as we didn't have a phone at home. I was just trusted to behave and I did mostly ; )

I'm so glad I was born when I was and lived in those times.

Lastfroginthebox · 20/12/2025 22:04

Callipygion · 20/12/2025 20:33

Oh no! We hated those in our house. The looks on our faces if we opened a present to find a box of Weekend. 🤮🤣

I miss the coffee creams from boxes of Roses and (I think also there were some in) Quality Street. No one else liked them so they got left for me! Any coffee flavour chocolates now don’t taste of coffee at all. So disappointing.

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Here's a tip - put squares of any chocolate in an empty ground coffee packet. Close it up and leave it for a day or two. The chocolate soon takes on that lovely coffee flavour.

LighthouseLED · 20/12/2025 22:10

Beekman · 20/12/2025 21:48

Why do people miss banks? What do they do in there that can’t be done online? I appreciate not everyone can or wants to do stuff online but if you’re posting on Mumsnet, you can probably handle the Barclay’s app or whatever. Also, the banking hubs are excellent.

Can’t get money out (specific denomination notes / coins) online, or pay cheques in that the banking app doesn’t accept.

And before anyone says it - yes, some businesses still don’t take cards and I do still have the occasional cheque to pay in.

shhblackbag · 20/12/2025 22:13

2010Aussie · 20/12/2025 21:04

Agree with the 'arrangements' bit. When I was growing up in the 1970s, people always used to make plans and stick to them. "I'll give you a call over the weekend" and they did. "I'll meet you outside Boots at 10.00" and they were there ON TIME not half an hour late or texting you five minutes before to say that they're not going to bother.

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I miss this so much.

pollymere · 20/12/2025 22:16

Cookeen vegetable lard. Now it's all palm oil or rapeseed oil block spread (or beef lard).

Gingernaut · 20/12/2025 22:18

Department stores
David Greig stores
Bejam
Presto
Safeway
Proper stationery shops, not just Rymans or Smiths or Jones
KwikSave
Woolworth's
Co-Op Department stores

PleaseAccepyMyUserNames · 20/12/2025 22:19

Kellogg's Start. I really fancied some recently and was devastated to see it's been discontinued!!
Also, children playing out front. Kirby or cycling to the next town. It's unimaginable nowadays, there are speeding cars constantly and no let up

everdine · 20/12/2025 22:23

The proper Quality Street tin. Didn’t there used to be a coffee sweet?

Superhansrantowindsor · 20/12/2025 22:34

On the subject of sweets- I’ve just had a quality street. Miss the sparkly paper.

bitterlemonade · 20/12/2025 22:51

Cadbury Fuse bars - I think about them several times a week.

AnnieLummox · 20/12/2025 23:02

Proper pies. Order a pie in a pub now and what you actually get is a dish of stew with a slice of pastry on top. A pie has a bottom and sides - that’s what makes it a pie!

Ramblethroughthebrambles · 20/12/2025 23:17

Proper instruction books for new gadgets.
Gadgets that had one function for each button and a label that gave you a massive clue as to what the button did (with the backup of a trusty instruction book for the technically terrified).

Solaire18381 · 20/12/2025 23:18

Going into work and having conversation about last night's TV, especially if there was a cliff hanger. Now I know people who never watch live TV.

Living for going out at weekends, even if I was younger, the youth of today don't go clubbing like we used to.

Busybeemumm · 20/12/2025 23:19

Life before smart phones. Now having to pre book everything. Gone are the days of spontaneous travel and discovery.

TeenageSu1cideDontDoit · 20/12/2025 23:20

Headphone sockets on phones!

ImogenBrocklehurst · 20/12/2025 23:21

Quality Street in a proper tin, with proper chocolate, and the full 1970s/80s selection. Will bemoan the loss forever,

Howdiditenduplikeit · 20/12/2025 23:22

HorribleHisTories15 · 20/12/2025 21:19

@angela1952me too!! I swear that my mum used to park in front of the Natural History Museum in the 90’s (a la Mr Bean), and we once parked near to Harrods! Others tell me that I must be lying. 🤥 I am not lying!!

In the late 90s my dad would always park outside the Mary Quant shop near Harrods!

Upholstery · 20/12/2025 23:30

We used to park on the road, unmetered, in several places, in the nineties. DH has lived in London all his life so he knew where they were - back of Oxford st for shopping/Wigmore, off Strand for Leicester Square/theatre, towards Caledonian road for catching trains. All gone now, of course.