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?

I loved the chocolate mice and the chocolate pigs. Also the chocolate hobbyhorse head, fudge cubes and jelly fish. Thank you for reminding me of how good they were.

I really liked the lime candies!

Kunzle cakes

That is it!
Not allowed now. Perhaps people sniffed it.

I get that freezing legs, achy joints the joys of Parkinson’s and tremors, I’m empathetic to your situation

British Home Stores, I loved that shop.

Decent clothes from M & S. I always bought my clothes there, they sell rubbish now.

Dog free shops and cafes.
Since when did it become ok to take animals into shops?
Flights that included as much luggage as you could physically carry. That included food and drinks and you didn't have to pay to sit next to the person you were travelling with.
When flying was a more refined and elegant experience. When there wasn’t some mad rush to clog up the isle and be first on and off. When people didn’t invade your space either by spreading into your seat. When duty free was actually a fabulous experience and worth buying from.

Also when going abroad ment experiencing a different culture. Not watching uk football teams, drinking pints of Guinness and wearing scruffy clothes whilst stuffing your face with a full English breakfast.

BHS used to sell really good childrens' clothes, womens' underwear, towels, bedding and winter coats. Also their inexpensive café was great if you were out shopping, my DC loved the lasagne but there was always other good hot food and often a salad bar and puddings that they loved. Nothing at all like this now, it's fast food or nothing unless you're prepared to spend more.
I agree with you about M&S, most of the decent stuff is branded and you can buy it direct from the brand themselves. I've got some older M&S clothing which is really nice, I stockpiled some new purple cord jeans some years ago and am just about thin enough to wear them again now!

Just avoid the biggest tourist hotspots.

Yes BHS were excellent. I still have some lovely boots I bought there.

@schnubbins

Being able to go out at night and pick a restaurant spontaneously .Everything has to be be precooked and reserved so now we go out much less.

Yes! A couple of times recently, we've gone into restaurants which looked quiet (half full say) and been grunted at by waitresses asking if we'd made a reservation, and then saying they were fully booked, which was blatant rubbish on a quiet Monday or Tuesday night. Sat in car park and booked on the app, then went back in and different waitress no problem giving us a table. Utter madness. One of them (Harvester in York) is now closed down and I'm not surprised with that kind of stupid attitude.

But same with attractions, you can't do anything spontaneously anymore. If you don't book in advance, you risk ruining a day with travel etc only to find they won't let you in without a pre booking, but their websites are usually always deliberately vague saying things like "we recommend pre-booking" but never "pre booking only" so customers don't know where they stand when it comes to spontaneous decisions. And of course, pre bookings are never changeable nor refundable, so if you do book and you can't get there due to a road accident, or a train cancellation or one of you being ill, you've lost your money!

So yes, we eat out a lot less these days and go to fewer attractions as we don't risk anything spontaneous and often won't risk pre booking either, so just don't bother.

We first started going abroad in the early 80s and it was lovely back then. You actually felt like you were in a different country. Different shops, different cars, different types of people, different kinds of cafe, etc.

Nowadays, there really isn't much difference whether you're in the middle of Birmingham or the middle or Paris or the middle of Barcelona. It's not just "Brits abroad", but it's everyone and everything. It's all much of a muchness now. Even in places like Jamaica and Kenya and Egypt, so much is the same, even down to McDonalds, chain stores, types of car, people etc. The only things obviously different are the major landmarks.

We laugh today when we go to a McDonalds for a quick lunch as we say we always like to eat like the locals - in the middle of Mombassa or Cairo where their "down town" outlets are literally full of locals and no tourists in sight!

A degree of shared social/cultural experience.

We now live ina totally different media world to our kids and yes, that dad ever this film late 20th century, but our parents would know what telly we were watching and magazine we were reading. Now unless we check our kids phones constantly, they just exist in a totally different media world where we might have no reference point at all.

Children without smartphones and the internet.

Anyone without them.

It really was a state ‘before The Fall’ in many ways.

@Badbadbunny I hate pre-bookings. It's common now even for places that don't sell out, I assume either it's so they get more money if it rains or people get sick, or maybe it's a holdover from Covid (recycling centre I'm looking at you).

One Historic England attraction we went to turned out to have three different prices - one if you turned up on the day, a bit cheaper if you pre-booked on the website, but the cheapest one was if you used public transport to get there (no pre-booking necessary). These prices were not all listed on the same place on the website. Honestly, what a faff, who can be doing with this?

I believe it's a problem for small businesses, who can't deposit cash locally any more.

I like the booking system for the tip. The queues for our one used to be a mile long on a sunny summer Sunday. Now I can book my slot (even on the day), drive up, get rid of my stuff, drive off all in less than 15 minutes. It has also stopped the non-locals coming to use our tip as you need to show proof you live in the area.

I dislike other booking systems but the one for the tip is a godsend.

Is pre-booking different from just booking?!

@Lastfroginthebox probably not! "Pre-booking" sounds more annoying though.

Every day chocolates tasting like chocolate.

People talking to each other instead of looking at their phones in company.

Choosing an album on CD, cassette or vinyl and listening to the whole album, reading the lyrics and admiring the artwork. Buying a new album and taking it home to listen. So exciting.

Receiving letters.

Going into a supermarket and finding a cross section of society shopping in there and tills with people working at them. These days they seem to have a smattering of slightly startled looking customers in dressing gowns with dogs, and if there are any staff they're standing around looking bored while customers fight with the self check-outs. Depressing.

On the upside, so many things are better and more efficient. I am not sure people are that much ruder than they were. There have always been badly behaved people.

Burtons Potato puffs. Nibbets. Fletchers Wheaten bread.
I saved this thread as I knew I'd think of things to add..

Gypsy creams. Good customer service - which is quite rare these days. Manned checkouts instead of self service tills. I can't be the only person who argues with the bloody things!

Abbey Crunch

I used to love them and had forgotten all about them.
Might Hob nobs be similar?