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Original poster

Stuff you took for granted that no longer exists?

425 replies

Confusednbemused · 19/12/2025 11:38

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?

OP posts:
PoliteSquid · 19/12/2025 15:23

Confusednbemused · 19/12/2025 11:38

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?

Oh yeah! I forgot all about those! My grandma used to let me have them to take home when I was a kid.

pinkpony88 · 19/12/2025 15:27

LovelyBitOfSquirrrel · 19/12/2025 13:12

Dominos half and half pizza

I had no idea that had gone until I just checked the app now! 😟

eatreadsleeprepeat · 19/12/2025 15:27

MiddlingMarch · 19/12/2025 12:14

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?

Chocolate Tree in East Lothian makes brilliant real chocolate.

pinkpony88 · 19/12/2025 15:28

MinnieCauldwell · 19/12/2025 15:17

My left tit. Breast cancer got it🙁

😥

Mymanyellow · 19/12/2025 15:28

Oh yeah dark chocolate bountys.

Blarn · 19/12/2025 15:29

I remembered what it was! Fanta with sugar in. Dd2 had a can in Italy and I forgot how nice pop full of sugar is!

PInkyStarfish · 19/12/2025 15:31

Coloured toilet tissue. Pale blue, mint green, pale pink and cream! My mother always bought the pale pink for her bathroom and white for the others.

SpinningaCompass · 19/12/2025 15:33

Being able to afford to park near shopping centres and having a nice shopping day out actually trying things on.

Eventually, shops will be more limited than they already are in a lot of areas and the online retailers will start slapping 'return processing fees' on items like they do in the states ... which will make ordering in multiple sizes, colours, styles, etc to see what fits and what doesn't and then returning the rest more expensive and price people of even doing that!

Purplewarrior · 19/12/2025 15:34

Vidal Sassoon Almond and Cherry shampoo and conditioner. 😞

PInkyStarfish · 19/12/2025 15:36

I very rarely see an alternative dresser such as a Punk, Goth, Emo, Metalhead/Rocker etc

xogossipgirlxo · 19/12/2025 15:38

My pre-pregnancy body. I just cannot believe how fit I was and did not appreciate it.
customer services with actual person dealing with your query
sometimes I miss pre-smartphones era

CatAsstrophe · 19/12/2025 15:38

Purplecatshopaholic · 19/12/2025 11:48

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

Spooky! I was lamenting the disappearance of these chocolate bars earlier this week.

SwirlyGates · 19/12/2025 15:39

SoScarletItWas · 19/12/2025 11:41

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.

Until fairly recently there were 4 department stores in the centre of my city; now we only have one. Several once-familiar staple shops now have no online presence in the city - gone into administration, cut down their stores or moved to online only (Gap, Blacks, TopShop, Miss Selfridge, Millets, Dorothy Perkins...)

Christwosheds · 19/12/2025 15:42

Dolorsy · 19/12/2025 12:18

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 😂

Ooh ! That does sound great. Could you name the business ?

Christwosheds · 19/12/2025 15:42

Purplewarrior · 19/12/2025 15:34

Vidal Sassoon Almond and Cherry shampoo and conditioner. 😞

This stuff smelt so amazing.

Christwosheds · 19/12/2025 15:43

Blarn · 19/12/2025 15:29

I remembered what it was! Fanta with sugar in. Dd2 had a can in Italy and I forgot how nice pop full of sugar is!

When we were in Italy we also made the most of Fanta and Sprite and San Pelegrino pop with sugar and no sweeteners.

Christwosheds · 19/12/2025 15:46

Cottagegardendiary · 19/12/2025 13:32

Bloody hell. That's brought back memories I didn't know I had.

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I bought an ancient empty box of Weekend, just to have the package. Will take a photo .

MrsMoastyToasty · 19/12/2025 15:48

Brookside omnibus on a Saturday evening.
Pacers chewy sweets.
Cadburys factory in our town. You could smell chocolate in the air.

5MinuteArgument · 19/12/2025 16:03

When Gregg's was a proper bakery and sold loaves like the round oatie loaf and the low GI loaf. Why don't they sell them anymore? Why?

eqpi4t2hbsnktd · 19/12/2025 16:09

Ice Magic with real chemicals that actually go hard. The non-toxic shite you get these days is just chocolate sauce.

eqpi4t2hbsnktd · 19/12/2025 16:14

PInkyStarfish · 19/12/2025 15:36

I very rarely see an alternative dresser such as a Punk, Goth, Emo, Metalhead/Rocker etc

You need to pop to Camden Market

Toastersandkettles · 19/12/2025 16:16

A beautiful field nearby that I used to walk my dog. It always made me feel better, even on dreary days. Now it's being turned into a housing estate.

OoooohBobMonkhouse · 19/12/2025 16:19

Bird's Eye Chocolate Lovely mousses.

Fry's Five Centre bars.

Bring them back!

Missingducks · 19/12/2025 16:25

Tyrozets for fighting a sore throat

AffableApple · 19/12/2025 16:31

masksagain · 19/12/2025 11:50

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

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This is a level of organisation I can't even comprehend 🤣

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