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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:
Theeyeballsinthesky · 19/12/2025 19:13

girdlehurdle · 19/12/2025 14:53

Yes I definitely miss department stores too. We used to have one in our local town and I’ve got fond memories of pratting about in the habadashery department while my mum was looking at the Precis Petite and Oui Set clothes. Often used to go upstairs to the cafe after school for a sandwich and a milkshake too.

We spend a lot of time in Spain and I absolutely love El Corte Ingles. My kids love going there too, it’s like a day out! Me and DH recently had a date weekend in London and we spent the whole afternoon in Selfridges and we had such a good time. Shopping used to be an experience. Online is just not the same

El Corte Ingles! The best hot chocolate 😋

CecilwashingtonIdontliketolose · 19/12/2025 19:15

HopSpringsEternal · 19/12/2025 12:57

Mellow joints. All seems to be laced skunk that sends you into a psychedelic spin. Just want to be abit relaxed and have a giggle.

Afghan black
Red leb
Squidgy black.
Smooth taste nice aroma.

blankittyblank · 19/12/2025 19:16

littlemissmagic · 19/12/2025 12:44

The free gift bags when you bought 2 items of a premium beauty eg Clinique or estee Lauder.
You used to get a wash bag & sample sizes of products. I liked being able to try new products and often ended up buying full sizes of things I liked.

Now they charge you for the same thing - or say if you buy 2 products you can have these samples for the bargain price of £40! I never buy it!

That’s weird - I still get the bag of free samples! From John Lewis. It’s one of the reasons I still get clarins stuff.

blankittyblank · 19/12/2025 19:16

littlemissmagic · 19/12/2025 12:44

The free gift bags when you bought 2 items of a premium beauty eg Clinique or estee Lauder.
You used to get a wash bag & sample sizes of products. I liked being able to try new products and often ended up buying full sizes of things I liked.

Now they charge you for the same thing - or say if you buy 2 products you can have these samples for the bargain price of £40! I never buy it!

That’s weird - I still get the bag of free samples! From John Lewis. It’s one of the reasons I still get clarins stuff.

blankittyblank · 19/12/2025 19:16

littlemissmagic · 19/12/2025 12:44

The free gift bags when you bought 2 items of a premium beauty eg Clinique or estee Lauder.
You used to get a wash bag & sample sizes of products. I liked being able to try new products and often ended up buying full sizes of things I liked.

Now they charge you for the same thing - or say if you buy 2 products you can have these samples for the bargain price of £40! I never buy it!

That’s weird - I still get the bag of free samples! From John Lewis. It’s one of the reasons I still get clarins stuff.

CecilwashingtonIdontliketolose · 19/12/2025 19:18

BogRollBOGOF · 19/12/2025 18:47

Izal toilet paper

Joking! Grin

Used for tracing paper in infant school.🤯

blankittyblank · 19/12/2025 19:19

Appleseason · 19/12/2025 17:06

Proper Irn Bru. Not the sweetener filled crap that passes for it now

Oh yes! Sugar in drinks. I hate the taste of sweeteners. The only canned drink which still has sugar in is red coke! Even Pepsi is now a mix of sugar and sweeteners. It actually makes me cross when I think about it 😄

suburburban · 19/12/2025 19:24

Manned checkouts rather than self service

yes I know there are still some

Whatsthatsheila · 19/12/2025 19:25

Sunpat cheese spread!!! I’d give my right arm for that to be brought back

suburburban · 19/12/2025 19:29

FancyBiscuitsLevel · 19/12/2025 14:55

Another one for department stores that have gone. John Lewis seems to be holding out - so for the love of all that is holy, can we all try to pop in and get something from them if at all possible at some point over 2026. Not online, in the shop. i like there’s a shop I can buy a nice frying pan, and get a bra fitted, and a TV, and a lipstick and a pair of kids school shoes, and some good quality T-shirts, and an evening dress.

can we bring back changing rooms in supermarkets that sell clothes. Why have they all gone?

Our local one has gone so it’s more of a hassle to shop there

LargeJugs · 19/12/2025 19:29

youalright · 19/12/2025 11:53

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

This. Absolutely this.

Tallisker · 19/12/2025 19:32

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?

My first thought was Jenners and that tree in that space. I’ve just been into Peter Jones today and it was just lovely. Beats Edinburgh John Lewis into a cocked hat, I’m sorry to say.

goingtotown · 19/12/2025 19:33

Face to Face appointment with a GP

YourMotherSortsSocksInHell · 19/12/2025 19:33

Danikm151 · 19/12/2025 13:16

Cashiers at a shop actually telling you what your total is.

Now it’s just silence

Edited

Or they tell you the bare amount "Eleven seventy-six" No "That'll be" or "Please", it's like words cost them money. This has become the norm since Covid.

Tallisker · 19/12/2025 19:34

TMMC1 · 19/12/2025 11:40

Attendant filling the car with petrol

This was my first job as a teenager 😁

suburburban · 19/12/2025 19:34

Dappy777 · 19/12/2025 13:13

I have lived in the same area all my life (rural Essex). I was born in this town in 1976. The following still exist around here, but they are much harder to find

  • Silence
  • Birdsong
  • Fields
  • Trees
  • Space
  • The beauty of nature
  • Roads that aren’t choked with traffic
  • A sense of national identity/shared history/shared culture

Yes all of this I still live locally but area is horrible in comparison

YourMotherSortsSocksInHell · 19/12/2025 19:38

Border Creme Eggs. Like normal creme eggs but with a chocolate fondant filling, came in tartan foil.

CecilwashingtonIdontliketolose · 19/12/2025 19:41

Highland toffee aka coo candy
Hard as hell and thick
My dad used to break it by hitting off the mantle piece.
Long lasting chewy goodness 70s style.

WhereYouLeftIt · 19/12/2025 19:41

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.

I'm really missing department stores. I used to work in Glasgow and walked past three on my way to work. Where I live now, we lost the two 'local' department stores years ago, Debenhams about 7 years ago, and the Frasers - a major part of our high street - bit the dust a few years back, was sold, supposedly redeveloped into creative industry (computer games companies) but has essentially stayed empty ever since.

I used to buy all manner of clothes, accessories housewares there. I really bloody miss it!

RescueMeFromThisSilliness · 19/12/2025 19:41

Woolworths. There will never be anything like Woolies.😥

McDonald's Chicken Legend. Why in the wide world did they get rid of that?

Easter eggs that came in two halves and had that lovely thick rim of chocolate. Nothing else comes close to the taste of that.

Quality Street wrappers. They used to look joyous in a glass dish. Dull and depressing now. And no, I don't believe they changed the wrappers to be more eco friendly. Everybody saved the coloured cellophane for kids crafting, and the foil could be fully recycled. They just spoiled it.

awrbc81 · 19/12/2025 19:49

Woolworths!

OnlyTwelveDays · 19/12/2025 19:56

Potato triangle crisps, from M and S. Best crisps ever

Crikeyalmighty · 19/12/2025 20:13

OnlyTwelveDays · 19/12/2025 19:56

Potato triangle crisps, from M and S. Best crisps ever

Totally agree -

Crikeyalmighty · 19/12/2025 20:20

Nsky62 · 19/12/2025 18:39

If only, life before Parkinson’s for me, mid stage now

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I’m so sorry to hear that , yep everything else pales compared to your health .

IsItTheBlackOneOrTheRedOne · 19/12/2025 20:21

My metabolism.

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