Things that are impossible to find but really shouldn't be.

[HairyShins]

I want an affordable hard back A3 notebook with lined paper that is thick enough to write on both sides. It needs a pen holder. Not too thick or thin and not spiral bound. Not ugly.
I've been looking for months and can I find one?!

What things are you searching for that really shouldn't be this hard to find?

School trousers in teen sizes in long length for DD and extra long for ds. Only M&S seem to do them and they have been nearly always sold out for the last two years.

Scrubbing bubbles shower cleaner, or any cleaner without the squeeze trigger that you have to squeeze over and over. I find it really hard on my hands. Scrubbing bubbles has the button you push and is much easier, but quite hard to find.

Chicken Bovril.

Lidl coffee and walnut cake. I long for some.

Dark grey knee length school socks in a size 8.
Tailored school shorts larger than an age 12.

Sensibly-opening postal services.

When I am able to get anything that needs more than a stamp to a post office/parce shop: After 5pm weeknights, or at weekends.

When post offices and parcel shops are open: 8-5 weekdays, maybe with an afternoon off one day , 8-12 Saturday, shut Sunday.

Can we just have a postal service offering that is open until 8 or 9pm and all day at weekends for the love of God? We haven't been a nation of stay-at-home women who can pop to the shops anytime for decades, people aren't able to post stuff in working hours!

@ToWhere

Plain bog standard rubber hot water bottle without the cover. Looked in The Range, B&M and Home Bargains. There were loads of fluffy things before Christmas but already have the covers.

Try your local independent chemist, they always seem to have naked hwbottles.

[quote Sgtmajormummy]@climbingplant
]] is a reliable pencil sharpener with three pencil sizes.
But remember to open it at the dots or the sharpenings go everywhere![/quote]
Thank you!

@Coffeeonmytoffee

Gas permeable contact lens cleaner. I've been using it for over 25 years and it's suddenly no longer in any shops and hasn't been for months. I had to get some from Amazon for £15 when in boots I would pay £5 ish.

Same problem. I use FeelGood contact website now. Excellent. Buy a few as you pay for delivery, but it's a good value and quick service.

@Echobelly

Wedge heeled sandals that aren't espadrille style with the string down the side - I have a leg issue that means I can't wear spindly heels and need shoes where I can discreetly tag on an extra sole as I have one shorter leg, but I have't been able to find the right sort of wedges for ages now.

@SisterAgatha - I agree, sometimes when I'm out and about I just want a normal sized packet of crisps (but will also finish 'grab bag' ones)

I have no idea if these are available in England but is this the kind of show you are after? www.crocsaustralia.com.au/p/womens-crocs-brooklyn-high-wedge/206222.html?cgid=women-footwear-heels-wedges&cid=060#start=3

Powder puffs that arent too large to fit in my normal size face powder compact.

They often sell silly ones with a ribbon on it. No idea why.

Ebay usually sells plenty of them. Now I have to really scour through what is available.

No normal sized ones in supermarkets either. Nor pound shop Savers etc.

Perhaps I should try Boots but they usually cost too much.

@Echobelly

Sensibly-opening postal services.

When I am able to get anything that needs more than a stamp to a post office/parce shop: After 5pm weeknights, or at weekends.

When post offices and parcel shops are open: 8-5 weekdays, maybe with an afternoon off one day , 8-12 Saturday, shut Sunday.

Can we just have a postal service offering that is open until 8 or 9pm and all day at weekends for the love of God? We haven't been a nation of stay-at-home women who can pop to the shops anytime for decades, people aren't able to post stuff in working hours!

Royal Mail Send An Item - pay for postage online, print the label and stick it in your nearest postbox or parcelbox - or they'll come and collect it for 60p. Game changer for me. send.royalmail.com/

An Argos site that has decent search functions! As soon as you go away from "most relevant" you get nonsense results! Same applies to supermarkets, Amazon and a number of other sites by big retailers! They make enough bloody profit hire some decent IT people!

I worked for another company some years ago (you'll realise many years ago soon!) and was involved in creating the website insofar as I worked high up on customer service side of things. I was asked to give the site the once over to see how user friendly it would be for customers and had to say it was bloody awful (ok I didn't use those exact words!) they had no understanding of - and hadn't listened to the notes from we customer service agents! - as to how the customers were most likely to USE the site, the items they'd be searching for, how they would likely prefer results listed etc. to their credit they held hands up and admitted they messed up and corrected but I see the same kind of issues with so many websites now and there's no need for it!

Anyone with knowledge of database creation KNOWS how they could improve it quite easily, I've fed back to these companies on numerous occasions and nothing changes! I've even had the call centre agents say it drives them nuts too as they hear the same complaints multiple times a day from different customers AND they have the same issues themselves of trying to help a customer via phone as they're having to cope with the same crappy search functions!

@Kpo58 what you said definitely part of it too! Why would I wanna filter by eg date of manufacture but not size?!

Yes! Websites are in general useless at good filters and letting you browse to find specific things.

So glad it's not just me noticing this - wtf is that about?! I'm not even an IT expert and I know how they need to do it!

Imo it's clearly very young men with zero experience of running a home deciding such things!

Yep to the toaster!

I'm shocked that nobody's said,
"A decent man" yet

We're being realistic!

Retailers including photographs of the inside of handbags online. Surely for any this is crucial information!

Clothes that fit short fat me that don't cost a fortune and aren't the weirdly frumpy fashion that's around just now - and preferably with pockets! I got all excited the other day when I saw a skirt I liked that APPEARED to have pockets - nope! Fake ones! I mean wtf!

neverbeenskiing puff sleeves have NEVER suited anyone and they don't fit comfortably under jumpers/Cardis/coats AND ITS BLOODY WINTER! I'm old enough to remember puff sleeves, smocking etc 1st time around never suited anyone! Even the young skinny things don't look good in them - sorry but you just don't!

Even my dd (20) is not a fan and is going nuts trying to find just normal shirts/blouses to wear to work!

Also AGAIN CLOTHES RETAILERS it's WINTER so why are you all selling loads of trousers, skirts and dresses in lightweight non warm fabrics?! And this isn't cos we're supposed to be heading into spring soon (we're not!) it's been like this since October!

I live on the west coast of Scotland, it's cold, windy and wet here! Few years back I was trying to find a coat in November - could I find a waterproof, warm, hooded coat anywhere? Could I fuck! Ridiculous!

More to come later loving this thread

@MakeMineAdoubleChocolate if you find a chip shop that does gluten free they usually fry the chips separately

My holy grail is a nice pair of formal black trousers that are long enough and actually fit me.

I'm a size 10 so not at either end of the size ranges but it's been 10 years now....

Cheers, @Thankyoupeter. I'll take a look.

A wallet with a decent zip so that the coins don't just fall out. It's a wallet, its only purpose is carrying money, WTF is the point of a coin purse section that money falls out of? Does nobody test this stuff?

@RumJerrySailorRum

Chocolate m&M's.......can't find them anywhere. The brownie ones are shit as are the crispy ones. I just want to be able to mix my peanut ones with the chocolate ones again!

I buy from Amazon

@LittleMissPerfect28 I saw these in Tesco the other day 👍🏼

The missing socks and the Tupperware lids

@FangsForTheMemory

A bean to cup coffee maker that doesn't have a cappuccino frother on it.

@FangsForTheMemory

Melitta make one, a ,caffe solo, I have one and it's great.

www.amazon.co.uk/Melitta-E950-103-Machine-Pre-Brew-Function/dp/B002NKR4VI/ref=sr112?crid=21V1S9HXQDMA6&keywords=melitta+coffee+machine&qid=1643627499&sprefix=Melitta+%2Caps%2C1096&sr=8-12

@Yerroblemom1923

The missing socks and the Tupperware lids

Once I saw a man walking down the street with a sock attached to the back of his jumper. I thought with amazement, "tumbledrier or other static caused that sock to stick on". I watched it slowly peeling off and falling to the floor, and thought "this is how the socks get lost". Then I realised "this is also how random socks and knickers end up in the street". I was so lost in the excitement of my realisations that he'd turned the corner and disappeared, without me enlightening him about that one black sock. The sock was there for days, I noticed it each time I walked past it. Presumably the street cleaner got it in the end.

Kale that hasn't been pre-sliced or shredded. 1) it never lasts as long and 2) there are some recipes where I just want the leaves and not the stalks, and it makes this impossible.

Yes to being able to see full catalogue of streaming sites content! Even the cheeky non official sites that CLAIM to do this don't

Websites selling clothes that allow you to filter out anything that requires dry cleaning. Why isn’t this a thing?

That's a brilliant idea! Also care labels that I don't need my glasses on to check when buying clothes in real life. I refuse to buy dry clean or handwash only these days cos I'll hardly end up wearing them as a result!

@bippityboppity87 for barrs juice wee corner shops are usually best or poundland

Online clothes sites where you can remove all the petite/plus size/tall/maternity as appropriate for your needs.

Next is one of the few that has filters like this - still not totally spot on but better than most

@Kanaloa I had that problem with dd while she was at school and the trousers with internal elastic you adjusted worked the problem is now as an adult there's none! She's still skinny with long legs and it's murder for her finding trousers or skirts to fit. Not all trousers come with belt loops either she's even resorted to braces at times

Not sure if this is what you mean or I’ve misunderstood but if you Google the film or series you want to watch, Google will provide you a list of where it’s available.

This sometimes works but the info isn't always up to date

@ToWhere I had the same issue with hot water bottles managed to find one in whs with JUST a cable knit cover but impossible to find JUST a hot water bottle!

On the tradesmen/builder front I hear there's just a huge backlog of work at the moment from the pandemic PLUS shortage of certain materials due to brexit! I too have a few jobs I've been trying to get sorted and don't even get replies for! I think part of the problem is they're small jobs and there are so many other better paying jobs about I'm getting bumped!

Clothes retailers - all now seem to sell the same colours and styles at the same time! Used to be certain stores would sell basics/classics and some would sell latest fashion and some would sell kinda in between items - now they all sell the same stuff!

People who can actually do their job.

Oh don't even get me started! On another thread it became apparent as WHY this is happening. Short version employers too tight to invest in training!

A home radio that does “traffic alert”. I’d like to know where the congestion is before I leave home.

Alexa or similar you should be able to do this

Phone numbers for banks.

Check here

saynoto0870.com

Paper instruction manuals. I just got a slow cooker which is really complicated and the instructions are online - on YouTube.
I want paper written instructions - with words.

@TheHateIsNotGood

Hydrogen Peroxide from the chemist, sold in glass bottles just like Witch Hazel is - great for cleaning cuts/wounds, diluted further for ears and painful teeth (mouthwash).

Can't get it now as apparently it's a bomb-making ingredient. Bloody terrorists, fucking things up and causing mayhem in bathroom cabinets across the UK.

I saw some in our chemists the other day. As we live in a rural village in Northumberland, I somehow doubt this will be of any use to you