To think the quality of everything has gone down so much in the last few years

[Coolbreezee]

I'm trying to figure out what the reason is.
It is because I am now relatively poor? Things that are decent quality just seem to be ridiculously expensive. I bought some Christmas tree decorations on Saturday and it took me a while to find a reindeer that didn't look completely deformed. I bought a felt advent calendar to recycle every year. I'm happy with it but still can't help notice how thin the material is. Things printed on rather than sewn. I'm not stuck up (really I'm not). I've always taken good care of my things and they last me for years (or forever) but even being careful I'm finding things break so quickly just from normal use. I dont want to buy a calendar every couple of years. I would like to buy one that lasts until my DD is grown up (without spending £50). I think the chocolate Fredos exemplify how much the UK has deteriorated...

Am I being unreasonable. I've just used Christmas stuff as an example, but really it's everything..

It’s dreadful, it’s because everything is now made in china.

Patrick Grant's new book "Less" has a very good explanation of why this is. Basically the need for companies to grow and profit, whilst competing with low quality fast fashion. It drags the quality of everything downwards. The cost of clothing relative to wages has decreased massively over the years, and now people cannot justify spending as much on clothes when can get them for so much less online etc.
I agree that the quality of everything is so poor and it's completely infuriating.
Even expensive brands of clothes feel cheap.
Appliances don't last a decade. It actually makes me quite depressed at how much we're destroying the planet

Agree. I'm really seeing the benefit of diy and home crafts because of this. Surely getting the family together to make decorations (and it doesn't end there) is better than the tat for sale. It's a quaint win win if you have time.

Things aren’t bad just because they are made in China. China is being used as a place where products can be made very cheaply, but they also have factories there with skilled workers making much higher quality products.

If you want quality you have to pay more for it, and most people won’t.

The few people who are prepared to pay more therefore have to deal with even higher prices, because the quality products are made in much smaller numbers - there is no economy of scale to benefit from to help keep prices down.

I don’t think that’s the case, yes china make expensive and inexpensive products, but I have recently bought expensive products from well known luxury labels made in china and the quality is not the same as the same kind of products I would have bought 20 years ago that would not have been made in china.

Everything has gone downhill. No pride in anything anymore. Even spelling and grammar is poor including newspapers.

And on here lol.

And duvets didn’t have feathers that fell out or stuck you in the arse while trying to sleep!

Agree and polyester everywhere too, I've been trying to get mens cotton pj bottoms at a reasonable price online but everything is polyester or that sweaty fleece material 🤢. Eventually found some instore in Tesco.

I use wire headphones and find myself buying new apple adapters monthly, even other brands like Belkin. The latest was record breaking (one single wire, no adapter) I got it a couple days ago and it’s not working already. It’s insane that this is being normalised. It applies to everything, clothes that are meant to last two washes…everything

If you buy less but buy quality it lasts for a very long time. This is the disadvantage of buying (clothes particularly) online. You cannot feel the quality of the fabric.

Watch Buy More on Netflix, it covers all these issues.

We have lost the plot with overconsumption, programmed obsolescence (aka deliberate poor quality) and plastic everywhere.

Rather than going on Mars, AI or the Middle East, the world should focus on solving plastic and overconsumption of crap.

I completely agree and have always abided by the 'Buy cheap, buy twice' principle.
But I also think it's getting harder to buy quality items and many things are just not made to last.

Yep. It’s especially noticeable with clothing. I go into shops and come out with nothing because it’s such poor quality, likewise sending entire online orders back because it feels like tissue paper and the colour is already running while it’s still in the packaging. That horrible ecovero stuff is one of the worst offenders, it pills almost immediately and washes like a rag.

Bedding has degraded in quality massively, all of the set of mugs I got about 18 months ago have chipped or cracked (in one case the mug split apart during use). It used to be that you’d get some decent bits in department stores or eg Dunelm but now it’s rubbish which looks and feels cheap but very much isn’t.

Its also getting harder and harder to find quality items that justify the cost. Engineered obsolescence.

I spent £100 on a pair of ankle boots for winter. They lasted one season. For me, that is certainly not cheap and I'd expect them to last for more than 3 or 4 months before the soles came unstuck. (Part of the sole was hammered on, the other part glued on.)

I found that with children's books.

It's utterly crazy. So difficult to get natural fibres at all in the mainstream shops, if you don't want to wash microplastics into the water with every wash. I was disappointed to see that global treaty to curb plastic production collapsed. I try not to read those articles about microplastics in our bodies 😬😬😬

This! Manufacturers deliberately make things that are unfixable and so you need to replace them after only a couple of years- phones are glued together, you can't actually get to the batteries in airpods without breaking the whole case- they are driving the överkonsumtion by bringing out a new upgrade every few years
We're going to end up like the film wallE
We don't just throw stuff away it just gets put somewhere else

Many mid-range products have also dramatically decreased in quality. It's pointless telling people with average or below average incomes that you 'have to pay for quality' because often they simply can't. Many secondhand/charity shops are also increasingly full of tat compared to previously - not really their fault, of course.

If I ever find cotton PJs in the charity shops I snap them up - a thorough wash and they're fine. So much in the actual shops is that slimy polyester stuff.

Temu shite is really bad for the planet so I had to stop but actually the quality is excellent nowadays.

Temu is not excellent quality.

I know “enshittification” originally referred to online services, but god does it relate to everything else too. I bought some Fat Face socks the other week, because they’ve always been great quality as well as daft and cute. They feel about half as thick as an old pair I still have. It made me think about a Fat Face hoodie I bought when I was about 12 that lasted me 18 years and I still donated it because it was in perfect condition, you’re lucky to get a year out of stuff now!

Electronics are a whole other thing. Customer service! TV writing. Journalism. Every single public service. Transport!!!

I have gadgets and furniture and all sorts that belonged to my grandparents, and even their parents. No one will be using something I bought in Argos in 130 years time, that’s for sure.