Things That Disappeared Without You Noticing

[stupidpieceofshit]

Around the turn of the millennium Pepsi Twist came out and disappeared within a year. I forgot about it for years and randomly came across it in a Eastern European market. That shit is delicious. Unfortunately, as soon as I had rediscovered it, it disappeared once again. Now every time I drink Pepsi I have to squeeze lemon into it.

I miss Pepsi Twist so much, the only thing I can get to it now, is the Coke machines where you can choose different fruit flavors, when I worked next to a wendy's and my coworker would go and order for both of us, he'd look at me crazy when I said lemon coke, not as good as twist from what I remember but its all I have now.

Quiznos was THE SHIT and 100 times better than Subway, then they started disappearing and disappearing...Chevy's Fresh Mex was also a great restaurant and to this day probably has the best salsa I've had but they're also much fewer and farther between these days.

I miss quiznos, the bourbon beef was my favorite, when I went to university there was one on campus (this was after Quiznos disappeared), only issue was I often didn't have the cash for it, damn you fate.

Entertainment stores like Sam Goody, FYE, Hasting's, etc. Those were the shit as a kid. Even if you couldn't buy anything, you could still spend hours browsing.

Now it's pretty much just Best Buy.

There was a chain called Media Play, it had toys, books, movies, video games, and music, it was so fun to walk around as a kid. I also miss Sun Coast (same parent company as Media Play)

This.

Hell, I remember that even the big box chain stores like Wal-Mart and Big Lots would have arcade machines near the front entrance.

Big Lots had Lethal Enforcers II and I think one of the Street Fighter games, while Wal-Mart had one of those racing arcade games, plus the Jurassic Park light gun game, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and one of those deer-hunting lightgun games.

They still have the claw machines though, but I think that's because Claw Machines are like the one type of arcade game that has never really gone away to begin with.

Other things I miss are Kmart and Magic Mart.

Magic Mart was basically a weird mix between a Wal-Mart and a Big Lots, and for some reason the one where I used to live also had an area near the sporting goods section that sold katanas, medieval swords, fancy knives, and all sorts of mall ninja shit for really cheap.

Best part was that the clerk usually never checked for ID, so I was able to buy a $10 wakizashi sword when I was 13.

Kmart back in the day was good, but every Kmart I was in post early 00s was always dimly light, and nothing seemed to have changed since the late 90s. Hell even their registers were the old IBM ones with a small monochrome CRT and beige from age. It was just depressing to be in.
like this one:

I remember them at least into the mid-90s where I grew up, that was the only place I could ever get those root beer barrel candies.

I remember that too, when Kroger opened a new store by me in 2017 they had a bulk candy section still, no idea if it still is there as they rearranged the store since.

 

[Red Hood]

Rock music.

 

[RTX Mario]

I miss Yogos.

I used to love these snacks when I was little.

 

[saralovesjuicyfruit]

The spiral-y lightbulbs that were everywhere about 10 years ago. You used to hardly be able to find normal incandescent bulbs. Now when I go to the store all I see are the normal ones.

 

[sasazuka]

@saralovesjuicyfruit CFLs have been replaced but it's mostly by LED bulbs, not incandescent, or at least that's the case in Canada. I can't say if it's the same where you are.

I still buy incandescent bulbs for chandeliers, bathroom vanity lights, and desk lamps but I only buy LEDs for regular light fixtures. I find the light from LEDs far preferable to CFLs, which were constant migraine headache-inducers.

 

[Kiyoshi's Wristbrace]

Can girls count?

It's funny how many 'so-called' friends I make online regularly, and when it comes to the female variety, 9/10 times they either up and vanish for months at at a time out of nowhere, no reason, and some forever after that.

It's like "Is it me, or is it them?"

All I know is, the male ones never do that.

 

[Max Doof]

Going back to your old youtube playlist to find almost 20% of the videos are gone.

 

[JEB!]

Pavarotti

Never knew he was gone until I checked his wiki page like 5 years ago

 

[Dysnomia]

@saralovesjuicyfruit CFLs have been replaced but it's mostly by LED bulbs, not incandescent, or at least that's the case in Canada. I can't say if it's the same where you are.

I still buy incandescent bulbs for chandeliers, bathroom vanity lights, and desk lamps but I only buy LEDs for regular light fixtures. I find the light from LEDs far preferable to CFLs, which were constant migraine headache-inducers.

The bulb in here is CFL and it hurts my eyes so damn much. We have LED's but it's a an overhead fixture on high ceiling and I hate ladders. But I guess I'd rather climb a ladder than get a migraine.

 

[AssRock]

Discovery Zone, that place was the shit when I was a kid.

 

[Krystal]

I miss Yogos.
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I used to love these snacks when I was little.

I totally remember those. I remember my friends named one baby yogo because it was tiny.

But for me, it has to be Hobby Town. I think I was there like once or twice and then it relocated and I think it closed sometime afterwards.

 

[The Gifted Kid]

Landlines and kitchen phones with long cords. I always remember women like my mom or sister would have the cord stretched all the way into the living room where they would talk with their friends for literal hours.

 

[Some JERK]

Landlines and kitchen phones with long cords. I always remember women like my mom or sister would have the cord stretched all the way into the living room where they would talk with their friends for literally hours.

Do you also remember your mom yelling at your sister to get off the fucking phone already, and your sister constantly begging for her own phone line?

 

[The Gifted Kid]

Do you also remember your mom yelling at your sister to get off the fucking phone already, and your sister constantly begging for her own phone line?

Yes it was a constant struggle between those two which was only magnified when my dad would want to connect to the internet. Speaking of which I remember the old dial up sound and how internet pages could take minutes to load. Current internet speed is something we all just take for granted now.

 

[PFM]

Landlines and kitchen phones with long cords. I always remember women like my mom or sister would have the cord stretched all the way into the living room where they would talk with their friends for literal hours.

I had this exact conversation with someone yesterday. Also remember those long cords would get tangled to hell and you'd have no choice but to buy a new one.

Something else that came to mind were cordless phones that allowed you to listen to your neighbor's conversations.

 

[Never Scored]

I had this exact conversation with someone yesterday. Also remember those long cords would get tangled to hell and you'd have no choice but to buy a new one.

Something else that came to mind were cordless phones that allowed you to listen to your neighbor's conversations.

My parents first cordless phone would work up to like 100-200 metres from the house. It was crazy.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

Christmas lights and the season in general.

I think a lot of people have lost the Christmas spirit because stores have commercialized the holiday and radio stations play Christmas music as soon as Halloween is over. By the time the Christmas/New Year's holiday week arrives, everyone is all Christmas-ed out.

It's a far cry from when I was growing up when people would put their lights up on Thanksgiving and Christmas music gradually began in December and continued to play, albeit less frequently, through January 1.

Quizno's Subs. It felt like one day there were four in my area and the next day there were none.

I had one within walking distance in my downtown. When I went to go there again, they were gone and replaced by a different, more expensive restaurant. I want to say the franchise overextended itself too fast for its own good, but I can't remember now.

Entertainment stores like Sam Goody, FYE, Hasting's, etc. Those were the shit as a kid. Even if you couldn't buy anything, you could still spend hours browsing.

A block over from one of my workplaces was a local-branded entertainment store that was amazing with its offerings. It eventually got bought out and acquired by FYE before FYE went belly up. Amazingly enough, the shop space is still vacant despite business space being in demand up and down that particular corridor.

I remember that too, when Kroger opened a new store by me in 2017 they had a bulk candy section still, no idea if it still is there as they rearranged the store since.

I think the Kroger by me has this, but it also tends to rearrange the store at intervals that coincide with when customers learn to navigate the previously-changed layout.

Something else that came to mind were cordless phones that allowed you to listen to your neighbor's conversations.

When TV stopped broadcasting on channels on the high end (channels 70-83 or whatever the highest channel range was) and those frequencies were reallocated to mobile phone carriers, it used to be possible for those with knob-tuned analog TV sets to set the channel between those channels - say between channel 75 and 76 - and successfully listen to one or more random cellular phone conversations in the early days of cellular service. Depending on the signal strength, some of the conversations came in crystal clear.
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During one of my summer jobs, a 1920's speakeasy-themed burger joint/bar abruptly closed and reopened as a Mediterranean food place without any sort of announcement or fanfare regarding the change.

Before COVID messed up the supply chain, the grocery store I go to abruptly stopped carrying the citrus tea I had come to enjoy. What people I asked had no explanation for its disappearance.

 

[The Un-Clit]

During one of my summer jobs, a 1920's speakeasy-themed burger joint/bar abruptly closed and reopened as a Mediterranean food place without any sort of announcement or fanfare regarding the change.

Before COVID messed up the supply chain, the grocery store I go to abruptly stopped carrying the citrus tea I had come to enjoy. What people I asked had no explanation for its disappearance.

There are SO GODDAMN MANY favourite food items I used to count on being able to get at grocery stores and some restaurants. Funny Quizno's was mentioned. While there are still a few around, they are rare nowadays. Subway crushed them. They used to have around 2006 a GODLY 'thin sub' on a long thin baguette that I can't rememeber the name of but it was a combo of bacon, tangy onion sauce and a couple other things that just taste exploded in my mouth....then it was gone. no explanation, never came back.

 

[PFM]

When TV stopped broadcasting on channels on the high end (channels 70-83 or whatever the highest channel range was) and those frequencies were reallocated to mobile phone carriers,

I was referring specifically to "cordless phones". They used a limited number of channels in the iirc 600mhz range so if your neighbor was talking sometimes you could pick up their signal and hear them.

 

[Pissmaster]

This low end department store used to sell these cheese flavoured tortilla chips with Garfield on the bag wearing a sombrero in the 1990s. They came in these giant fucking bags and had the texture of cardboard, but I used to eat them and play Sega/Nintendo and watch rasslin' and I'm a bit nostalgic for them. The store closed sometime in the early 2000s and I never found them after. No one knows what the fuck I'm talking about. It's like they never existed. It drives me insane. These grainy pictures from flyers are the only references I've ever been able to find of them anywhere:

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View attachment 1400139

That looks like the exact sort of thing Big Lots would stock out of the blue for a few months, only to disappear forever.

Maybe you just lived in a test market area for them?