A contrary experience: I don’t have a lot of experience with Old Navy, but I bought some warmup pants from them several years back which are ideal for slipping on over the jeans while snowblowing the driveway. They’re windproof and waterproof and apparently indestructible and probably cost nothing compared to the high-tech stuff at REI which doesn’t fit me anyway.
I’ve had mixed experiences with tools from Harbor Freight. Generally when I buy something from them, it’s with my eyes wide open. But some stuff has been pretty good, while other stuff has been complete garbage. Their magnetic trailer lights were pretty worthless as I recall, particularly as they apparently displayed brake lights out the front of the device and taillights out the back. Were the lights supposed to be reflected off the car or something? I never figured it out, because they broke before I ever put them on the trailer.
Recently opened a pack of drill bits that I’d bought on a whim from the local Cheap Crap Emporium. I had to laugh - not a one of them was actually straight. But they soon went straight - into the bin.
The Simpsons-related toys and figures. They were amazingly shittily contructed and ridiculously over-priced. This made them perfect metaphors for the Simpson’s take on American consumer society.
A word of warning: Bic razors are almost as bad as the dollar store face-mangling razors. Not quite as awful, but no more than one step above that. Do yourself a favor and stick with Gilette or Schick.
This is not something I bought, but rather received as a gift from someone. It was one of those plaques with an inspirational saying and a little mosaic decoration, and prongs at the bottom so you can stick it in your garden or something. So I stuck it in one of my perennial gardens last summer. Last week I went to deadhead that garden, and discovered that, over the winter, the plaque had disintegrated into a pile of little chunks of baked clay… and shards of sharp-pointed glass from the mosaic. I don’t think I’ve ever owned anything else that failed so spectacularly, and hazardously, when put to its intended use.
Not only did I pay $15 for mine, I bought two!:smack:
The “no tools” assemby consists of trying to aim flimsy, uneven wooden dowels (the white things in the photo that you fold you clothes over) into the frame (brown on the sides), and then getting the other end of the dowel into the opposite frame without the dowel falling out of the OTHER frame. And as assembly continues it gets harder and harder to fit the dowels in without spreading the frames, causing the other dowels to fall out----so I held the frames steady, bent one of the dowels to squeeze it in and it broke!
Even after assembly, the dowels would fall out, especially if I was done with the rack and wanted to fold it for storage.
After about two wash cycles of this nonsense, I finally wrote it off and threw both of these gems into the trash and bought a metal folding rack at Target for $25 which seems to be working much better.
This was a worthless piece of shit, even for Kmart. I’d pit Kmart for selling it, but I should pit myself for being a dumbass for buying it and not immediately taking it back.
My landlady gave me one of those a few years ago–all wood, so I think a slightly different version/brand. When I tried to assemble it, I discovered that the wooden dowels were too thick for the holes they were intended for. I whittled them down with a multitool knife until they fit, then forced them in. It sort of works, so I’m glad I took the time to put it together, but it isn’t the most stable of drying racks. I had to move its location so my cat wouldn’t try to leap on it–he kept knocking it over and collapsing it. It does work now. Sort of.
Bought a cheap out-the-front switchblade at a flea market once. Only paid a couple bucks for it. The first time I triggered it, the blade flew clear out of the handle. I laughed so hard that I considered it money well spent.
I bought a doll from a discount store and the hair was sewn in one line across the forehead and then pulled back to vaguely look like a full head of hair.
A Radio Corporation of Asia 3-cd carousel cd changer/AM-FM combo unit bought for $80 to use in my office at work. The plugs on the base unit ends of the speaker wires were tiny and fit into their receptacles (jacks) very loosely-fell out if I moved the unit even slightly. All of the pushbuttons to control the cd actions (change track, etc.) were BLACK ON BLACK with embossed function codes (pause, disc change)! I had to paint them with white-out to see them. The track changing buttons malfunctioned permanently after one month. The radio tuner was analog (turn the knob to change stations).
Similar story-Where I lived once the toilet valve leaked, badly, so I had the landlord replace it. Same problem. He called a plumber in a few days and he replaced it. Same problem. I turned off the water supply to the tank and used a gallon jug, cut off to fill under the sink faucet, and dumped it into the tank. 3/4 of a gallon worked most times. The water billing company changed out the meter after several weeks because they could not believe the low usage record, compared to earlier when it (and the tub/shower) were leaking steadily. Bring back the hollow copper ball on the end of the lever rod!!!
Last year while camping I decided on an Eton wind-up powered FM/AM radio from Walmart.
Sort of a name-brand I recognized from somewhere and at 20 bucks I thought “Cool”.
Dad gum tuning dial didn’t work, wouldn’t pull in stations from near or far.
I use the LED flashlight function on it, everything else about it is crap.
Speaking of bathroom stuff, I went to Lowe’s a couple of months ago when my TP holder broke. I picked up one for $5, and took it home. The stoopit thing was supposed to hang on the wall on four keyhole openings lined up with four screws in the wall. :smack:
I returned it and went to the plumbing supply warehouse for one that actually screwed into the wall. It actually cost about the same for something that wouldn’t fall off everytime you pulled a handful.
I bought a couple of these corrugated cardboard storage footrests from KMart for $10 each. Now, I knew they were cheap, and as big as I am they are not appropriate seating for me. So maybe this is really my fault.
But one day I was rushing out the door and just needed to zip up a boot so I sat down on the nearest thing and WHUMP!
Picture big ole me with just my head, hands and feet sticking out, rocking forward so Celtling can pull the thing off my behind. BWAAAhahahahahaaa!!! We had tears rolling down our faces we were laughing so hard!
Years ago, I worked for a soft drink/beer distributor. They would periodically offer the employees case discounts on short filled sodas and various brands of beer that they handled.
One time they had cases of some El Salvadoran or Guatemalan brand I had never heard of and thank God I can’t remember the name of, for something like a buck a case. Being the type of beer drinker that valued quantity over quality and being tighter than a nun on Sunday I bought the maximum they would allow of two cases.
Taking my larder home, and anticipating a sud soaked weekend I put them in the 'ol Kelvinator and gleefully withdrew one once they had chilled.
Now bare in mind, I have soaked down such renowned brands including Milwaukees Best, Hamms, Falsaff, PBR, Keystone and other beer bum brands, but for shear horridness, this stuff took the awfulness race by several lengths.
Anyhoo, I took one sip and thank goodness my gag reflex for bad beer had developed enough that I didn’t upchuck on the spot. It was that bad. I ended up pouring the rest out just to get the aluminum value out of the empty cans. I only dumped three or four in the kitchen sink, but the stuff smelled as bad as it tasted. The rest I dumped into a bucket in the garage with the door open and poured it down the street storm drain. (Poor rats)