# Consumer items you would really hate/be screwed if they discontinued? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 13, 2026, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629 "2026-01-13T03:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/61 "2026-01-14T01:37:16Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Oh and Dawn Platinum power spray. > > Best, ever!! I agree, but I would survive. Levi’s for sure, because they are all I wear (down there) since I retired. But far worse would be Ivory bar soap. Old 99 and 44/100% pure. I’m allergic to perfume, and would hate to have to wash with anything scented. (Being allergic to perfume has saved me thousands of dollars over my marriage.) Sometimes they do it to you. I used to love Red Baron breakfast pizzas - individual size, of course. Gone now. I still look. Once, ten years back or so, they came back for a short time, and we bought everyone our freezer could hold. The rep told me they used to be available mail order, but I don’t think I’d trust it to get here in good shape. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/62 "2026-01-14T01:58:18Z")
so you don’t like Lipton’s Green Tea (my local grocer carries their house version)? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/63 "2026-01-14T02:02:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The dental hygienists at my dentist’s office advise _against_ using Glide brand dental floss. They tell me that it’s so slick it doesn’t do a good job of cleaning between teeth. Anyone else hear that? I have not, but it makes some sense. > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Huh. Damn it! The Glide that gets between your teeth will be far more effective than the other stuff that doesn’t fit between your teeth at all. I used to have rather scraggly teeth and it was Glide or nothing for me too. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/64 "2026-01-14T03:15:11Z")
Yes. UK electric kettles are a thing of beauty. US ones, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/65 "2026-01-14T03:22:36Z")
Backscratchers Great for reaching those unreachable itches. Also good for sliding under the fridge to retrieve lost bottle caps. Great for digging snow out of my exhaust pipe when I back into a mound of the stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/66 "2026-01-14T04:45:50Z")
I don’t know. My electric kettle works great and is fast. How fast are the UK ones, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/67 "2026-01-14T04:47:37Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The Glide that gets between your teeth will be far more effective than the other stuff that doesn’t fit between your teeth at all Also the other stuff sometimes gets stuck coming out. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/68 "2026-01-14T04:51:31Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I don’t know. My electric kettle works great and is fast. > > How fast are the UK ones, exactly? They’re so fast that they boil the water before you even turn on the kettle. This [endochronic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiotimoline) capability of UK kettles is well known, and is helpful when unexpected company arrives for tea. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/69 "2026-01-14T05:46:45Z")
Funny 😂 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan\_myers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@aruvqan\_myers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan_myers)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/70 "2026-01-14T14:49:32Z")
Back in the early 2000s one of our roomies worked for Sheffield Pharmaceuticals, a company that made a bunch of different brands of toothpaste and at one point we had a random bag of maybe 20 different kinds and flavors. It was an adventure =) [back in the day, there was a Japanese website that sold products from appliances, clothing, furniture, ingredients and they had some seriously expensive sets of like 12? flavors like mint, melon, soy, yuzu and whatnot. I always wanted to get them but it was like almost $10 per tube] ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/71 "2026-01-14T15:29:26Z")
Speaking of dental floss, if the pick things disappeared, I’m afraid I wouldn’t floss! AND the Walmart Equate brand is much better than the name brand. The name brand floss breaks often. I’ve never had an Equate floss break. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/72 "2026-01-14T15:37:46Z")
This actually happened to me recently, and I’m still sad about it. Since I was in college back in the Eighties, I have enjoyed a dry vegetable beef soup mix. It has gone through many names over the years (Soup Starter, Wyler’s, Mrs. Grass) but it was always the same thing. I would throw in a pound of cubed stew beef, cook it in the slow cooker for three hours, and it was really good. It was also my comfort food, and my spouse loved it too (we discovered it together in college when a roommate suggested it). We even have a New Year’s Eve tradition to have it. Well, this year they discontinued it for good. It disappeared from our local stores ages ago, but I could always buy 8-packs of bags from Amazon. Then they dried up too. I finally wrote to the company that makes it, and they confirmed it has been discontinued. So yeah, it’s just a silly minor thing, but I will miss it a lot. We’re going to try another brand (Bear Creek) but it won’t be the same. They also discontinued Campbell’s Skillet Parmesan Sauce, which we liked with chicken, but that was a much more recent discovery so it wasn’t such a big loss. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/73 "2026-01-14T17:27:08Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I don’t know. My electric kettle works great and is fast. > > How fast are the UK ones, exactly? While US electric kettles aren’t as fast as the UK ones, they’re still much faster than boiling water on the stove. But theoretically with twice the voltage a UK kettle should be able to boil water in about half the time as a US kettle. In practice it’s not going to be quite that fast due to various energy losses, but I understand it’s pretty close. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/74 "2026-01-14T18:03:05Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Levi’s jeans (particularly the 527 model) I like the cut of your jib: a bootcut jib. I wear those, too, and have them on today. As you know, we got snow overnight and boots call for bootcut. They fall so nicely at the knees. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/75 "2026-01-14T19:05:10Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > But theoretically with twice the voltage a UK kettle should be able to boil water in about half the time as a US kettle. That is true only if both kettles are limited to the same maximum current (amperage). ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/76 "2026-01-14T19:16:07Z")
True, but the video @Heracles linked to mentioned UK kettles being 3000 watts, so it seems that is indeed the case – US appliances typically max out at 1500 watts. ETA: In another video he actually rigged up his electric car charger to power a British kettle (don’t try that at home!) and IIRC he did observe an almost, but not quite, 50% reduction in boiling time compared to an American kettle. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/77 "2026-01-14T19:19:08Z")
Wow, 3000 watts is a pretty beefy kettle! Standard U.S. single-pole circuit breakers are 15A and 20A. I see that the standard size in the UK for similar applications is 10A and 16A. With double the voltage, that is significantly more power available. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/78 "2026-01-14T21:20:16Z")
A lot of American kitchens are already wired for 220 vac and using an import appliance might be easier than it seems at first. I’ve certainly found disused 220/240 wallplugs behind the gas range, though not in my own home as I’d hoped. The kettles would be nice or a tankless heater and I’d especially like some more juice from my portable induction top. ---
**Author:** ![irae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f0a364/32.png) [@irae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irae)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/79 "2026-01-15T14:42:47Z")
I buy loose tea. Really and truly tastes better than Lipton’s sad leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629/80 "2026-01-15T19:59:53Z")
LL Bean is another one I couldn’t live without. It’s like half my wardrobe. It’s really hard to find durable clothing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consumer-items-you-would-really-hate-be-screwed-if-they-discontinued/1026629.md?page=5)