She needed soap & we were in the supermarket this weekend. There was a dozen different scents of Dove! Given it’s hard to discern a scent from the packaging & once you smell a few one gets into olfactory overload how the 'eck is one supposed to figure out which one is ‘best’?
Something similar happened to me. I used to eat Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-wheats routinely years ago, but subsequently made a concerted effort to reduce my sugar intake.
So I switched to bite-sized plain shredded wheat, or as I refer to them, “unfrosted mini-wheats.” 
I have found that the store brand is just as good as the Kellogg’s or Post brand, so it is really cheap: about $2.39 for a 1-lb box, which is about one-third the price of the major brands. And it only has two ingredients: whole-grain wheat and Vitamin E (which is apparently a natural preservative). A small bowl with whole milk is very satisfying and fills me up until lunchtime.
But maybe I should try some Fiber One with Grape Nuts to mix it up. Individually they are just ok, but maybe you are on to something with the combination.
A few years ago I would have said the same thing regarding Speed Stick Fresh Scent antiperspirant. I started using it in the 1980s. It looked like this. Then about ten years ago they changed the formulation and the smell was just awful to my nose.
So I switched to Arrid Ultra Fresh antiperspirant. Just like I used to with the Speed Stick, I buy in bulk. So if they discontinue it or change the formula, I have about a two-year supply to use while I look for an alternative.
That’s just two brands of deodorant over a 40 year period. When I find something I like, I tend to stick with it.
I still haven’t forgiven Nabisco for discontinuing caraway rye Triscuits. Haven’t found a decent substitute.
Enamelon toothpaste nearly went belly-up a couple years ago; no one anywhere had any in stock; I ordered a case of it which didn’t get fulfilled until ~ 9 months later.
Regarding unscented antiperspirant, I bought a package a few years ago. I pretty quickly realized that if I couldn’t remember whether I’d already put it on that morning or not, there was no way for me to check. With scented antiperspirant, I can simply sniff under my arms to confirm.
Dang! I have a pair of Skechers Relaxed fit shoes on right now. I concur with everything you’ve said.
That’s me, as well.
I started using Speed Stick’s spice scent when I was in high school, so about 45 years ago. In 1990, when I was working at my first real job (at a personal-care products company), we introduced Degree antiperspirant. I tried a stick of their Sport scent (the fragrance of which was based on the men’s fragrance Drakkar Noir, which was popular at that time), and liked it, so I switched to it; a few months later, I was assigned to be the market researcher on Degree, which I did for the next four years.
Now, 36 years after first trying it, I still use Degree Sport scent.
One that has been recently discontinued - Sony’s Closed Captioned glasses. I believe they were exclusively licensed to Regal Cinemas and generally worked very well. Sony no longer makes or supports them so they have been pulled from all Regal Cinemas and replaced with the significantly inferior “screen on a stick” that you place in your cupholder. These suck, and I refuse to use them, so I no longer have caption available at the movies unless I go to one of the few and far between open caption showings.
I have a different issue with deodorant. I don’t care about the scent; my problem is that pretty much all “invisible solid” type deodorants make me itchy. Because of this, I always use gel deodorants. I’ve noticed lately that is seems like fewer brands offer their deodorant in a gel form. I used to always get Right Guard gel, frankly because it was a little cheaper than the other brands. But they don’t seem to make that anymore, or at least it’s no longer on the shelf at Target. It seems like Mitchum and I think Gillette are the only two brands that I can still find in gel form.
This sort of thing is the bane of my wife’s life. She falls in love with a product, only to have it discontinued out from under her.
My educated guess is that the gel form (which was first widely introduced when I worked in the category in the '90s) has been declining in popularity and sales, leading manufacturers to discontinue them (and/or leading retailers to replace them at shelf with better-selling SKUs) and that’s why you can’t find many of them anymore.
In short, you prefer a form that relatively few people do, and it’s becoming an endangered species.
Cat litter. I’m not shredding newspaper, so Sadie will have to pack her bindle and hit the road.
Oh, cat products is another one. My cat, for whatever reason, will not use traditional rope scratching posts. After some trial and error, I found an angled scratcher with a replaceable cardboard insert that he likes to use. I used to be able to pick up refills for it at PetSmart, where I bought the scratcher itself. PetSmart stopped carrying refills for it years ago, and now I have to get them from Amazon. As far as I can tell, this is the one cardboard refill that fits that scratcher, and if they stop making that I’m screwed.
I have a whole webpage devoted to Discontinued food I really miss.
(It even includes a recipe for re-creating Noodles Romanoff from a box.)
Toothpaste.
I’ve used the same kind my entire life. Having to change would be unthinkable.
Dickies brand cargo pants. They’re the only brand that’s close to ‘no-iron’ (whatever that’s called now).
I only wear cargo pants because I can’t carry much of anything in my back pockets because sitting on, say, a wallet, really hurts my hip joints, so I need the extra pockets to carry all my old man stuffs.
Afta Pre-Electric Shave lotion. I could switch to Williams but Afta is so much better
I like some variety in my life so I am constantly getting different brands / styles / flavors; don’t think I’d really even notice if they stopped making one particular one.
I love iced green tea, and the local supermarket used to stock frozen, concentrated cranberry/raspberry juice that was the perfect add-in to flavor it. Tried ‘berry punch’ for a while, but too grape-y. Switched to pink lemonade, which soon vanished, so now I’m on regular lemonade and add my own grenadine…
Also RIP Stoned Wheat Thins!
Hey, Kenobi those Bombas are great. Love them. I’ve recently discovered ‘Hot-sox’ brand. They are not as nice, but cuuuuute. And launder well.
If beans(any kind Lima, Pinto, Black, Kidney, Great Northern and many varieties of peas) left this earth I’d be dead in a week. Or at least very unhappy.
Their “Armachillo” underwear qualifies for me. Also Orvis many pocket cargo shorts
Biotene for me.