Hey, that’s clever.
We have stores around here called Big Lots. They carry all manner of long-ago name brands that no other store carries. Things that were big in the 50s, 60s or 70s. Stuff that you can’t believe are still manufactured, like Lavoris mouthwash (“That good-tasting red stuff my dentist gave me!”) and yes, even Lestoil. (I not long ago bought a can of Barbasol shaving cream there, and I never see that in other stores around here.) I’m 68 and was in elementary school when Lestoil commercials used to run incessantly. I even remember an old joke with their jingle as the punchline. (Warning: It’s in really bad taste.) It seems a little girl dies and meets St. Peter at the pearly gates. Pete says “How did a little girl like you die?” And she sings “It’s so easy when you use Lestoil.” Ha-ha. We thought it was hilarious when we were 8.
Bsrbasol is still carried in grocery stores, at least in Tucson. It’s on the shelves at the Wal-Mart closest to me.
Some stores like that are kinda fun. I recall a 60s-style 5-and-dime that I stumbled on back in the late '90s that had a remarkable amount of 1960s products. Most of which looked like they actually dated from then; faded packaging, no UPCs on the packages, much less urls, etc. IOW, not recent manufacture. Where had that merchandise been sitting all those years?
An different interesting question about e.g. Big Lots is how many of those throw-back products are “genuine” = still made by the original company or some legit successor, vs. how many are e.g. Chinese knockoffs of a now dead brand where there’s no successor company to defend the original trademark and the faker is just skating on the name recognition for WhateverStuff to sell more product.
Surely there are some of each.
I used to love Big Lots because it was a hodge-podge of old, strange, outdated, oddball products. Once I got quince-flavored Pop Tarts there. Huh? Then they cleaned it up (at least they did ours) and organized and tidied everything and now it looks and feels just like a Target.
Back when I was a poor college student I used to always buy Barbasol shaving cream from Big Lots. And White Rain shampoo. And this generic soap that seemed like a knock off of Ivory. And six packs of Shasta Cola. But the real oddball stuff was in the canned food aisle. Canned tamales are a thing? Indeed they are and I found them at Big Lots back when I was in college. They sucked, by the way. I ended up throwing them out and not eating them. And yellow tomatoes. Those tasted fine, but made somewhat odd looking chili. But it seems odd that yellow tomatoes would show up in cans at Big Lots. The only other yellow tomatoes I’ve seen are the fancy heirloom varieties at the farmers market.
There was a thread here a few years back about people’s love for Hormel canned tamales.
I will add that the ones I said sucked were probably not Hormel. I’m pretty sure they were some weird brand I’d never heard of (which describes many of the canned foods sold at Big Lots).
I got a can to try based on that thread, but I didn’t much care for them. I think it might be something you have to have grown up with or something. Like my otherwise-inexplicable love for fruitcake.
There are times when edible food-like products actually sound good, and Hormel’s canned tamales are for one of them.
Yeah, Big Lots just ain’t what it used to be. One time I bought a couple of sleeves of 32 ounce paper soda fountain Pepsi cups, at a really low price. They had the Pepsi logo on the inside! I used them for a couple of years to mix up Jiffy Mix products. Big Lots used to be the place for Buffalo Tools. They had prices printed on the package, say $29.99 for a cheap socket set. The orange Big Lots price tag said $5.99. Nowadays, they’re just a nicer Dollar General with furniture.
By the way, I love canned tamales.
I was looking for something else today at Home Depot and there it was.
So Pic N Save was bought up by MacFrugals, which was in turn bought up by Big Lots.
I agree: Big Lots has lost its groove. Next thing: Ollie’s?
https://www.ollies.us/locations/
FTR I’ve never had canned tamales. I’ve had Dinty Moore, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee ravioli, etc. but not one canned tamal has crossed these lips.