I don’t know why but it occurred to me the other day how often a product or service seems to start out with excellent quality, but then deteriorates, even to the point of losing key functionality.
For instance: CVS took over Sav-On, our local drug and sundry chain a few years ago. It seems they don’t carry half the things that Sav-On did, and you hear people complaining about it to one another all the time. Last night it was a couple of college-age kids, and you don’t usually expect someone that age to comment on how lousy a store has become. I know I didn’t at that age. Besides the merchandise, they’ve made all sorts of stupid changes, like replacing the sensible single queue for all the cash registers with a separate line for each, and also by removing the equally sensible individual cashier workstations that you pass through, like in a grocery store, with a single long counter that you walk up to and then leave in pretty much the same direction.
Subject specialized cable channels, of course, like History, Discovery, and Travel. What does poker have to do with travel? It doesn’t matter what I think, though, because the poker tournaments are their highest rated show.
Movie channels. I’m pretty sure I saw that “Grease”, or maybe it was some Wes Craven gore-fest-orama, was going to be shown on TCM. Since when are those classics, worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as “The Godfather” or “Dinner At Eight”?
Re-usable grocery bags. When these first appeared, they were made of strong canvas or vinyl, and had not only handles but shoulder straps. I thought nothing of buying 20 or 30 pounds of groceries and carrying it a few blocks home. But when I recently tried to do that it turned out to be very aggravating. You know what happens if you walk any distance carrying heavy shopping bags? They bump irritatingly against your legs with every step you take.
I suppose air travel has to be mentioned, but then it as also become greatly democratized compared to the old days when air travel was associated with “lughzury”.
Exception: When Time Warner took over Adelphia, our local supplier, service and quality actually did get better.