In the past few months a couple of products I purchase on a regular basis have changed and in my opinion, for the worse. Based on these changes, I will not purchase these products again.
The first was Hillbilly bread by Franz. It was a nice light wheat bread that made kick ass sandwiches. I was even willing to pay $2.39 a loaf for it, even when other kinds of bread were on sale for much cheaper. Last month I noticed my local Safeway had Lumberjack bread instead of Hillbilly bread. The packages looked the same except for the name so I figured maybe the name was changed to be PC. Wrong. Lumberjack bread has a totally different taste and texture. I contacted Franz to see what was going on and I was told it was a marketing decision, here in the Pacific Northwest, folks could relate to a lumberjack easier than a hillbilly. I will no longer purchase Franz products.
Then this morning in the shower I got another rude surprise. When I first grew a beard about 10 years ago, to combat the itchies, I used Head and Shoulders shampoo to wash my beard. I have had no reason to change over the years, my beard is always nice and clean, it doesn’t itch at all, and I don’t get dry skin flakes (beard dandruff?). Last weekend I noticed my current bottle was almost empty so I had my wife pick up a new one. This morning I noticed that the H&S bottle was different and it had those words on the front: New and Improved. Hmmmm. I figured they made it better at preventing dandruff and the itchies. I squeezed out some on my hand and started working it into my beard. Then I notice what was new. The smell. Someone decided H&S has to smell. And to me anyway, it is not a pleasant smell. It is a musky scent that it popular with a lot of younger folks today. I don’t like it. I have visited the H&S website and let them know too. In the mean time I have a $6 bottle of shampoo I will not use. Looks like a trip to Walmart tomorrow to sniff other brands of dandruff shampoos.
Any product change recently that made you change your mind about buying that product again?
A little more than ten years ago, Maruchan brand cup ramen stopped putting the soft, salty, scrambled egg chunks I loved in its Chicken flavor cup. They should have axed the spongy faux chicken cubes. I still haven’t forgiven them. I won’t even comment on their Pesto and Macaroni & Cheese flavors.
The Chef Boyardee Raviolis (mini and beef) used to have the occasional mutant raviolis, where the noodles were thick and sort of bunched up inside. I actually liked that, and was disappointed when I realized I had gone through several cans with nary a mutant. Apparently, mankind’s ravioli-making technology have improved.
Lifebouy Soap.
Several years ago, Lifebouy soap came in one color and with one fragarance. It was a coral color. Now the soap sucks.
Whatever happened to the “Good Old Days”.
Taco flavored Doritos. I used to eat those by the bag. I loved loved loved them.
Then they decided to change them. You can still buy Taco flavored Doritoes, and they don’t COMPLETELY taste like ass, but they’re not nearly as good as they used to be.
This happens in software all the time, I think. I still use an older version of Netscape because newer versions end up getting more complex with little extra value.
Same thing happened to me just yesterday with Easy CDCreator. I upgraded from version 4 to “5 Platinum”. The older version allowed me to make CD’s in a lumbering, inefficient manner. The newer version on the other hand, lets me make CD’s in a MORE lumbering and inefficient manner, but with a slightly more attractive main screen.
Big improvement. I’m going back to version 4 and then never buyuing anything they make again.
Pepperidge Farm cookies. They haven’t changed the recipe, but it used to be that you’d get a good-sized cookie. I bought some recently and got eight half-dollar sized cookies. Maybe it’s just me, but if I’m going to indulge in some expensive hedonistic cookie eating, I want a massive, cart-wheel sized cookie.
I used to love Cheddar Chex Mix, after my sister made the mistake of letting me eat some of hers (she loved it, too, and thereafter we were in competition with each other for the Chex Mix in the house). Not too long ago they changed it, and added crackers to it, and now, it sucks. We don’t buy it any mroe.
They got this great idea to make the software media player to look like a real live machine. So there are a bunch of fancy-looking buttons and they’ve completely discarded the standardized widget set that has been developed and refined over many years. I hate it I hate it I hate it. Which sucks because everyone else seems to want to copy it.
I hate WinAmp for the same reason. Why the heck can’t you give me a basic window with basic buttons and basic sliders? Why is it when I change my desktop settings so all my windows are green with purple features, your window is still blue with gray features? But as far as I know WinAmp has always been this way, so I’m offtopic.
Umm…you do know Winamp is skin-based, right? I mean, you can make it look however you want…I don’t know that they have a skin for each setting you can do on Windows, but there are probably thousands an their site and there’s got to be something that goes with your current setup…
Not a recent passing, but I still miss the programmable AnyKey keyboards that I used to get with Gateway computers. IIRC, it was the coming of the Pentium IIs that did 'em in.
They were great; they had two sets of function keys, and all the keys were programmable. So for applications I used a lot where a common setting change was three or four menu levels down, you could program one of the extra function keys to do it wth one keystroke.
But they were incompatible with the new mobos. I even discovered who made them for Gateway, and they said they weren’t go to bother revising them. <sniff>
I LOVED THOSE. I’m sorry you reminded me now. I can nearly taste the egg bits now!
I hate new Trix cereal. I liked it when it was little puff balls o fruity goodness. Now the shapes, textures, and taste is completely different. Blech.
Photoshop 7, they have taken away all the control you had when making a transparent GIF. Well it is probably still there I just have to go out and buy another $75.00 book to find it. In the meantime though I have left PS 5 on my machine just for GIFs.
Burger King french fries. BK has the best burger of the big three, but their fries were considered inferior to McDonald’s. So they added something to give them a lingering taste of dishwashing liquid. I used to go to BK when I needed a burger fix; I think I’ve been there twice since they changed the fries – and I didn’t order fries.
Twix was a great little candy bar until they added caramel.
RealOne Player. RealPlayer was a fine and essential addition to web browsing; it let me play Real Audio files. Now, Real Player wants you to play everything with it. Plus, it downloads all sorts of software that you don’t need, which you can’t turn off (It seems to reinstall the next time you use Real Player), and which can play havoc with your computer. It’s enough to drive me to Windows Media Player.
