# What became ubiquitous then went away in your lifetime? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180 "2026-04-10T22:01:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/61 "2026-04-11T14:19:16Z")
Speaking of malls, how about _Sharper Image_? That was the store that specialized in high tech gadgets. It was always fun to browse whenever I was at the mall (leave me here to test the massage chair). Now? Kaput. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/62 "2026-04-11T14:22:00Z")
Radio Shack and Lafayette Radio Electronics stores. These were built as retail extensions of their catalogs, which every electronics enthusiast subscribed to. In the 1970s and 80s just about every town had one or the other or both of these stores. Lafayette was great for medium-quality stereo gear. You could walk in and for a modest price buy a package consisting of an amp, a tuner, bookshelf speakers and a Garrard turntable. I know someone who still has the whole setup in her family room, though I’m sure she hasn’t used it in years. Lafayette disappeared first, then Radio Shack. There’s a strip mall not far from where I live. Today it’s mostly offices, but it’s still called Lafayette Center, though the store that anchored it closed 40 or 50 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/63 "2026-04-11T14:25:29Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > how about _Sharper Image_? […] Now? Kaput. Wait, really? They’re gone? I thought I saw one inside SFO (the airport) a year or two ago. And I could’ve sworn that last time I was at Costco, there was some chintzy home gadget or another under that brand name. I also avoided that store and brand, though, because they seemed like low-quality “As seen on [late night] TV” junk. Were they ever good? ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/64 "2026-04-11T14:26:34Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > Also, T-Tops in cars. I really liked those, as a good compromise between a convertible and a hard top. I suppose they’ve been replaced by the even better hard-top convertibles. I had a Nissan 300zx with Ttop. Once removed they went into special bags. They weighed a ton, and the risk of dropping one made it anxious. But the worst thing was the turbulence created with them off. So they only came off one time. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/65 "2026-04-11T14:27:19Z")
West Michigan LP. A very small town area with swaths of rural farmland between. Larger towns within 30 miles but I don’t usually go there except for when my husband is in the hospital, and shopping isn’t on my mind. Frankly, the product _is_ probably available locally, but I just haven’t noticed it as I was unaware it existed in that form. I just ordered some from Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/66 "2026-04-11T14:29:10Z")
Yes, I thought of this. My dad had one and so did my uncle. Such a weird fad. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/67 "2026-04-11T14:31:33Z")
MP3 players. They didn’t exist when I was a kid (we used cassettes and eventually CDs), then they were everywhere, then they disappeared as people switched to streaming music. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/68 "2026-04-11T14:35:03Z")
> [@Sylvanz](#): > > A very small town area with swaths of rural farmland Ah, makes sense. Most urban areas and more populous states made them mandatory a few years back, but it probably takes a while longer to get to the remote areas. > [@Sylvanz](#): > > I just ordered some from Amazon. Some LED bulbs? A quick bit of unsolicited off-topic advice, if I may: > **click to expand off-topic LED bulb stuff** > > Look for something with a good CRI (color rendition index, at least 80+ but preferably 90+). It will make a big difference in the quality of light you get from them. Cheap LEDs are _terrible_ but the good ones are indistinguishable (to my eyes, at least) from incandescents, and leagues and bounds above CFLs. And if you want a warmer glow similar to the incandescents (as opposed to cold/blue/florescent), look for a color temperature of around 2700k (lower is warmer). These should all be on the [lighting facts](https://www.bulbs.com/learning/lightingfacts.aspx) of the bulb. In general, Costco carries a decent selection of high-quality, already-curated LED bulbs. Amazon can be more hit or miss. OK, enough of a tangent, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/69 "2026-04-11T14:37:24Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > MP3 players. They didn’t exist when I was a kid (we used cassettes and eventually CDs), then they were everywhere, then they disappeared as people switched to streaming music. Well, didn’t they just kinda transition to iPod Touches and eventually to iPhones? Sure, everyone streams now, but you can still download them to your phone like the old days. (But probably as `.m4a` rather than `.mp3`) I also heard that dedicated MP3 players that do nothing else but play music (like the old rotary dial iPods) are making [a bit of comeback with Gen Z](https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/23/why-gen-z-and-young-adults-are-embracing-ipods-again), apparently, who’s sick of all the screen time and distractions. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/70 "2026-04-11T14:40:36Z")
Leisure suits. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/71 "2026-04-11T14:42:00Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > I can still buy DVDs and CD’s of new releases, just ever fewer, I think the next thing to go completely extinct will be “cable TV”. How the cables were on the telephone poles and you’d see the cable company up on a cherry picker working on them. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/72 "2026-04-11T14:43:48Z")
Well, those will probably be around for a while, since a lot of US households are still served only by cable internet (same cables) and DSL (as opposed to fiber or Starlink). The TV part, though, maybe not so much… given that a lot of the proprietary stuff and sports are now on [YouTube TV](https://tv.youtube.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/73 "2026-04-11T14:51:49Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Wait, really? They’re gone? I thought I saw one inside SFO (the airport) a year or two ago. And I could’ve sworn that last time I was at Costco, there was some chintzy home gadget or another under that brand name. Google tells me that _Sharper Image_ closed its stand alone retail stores when they filed for bankruptcy in 2008. They still sell online and via third party vendors. > [@Reply](#): > > I also avoided that store and brand, though, because they seemed like low-quality “As seen on [late night] TV” junk. Were they ever good? Now, I think all they do is sell late night junk. But it used to feature cool stuff (at least from my perspective as a kid) - clocks that projected lasers, levitating globes, really good vehicle miniatures, that sort of thing. They also used really soft cloth to make things like blankets and slippers. And, of course, those massaging chairs. As I said, a good place to browse. But evidently not buy. Hence the bankruptcy. ETA: here’s an example they currently sell. It’s some sort of universal tool for your car. It includes a digital tire gauge. It’s tech for tech’s sake. [![](https://i.ibb.co/99FRdpMX/IMG-2175.webp) ](https://i.ibb.co/99FRdpMX/IMG-2175.webp) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/74 "2026-04-11T14:56:28Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Well, those will probably be around for a while, since a lot of US households are still served only by cable internet (same cables) and DSL (as opposed to fiber or Starlink). Doesn’t fiber still require cables? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/75 "2026-04-11T14:56:36Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Apparently college kids don’t buy physical textbooks anymore? I don’t remember having textbooks in college, outside of math and econ classes. History, social sciences, religion, all had a number of books you were expected to buy and read, but none o them were _textbooks_ in the sense of a book that the lectures basically followed. The lectures were the text, and the other readings were referred to as appropriate. Now, high school classes always used to have textbooks, but the Firebug, who finished HS last year, never had a physical textbook the whole time. What aggravated me more was that his math classes didn’t even have a text on PDF that we could refer to if we wanted to help him understand what he was working on. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/76 "2026-04-11T15:00:20Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Mom and pop antique shops. Every small town in Ohio had one in the 1990s and I loved it. Then the big regional antique malls took over and even a small seller could rent a showcase or floor space. Then eBay killed them all. My town still has one. Seems to be doing fine. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/77 "2026-04-11T15:03:45Z")
> [@JeffB](#): > > Just moved from television to online. This. Current artists put out music videos all the time, and I watch/listen to them regularly on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/78 "2026-04-11T15:05:34Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Audio cassettes, VCRs, and probably CDs/DVDs in the very near future. I think my family got our first VCR circa 1982 and I didn’t pick up my first DVD player until 1998. Despite owning more DVDs than I ever did VHS tapes, I think I pretty much stopped buying DVDs by 2005 and stop using my players by 2010 or so. Last year I finally tossed my old DVD/BlueRay player when the city offered us a place to recycle our electronics. So I used VCRs for about sixteen years of my life and maybe DVDs for about ten or twelve. I have a small collection of DVDs, quite a few CDs, and even some records, but I have no means to play any of them. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/79 "2026-04-11T15:11:14Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Compact fluorescent light bulbs. First appeared in probably the late 1990s as a more energy efficient alternative to incandescent bulbs. Now they’ve been supplanted by LEDs. Excellent example! I still have some CFLs gathering dust in a cabinet, on account of how fast we went from incandescents to CFLs to LEDs. And because the LEDs and the few CFLs I’m still using all last so long, I may or may not use them all up in this lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2026, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/80 "2026-04-11T15:12:58Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > that all-important P.E. exam. Jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180.md?page=5)