# What Brands Have You Given Up On And Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 29, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301 "2014-07-29T03:38:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/61 "2014-07-30T15:21:58Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Yahoo! Brand free web-based e-mail service. > > I’ve seen all the endless reams of on-line user commentary about how gawd-awful it’s gotten, and I’ve seen the gawd-awful results myself. Every new revision they’ve put out in the last few years has been more unusable than the versions before, to the point that it’s now just plain badly broken. > … What really frustrates me is that their new president keeps getting positive press, even though all their products are falling tremendously in quality. I remember several years back they switched to an AJAX mail client for the first time, and it was horrifically slow and buggy. Then a “Beta” version came out, and it was such an improvement, both in reliability and feature set, I actually wrote to the company to praise it. Then the Marissa Mayer comes in, and they strip and gut Yahoo mail, and have made the entire website barely usable on my slightly older laptop. But this president keeps getting praised for making Yahoo “beautiful” and “relevant”. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/62 "2014-07-30T15:30:07Z")
Running dude, Congrats to you on a very fine post. I agree with you fully. Yahoo free email has always been just terrible, very inconvenient and hyped above and beyond all reasonable levels or expectation. It is, in a word - **putrid** - and it has always been putrid! ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/63 "2014-07-30T15:41:23Z")
By the way, about 5 years ago, I resorted to paying for another service because it was real cheap and it did something simple that Yahoo woudln’t do at the time. I don’t know if it does that now or not. But, just in case anyone here is interested, I got some truly excellent results with both [www.mail2world.com](http://www.mail2world.com) and [www.mail.com](http://www.mail.com). Both of these have been most excellent - especially the [www.mail2world.com](http://www.mail2world.com). It was the one that I paid something like $5 per year and that was extremely cheap at the time and it gave me the ability to create hundreds of email addresses that were all routed to one single address. I paid the $5 because I wanted to enter some contests and I wrote a bot that would submit thousands of entries per hour. I won a 40" Sony TV. This was about 5 years ago when a Sony 40" TV was worth about $1500. Overall, I was extremely happy to have spent the $5 and won a $1500 TV. They fixed the contest so that it no longer accepts entries submitted by bots. But I didn’t care because it was a wonderful “war story” that was good enough to last me for many years and it made me very happy. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/64 "2014-07-30T18:45:29Z")
> [@runningdude](#): > > What really frustrates me is that their new president keeps getting positive press, even though all their products are falling tremendously in quality. > > I remember several years back they switched to an AJAX mail client for the first time, and it was horrifically slow and buggy. Then a “Beta” version came out, and it was such an improvement, both in reliability and feature set, I actually wrote to the company to praise it. > > Then the Marissa Mayer comes in, and they strip and gut Yahoo mail, and have made the entire website barely usable on my slightly older laptop. But this president keeps getting praised for making Yahoo “beautiful” and “relevant”. :smack: I’ve had a Yahoo account for many years and I’ve rarely had any problems with it. I like that you can drag and drop messages into folders and set up disposable addresses. Once in a while it will freeze and I’ll have to hit “reload,” but that’s it. I keep hearing that it sucks, it’s broken, Marissa Mayer ruined it, etc., but I just don’t see it. It’s been consistently solid and reliable for me. However, I should mention that I block _all_ the ads. Occasionally I’ll see it without ads (like when I’m on someone else’s computer), and I’m appalled. Huge, garish ads everywhere: an enormous ad on the right side, ads inserted into the message list, ads below the folder list. And they’re not even ads for things I might conceivably be interested in; they’re inane ads like “Obama Reduces Amount Homeowners Owe.” And now Yahoo charges _fifty bucks a year_ to make the ads go away (it used to be $20). Fuck that shit. If Yahoo ever told me to stop blocking ads and pony up, I’d be outta there. But I figure it’s only a matter of time before Marissa Mayer leaves and Yahoo is sold to Microsoft. One morning I’ll log into my mail, get redirected to [Outlook.com](http://Outlook.com), and see a splash screen with “Welcome Yahoo Mail Users!” ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/65 "2014-07-30T18:57:42Z")
If you look carefully, you’ll notice that half of the “ice cream” in grocery store freezers no longer says “ice cream” on the packaging. Instead, a lot of brands are now “frozen dairy desserts”, which is just as appealing as it sounds. The new label is often in small print. I’ve learned the hard way to look for it. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/66 "2014-07-30T19:46:24Z")
Sears - in large part because of threads I read here referencing their lack of quality, deceptive sales, etc. The Territory Ahead - I used to love their casual shirts and clothing. Then the CA company sold out to Jersey (maybe?) and they kept the high price but replaced quality goods with sweatshop crap. HP - too much to list. Black & Decker - underpowered, cheap crap. Pirelli - used to have great success with them but I haven’t liked the feel or noise from the last couple of sets and I’ll just stick with Michelin from now on. GM - guys, that’s way too long to wait on recalls and far, far too many of them. I wanted to buy my kid a Chevy truck but may have to go with _gulp_ Ford instead. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/67 "2014-07-30T20:01:43Z")
**HP printer** - After a 1 year old printer suddenly quit working for no discernible reason, I made the switch to Epson. **Epson printer** - Okay, what’s more annoying than a printer that just stops working for no reason? A printer that stops printing because it doesn’t “recognize” the print cartridge…even though I’m using genuine Epson toner! In their effort to make life miserable for folks using knock-off toner cartridges, they’ve succeeded in making life miserable for their brand-toner cartridge users. Yippee! **Breyers Ice Cream** - Add me to the list. No vanilla specs? No buy. \*\*Secret \*\*(antiperspirant/deo) - regular stuff doesn’t stop sweat, which is a real downer for an antiperspirant. And I’m not paying $10 for the Clinical brand, which actually does work. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/68 "2014-07-30T20:20:28Z")
I’ve given up on practically all yogurts. First it was Columbo yogurt (which was actually pretty good) after they reneged on their promise and joined the rush to downsize yogurt to six ounces per container. Then I was recently in the supermarket and discovered that they’ve [all been downsized again to 5.3 ounces.](http://www.cnbc.com/id/101309099#.). Screw you guys. Especially when you read weaseling like in the above article: “We kind of wanted to be more consistent with ourselves and the category more,” said Peter McGuinness, Chobani’s chief marketing and brand officer, noting that most competitors’ single-serve yogurts are 5.3 ounces, as are several of Chobani’s recently launched products. Before the switch, customers often wondered why Chobani’s larger yogurts contained more calories and sugar than rival cups." Yes…sure, you’re doing the consumer a huge service by reducing the quantities by 10% while keeping the price the same so that they won’t be confused when counting calories. Because not only are consumers dumb, but you’re apparently relying on them to be dumb. Also, you can’t get normal yogurt. It’s all low-fat, non-fat, Greek, or has some other random variation that generally means added sugar or gum. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/69 "2014-07-30T20:29:39Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I used to wear nothing but New Balance shoes, because I have wide feet, and they were the only sneaker brand that came in widths. But when I did a lot of walking, especially when hiking on vacations, I’d get horrible blisters. I’d travel with lots of Moleskin, and even that wasn’t enough. > > Then I found out about Merrells. I bought a pair of hiking shoes that were both waterproof and ventilated. I wear them every single day, unless I need something dressy, which is rare. No more New Balance, no more blisters, and no more Moleskin. I love Avia for the same reason. Vasque has gone way down in quality. Older stuff still fine, buy it used. Quite a few outdoors clothing lines have gone “fashion”, and quality into the toilet. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/70 "2014-07-30T21:03:03Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > If you look carefully, you’ll notice that half of the “ice cream” in grocery store freezers no longer says “ice cream” on the packaging. Instead, a lot of brands are now “frozen dairy desserts”, which is just as appealing as it sounds. The new label is often in small print. I’ve learned the hard way to look for it. Including **Breyer’s**. Who also used to use real sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup. So I 4th or 5th Breyer’s as a brand no longer to be bought. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/71 "2014-07-30T21:12:15Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > And WTH happened with the fruit flavors? The peach and cherry vanilla used to be my favorites! Now they’re some weird “dairy dessert” concoction that has a weird mouthfeel. > > The upside of this is that I’ve started making my own ice cream, so I know what’s going into it… There’s the key … **dairy dessert**. They don’t call it ice cream so as to avoid the federal regulations specific to dairy products. By calling it a “dairy dessert” it’s not ice cream as defined by law/regulation. Whatever the case at least it’s not the [Walmart brand “ice cream” sandwiches that don’t even melt in the heat](http://consumerist.com/2014/07/24/walmart-ice-cream-sandwiches-that-dont-melt-after-12-hours-outside-just-have-more-cream/)! Slight hijack - Next time you are in the store look at the products that come in the half gallon containers, e.g., orange juice. The container will hold a half gallon of product (64 FL) but the actual amount is only 59 ounces now, across the board. Since real dairy products are regulated you can be sure that half gallon container of milk is really 64 FL. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/72 "2014-07-30T21:18:10Z")
So many sad stories about shoe quality doing downhill… Pity… _Hugs her Birkenstocks_ ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/73 "2014-07-30T23:09:02Z")
We buy our daughter some sort of V-8 vegetable/fruit juice mix, because she utterly refuses to eat vegetables. However, there are like dozens of different varieties of V-8 juices, so we have to be careful about reading the labels. I’m always careful to get ones that say “100% Juice”. Last time, my wife pointed out that there was a “Lite” version of the kind we get that promised half the calories. But I didn’t see a “100% Juice” label. I finally found small print saying it was “50% Juice”. Hmm. Half the calories, and 50% juice? Yes, V-8 is taking their juice, mixing it half and half with water, and marketing it as “Lite” for the exact same price. The nutrition labels made it obvious. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/74 "2014-07-30T23:14:59Z")
**California Pizza Kitchen** used to have an excellent shrimp pizza. They got rid of that, but no worries - they still had a really good chicken pizza (not the BBQ chicken pizza. blech!), and even sold that in stores in the frozen food section! Until they got rid of it from both the restaurants and the supermarkets. They’ve basically frou-froued their [menu](http://www.cpk.com/menu/) so much, they are only nominally a “pizza” restaurant. I keep expecting them to rename themselves “California Kitchen”. **XM/Sirius** satellite radio was an absolute revelation during their first few years (I had XM before the merger). Then they systematically got rid of all the stations I liked (R.I.P. Music Lab, Fine Tuning, Beyond Jazz, and Special X), while keeping around certain “special” stations beyond any sort of reasonable timeframe (does anybody really need SEVEN YEARS of a Springsteen station?) I’ve still stuck with them due to broadcast radio being even crappier, but once my current subscription expires, I’m done with them. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/75 "2014-07-30T23:41:51Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > Until they got rid of it from both the restaurants and the supermarkets. They’ve basically frou-froued their [menu](http://www.cpk.com/menu/) so much, they are only nominally a “pizza” restaurant. I keep expecting them to rename themselves “California Kitchen”. Maybe they’ll go the Kentucky Fried Chicken route and take to calling themselves “CPK” exclusively, and internet rumors will spread that _they had to, man, because it’s not technically pizza anymore_. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/76 "2014-07-31T06:37:17Z")
> [@janis\_and\_c0](#): > > So many sad stories about shoe quality doing downhill… Pity… _Hugs her Birkenstocks_ You can have my R. M. Williams boots when you pry them off my cold, dead feet. Smart, tough, comfortable, practical, and they still make them the way they always have: not cheap, but when you buy a pair it’s for a decade or more. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/77 "2014-07-31T14:57:10Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > **Jif Peanut Butter**. Not because of quality control issues, but because I couldn’t stop eating it and it was hindering my weight-loss efforts. So I gave it up, cold turkey. > > It’s been _hard_… Trader Joe’s has natural peanut butter. No added sugar or corn syrup or other sweeteners, no partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, just peanuts. (And salt, if you want it - you can get your natural PB creamy unsalted, crunchy unsalted, creamy salted, and crunchy salted.) Much, _much_ better for the waistline than commercial peanut butter - I can personally testify that you can lose weight while eating a fair amount of TJ’s PB. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/78 "2014-07-31T15:05:53Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > As chain restaurants go, Carrabba’s used to have pretty good food. I don’t think I’ve ever been to one, but they used to have one of the unintentionally funniest radio ads. It concluded a description of their menu with the tagline “people are our specialty.” Made me think of Sweeney Todd. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/79 "2014-07-31T15:53:00Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > Maytag. Their advertisements stress their reliability because, IMO, they have serious reliability problems. Rather than fix those problems they crow about how they don’t exist. The wife wanted top quality, reliable appliances when we remodeled the kitchen so it was Maytag all the way. Every appliance had to be serviced within the first year. Every single one has been replaced within 10 years, except the range - we just don’t use the oven, or the clock anymore. It’s basically a stovetop. A few years back, we had a guy in to look at the avocado green dryer that had been left in this house when we bought it. I was asking him what he’d recommend as a replacement, and he specifically said “Not Maytag” - He said they’d taken to replacing formerly long-lasting metal parts with plastic or nylon substitutes, and they were crap. Since I wasn’t buying a dryer from him, I’m pretty sure he didn’t have any reason to lie to me. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301/80 "2014-07-31T16:08:39Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > Teva sport sandals. Same old story, had two pairs I bought way back when, that that were comfortable, and lasted for years. I still wear one pair. Then when I bought replacements they broke (4 out of 8 D rings) within a few miles of easy walking. The replacements they sent (a different style) made my ankles bleed within a few miles of easy walking! They sent another replacement pair that I wear for short distances, once in a while. I’m guessing the drop in quality coincided with off-shoring. Same brand, slightly different gripe. Teva used to have thick tough soles and heavy duty straps. Not fashion plate stuff, but comfy and solid. The soles are now much thinner, and I refuse to even look at the women’s versions, because they are now much more of a fashion accessory and not a sport sandal. Popularity has ruined Teva. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-brands-have-you-given-up-on-and-why/694301.md?page=5)