# What "obsolete" services and/or products are still available today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307 "2014-09-03T00:05:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/61 "2014-09-03T13:01:39Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Near where I now live we have a TV / VCR repair shop. \*There’s \*a dying service industry if ever I saw one. The last time I personally had repair work done on home electronics of any kind (or small appliances for that matter) was about 1980. > > From the street it appears chock-full of dusty old equipment. I often see what I assume to be the proprietor standing out in front smoking. Today I’ll make a point to go inside and talk to him & explore the place & report back my findings. Pretty often when a flat-screen TV “dies,” people just pitch it and get another one. But it’s reasonably common for it to be a minor issue like a capacitor that costs a few pennies. I’d be interested to hear how much repair work he gets on newer TVs. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/62 "2014-09-03T13:22:42Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I bought a wristwatch a few months ago that had hands that went around and pointed at numbers. I wonder if any 12-year-olds would be able to tell time on it. Do you suppose they still teach that in school? > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > So long as little boys stare at the clock on the wall in the classroom, counting the minutes until recess, kids will know how to read a clock. > [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > There are schools with digital clocks on the wall. Every school I ever saw still has regular clocks with dials. But then I was never in a school built after 1990. Although one had a big new wing and that still had dial clocks. I’ve got to wonder how prevalent digital clocks are in schools. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/63 "2014-09-03T13:32:23Z")
Every boy used to carry a jack-knife to school. Now I think it is a felony to try to take one through the school metal detector. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/64 "2014-09-03T13:43:18Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > For example, does your town (or, any old town) still have a photo development shop where you can get prints made off of pictures you took with grandma’s old camera? There are 25 CVS stores located in my vicinity and all 25 offer photo developing service. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/65 "2014-09-03T13:49:59Z")
There are plenty of seamstresses in the US, though it’s mostly a word-of-mouth cottage industry, and seldom a primary job. Most of their work consists of alterations, not making new garments. Unless you meant like the Guild of Seamstresses, in which case, we have those, too. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/66 "2014-09-03T13:52:24Z")
Grocery delivery is an interesting case. It was at least not unheard of in urban areas when personal cars were rare, but I think prety much vanished as cars became common and city living became unfashionable. But thanks to the internet and a trend towards urban living, grocery delivery became more viable, and in fact many stores have moderately thriving delivery arms. So it’s something that became fairly obselete due to one technology, but made viable again thanks to a different one. I don’t think milk delivery ever went away completely, but I imagine it has made a revival, too, for the same reasons. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/67 "2014-09-03T13:54:32Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > There is an interesting thread [discussing](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=732894) the continued availability of dial-up Internet access. > > What other “obsolete” services still exist in a meaningful sense? > > How easy is it to find a physician who will do a “house call” for a non-emergency reason? Yes, I expect that you would probably pay more for that, but how easy is it to find a doctor who does that? Where I live, there is a physician who does housecalls routinely. In a sense you could say he specializes in them; his actual office is rather basic. There is also a dairy with home delivery stretching over areas of a couple of counties ---
**Author:** ![tonyfop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/85f322/32.png) [@tonyfop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonyfop)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/68 "2014-09-03T13:55:30Z")
I thought that there were still some Blockbuster stores around, but my Google-fu says that they closed their last store in January of this year, actually on my birthday. That might be an interesting tangent thread: What technologies/services/occupations did not exist when you were born, but have since died out. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/69 "2014-09-03T14:09:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There are plenty of seamstresses in the US, though it’s mostly a word-of-mouth cottage industry, and seldom a primary job. Most of their work consists of alterations, not making new garments. > > Unless you meant like the Guild of Seamstresses, in which case, we have those, too. No, no, the alterations kind. In Spain they’re often word of mouth and working out of their homes, but even those still hang a shingle. Thing is, maybe the different urban situations in much of Europe vs the US means that a “M. Lopez - Sewing, Alterations” sign at a home’s door is much less likely to exist in the US. Here there are large zones where buildings have stores in the ground level, offices above that, and the upper levels will be homes, some of which include the owner’s office. In the US that kind of mixed uses situation is rarer. The Guild of Seamstresses is a lot easier to find - anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/70 "2014-09-03T14:16:26Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > There’s one by my house as well (it might have closed up a year ago, I’m not sure). My brother got a pair of Berkinstocks re-soled. When I asked him why he’d do that, he said that they’re expensive enough that’s it’s cheaper to do that. From what he said, it’s pretty common to do that with Berkinstocks. Correct. I’ve been a cobbler and repaired Birkenstocks. A full, new sole is about 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of a new pair of Birk’s, and you can do partial restoration for worn down toes or heels for even less. Both my pairs of Birk’s are over 20 years old, one completely resoled twice, one had it done once. I anticipate at least another 5-10 years out of them. They’re actually a type of shoe that it makes some fiscal sense to repair rather than replace. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/71 "2014-09-03T14:40:02Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > No, no, the alterations kind. In Spain they’re often word of mouth and working out of their homes, but even those still hang a shingle. Thing is, maybe the different urban situations in much of Europe vs the US means that a “M. Lopez - Sewing, Alterations” sign at a home’s door is much less likely to exist in the US. Here there are large zones where buildings have stores in the ground level, offices above that, and the upper levels will be homes, some of which include the owner’s office. In the US that kind of mixed uses situation is rarer. I can’t speak for the rest of the US, but in my area, dry cleaner shops usually have a tailor/seamstress to do alterations and repairs- or maybe it’s that tailors and seamstresses often open shops and also do dry cleaning. But people don’t just hang a shingle outside their home’s door- even those who actually work from home. The only ones I’ve known who worked out of their home were more dressmakers- they didn’t really do alterations and relied on word of mouth. And I do live in an area where there are stores at ground level and offices/apartments above. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/72 "2014-09-03T14:58:47Z")
> [@](#): > > No, no, the alterations kind. In Spain they’re often word of mouth and working out of their homes, but even those still hang a shingle. Thing is, maybe the different urban situations in much of Europe vs the US means that a “M. Lopez - Sewing, Alterations” sign at a home’s door is much less likely to exist in the US. Here there are large zones where buildings have stores in the ground level, offices above that, and the upper levels will be homes, some of which include the owner’s office. In the US that kind of mixed uses situation is rarer. All of those do exist in the US. I’ve seen places (that looked like they were also homes, though I’m not sure of that) that do have a sign out front for custom sewing jobs. And there are some neighborhoods (mostly the downtown area of smallish towns) where the arrangement of shop on the bottom level with apartments above is quite common. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/73 "2014-09-03T15:20:12Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I bought a wristwatch a few months ago that had hands that went around and pointed at numbers. I wonder if any 12-year-olds would be able to tell time on it. Do you suppose they still teach that in school? They did in my daughter’s class last year ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/74 "2014-09-03T15:35:39Z")
An interesting throwback to those days are photo apps for smartphones that don’t allow you to see your photos right away but makes you fill up a ‘virtual roll’ of film first then when you ‘send it to be developed’ it will allow you to view them some time later, or even have to wait for the hard copies to arrive in the mail. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/75 "2014-09-03T15:41:53Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > They specifically found extant use of carbon paper (in India’s bureacracy). You don’t need to go as far as India. Unless something changed radically since the last time I went to court, carbon paper is used all the damn time in the Cook County (Chicago) Circuit Court. :eek::mad:\* As to shoe shines and shoe repair, there are [plenty](http://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=shoerepair&find_loc=The+Loop%2C+Chicago%2C+IL#find_desc=shoe+shine&cflt) of shoe-shine shops (and even a few of the old-fashioned lobby stands) around downtown Chicago, and the shop-sized ones all do [repairs.](http://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=shoerepair&find_loc=The+Loop%2C+Chicago%2C+IL) There are two shops within two blocks of my office, and I’ve had dress shoes re-heeled at both. Not obsolete. As to seamstresses, to echo **doreen** many dry cleaners do alterations. As a guy, I’ve had pants legs shortened and/or cuffed at my cleaners, and I’ve seen plenty of women having dresses altered when I’ve been in to pick up my shirts. Not obsolete. \*A pet peeve. Even though every courtroom clerk has a computer to check the court records, the computer doesn’t have a printer. So when the judge makes a ruling, one of the parties (really, their attorney) writes up the order, the other side checks it, and the judge then hopefully 😉 reads it quickly before stamping and signing it. The carbon paper is because the court/clerk gets a copy and each party gets a copy. Two-party cases (so three copies using two carbon sheets) are legible, but add parties and you get maddeningly faint/illegible copies at the bottom. The joy comes in when the order becomes an issue later in the proceedings and the parties argue not over whether the court’s decision was correct but what the decision even _was_; that is, what the illegible written order actually says. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/76 "2014-09-03T16:56:12Z")
Some of the things in the PC-World link were silly. I will keep my landline as long as my wife have joint conversations with our children and others. And for local calling, it is still a lot cheaper and the voice quality is generally higher. I can’t recall the last time I used a payphone, though. I still get new heels on my shoes all the time. Why would I buy near pair when I don’t have to? I have seen a milk delivery truck within the past couple years. I was trying to install a rather complicated program on a computer without a dvd drive. It is available online, but the online installation failed utterly. I tried copying the dvd to a thumb drive (on another computer) and installing from the thumb drive. No luck. Finally, I borrowed a portable dvd drive and the installation went smoothly (although it took close to two hours). I did get a computer without a hard drive. It had 128 GB of RW memory instead, but I soon ran out of space. When they can ramp it up to a TB at a reasonable cost, maybe disks will become obsolete. As far as I know, the local film store will still develop film. Although they might farm it out. But their main business does seem to be making prints from digital photos. And passport photos. Once a year some guy comes around our street ringing a bell soliciting knife sharpening business. ---
**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:** [September 3, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/77 "2014-09-03T17:04:08Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > This subject comes up occasionally here and I am always a little shocked when it does. In Colorado, at least in the more densely populated areas of it (Pueblo to Ft. Collins) you can get milk delivered anywhere and tons of people do. I live in a small U-shaped neighborhood that is one block long on each side, so maybe 40 or 50 homes, and there are probably ten or twelve of them that have milk boxes on the porch. I used to get milk delivered until I started travelling so much and came home to the stench of spoiled milk in summer. > > I’d think Wisconsin of all places would still have it. There are companies that delivery food stuffs, like frozen foods and ice cream and such. I just didn’t know of any that did it on a daily basis. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/78 "2014-09-03T17:34:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There are plenty of seamstresses in the US, though it’s mostly a word-of-mouth cottage industry, and seldom a primary job. I don’t know how the actual hiring of the tailors/seamstresses is done, but it seems like just about every dry-cleaning business offers tailoring and alterations around here. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/79 "2014-09-03T17:48:08Z")
Another one that comes to mind: I don’t know if physical slide rules are still made, but you can get a slide rule app for your phone. Admittedly it’s mostly for the novelty value, like many of these other items, but I have actually put my real physical slide rules to practical use in situations where the modern equivalent was unusable. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/80 "2014-09-03T18:03:04Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > There are companies that delivery food stuffs, like frozen foods and ice cream and such. I just didn’t know of any that did it on a daily basis. It’s possible (though I don’t know) that they are around but people are just unaware that they are. Unlike the Schwan’s truck which delivers all day long, the milk guys work at night and are usually done with their routes by sunrise. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307.md?page=5)