# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/121 "2014-09-04T11:41:38Z")
Don’t be ridiculous. The price of a small cup of coffee is quite sufficient in that regards :p. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/122 "2014-09-04T11:43:58Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > You have your “old style” (old here means it’s been done since before the Romans started looking funny at the Etruscans) housing, which is mixed uses (stores at the bottom, offices above, housing above), and you have highly-planned _urbanizaciones_, much more recent areas which are completely residential, “need to get the car to go to the grocery” (no stores at all, no services at all, in some of them the only place you may want to walk to other than somebody’s home is a park); some of the newest _urbanizaciones_ have gone back to mixed uses. I think the “mixed uses” part is the part that’s confusing me - where I live there are mixed uses to the point where I can stop at the butcher, baker ,fish market,bank, drugstore, dry cleaner etc while walking home from the train station (which doesn’t have a parking lot) and it is very common for people not to own a car ( or even know how to drive) There doesn’t happen to be a store on my corner, but zoning allows it and there is a store on the next corner. What you’re saying is coming across to me as"nearly everyone lives over or next door to a store or office" and I’m not sure if that’s what you mean. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/123 "2014-09-04T12:41:59Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > What you’re saying is coming across to me as"nearly everyone lives over or next door to a store or office" and I’m not sure if that’s what you mean. Yes. Each individual building is mixed uses, not just the area. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/124 "2014-09-04T13:01:34Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I pass by an Alchemist shop almost daily, it is a pharmacy named Alchemist. The Alchemist I know of is much more fun - [http://alchemistbeer.com/](http://alchemistbeer.com/) ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/125 "2014-09-04T14:30:32Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > On that note, my wife tells me that at back to school night, a parent was lamenting at length that penmanship was no longer being taught. The principal explained that this was no longer a very important skill in today’s digital age. Technically, cursive has been obsolete since the invention of the ballpoint pen. It was actually a technique which minimized damage to quill pens. ---
**Author:** ![James\_in\_Toronto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@James\_in\_Toronto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_in_Toronto)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/126 "2014-09-04T14:54:16Z")
You can still buy quill pens. Also fountain pens and straight pens, as well as Chinese/Japanese calligraphy brushes with ink stones. Straight razors are still being made and used. I got my fedora steamed and brushed at a local Goorin Brothers store. Shoe shine services are still being done downtown, I should probably get that done, too. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/127 "2014-09-04T15:16:08Z")
> [@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. Hem hem … 😃 Well, handspun luxury yarns are a thing, I know one guy who has a GF who owns an online company providing said yarns. I also know that until about 15 years ago a guy locally had a small spinning mill putting out 100% wool yarn dyed to order for the custom weaving industry. Not sure when he closed doors offhand, I know his wife had health problems and I haven’t been past their location as I stopped working at that company. I had been seeing them around at SCA events however. And there is a wooden toy/game company locally in Harford CT, I should look for them online, I have a teacher friend who buys goodies from them as rewards for her kindergarden class. [URL=“[http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/128 "2014-09-04T15:39:10Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Stern Pinball is the only major manufacturer still making [pinball machines.](http://www.sternpinball.com/games) Well, there is now [Jersey Jack Pinball](http://www.jerseyjackpinball.com) (formed by some guys who were laid off from Stern during the economic crisis of the last few years). I guess you could say they’re not ‘major’, but I believe until they started up, Stern was literally the ONLY company in the world in making pinball machines. The only reason I know this is because the latest Stuff You Should Know podcast is about pinball and I happened to listen to it last night. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/129 "2014-09-04T17:13:52Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Same here, first Wednesday of every month, regular. Mostly intended for air raids,originally, since the alert system was designed in the 50s (WWII and cold war in mind). And it’s not only in Paris. I’m surprised by some jobs people mention as obsolete. Some are cultural differences (for instance I expect to find butchers everywhere over here. And at the contrary, milkmen never existed here to my knowledge) but for others, it’s a weird assumption. People are still having clothes custom made everywhere, so tailors aren’t a rarity, they are still using their fireplaces, so you need people to sweep chimneys and they’re easy to find, people have their shoes repaired, their iron balcony ornaments done to their specifications, put wind vanes on their roofs, have grandma’s copper ustensils repaired, and so on. So most are jobs that might be less ubiquitous than they used to, but never dissapeared, and for some are pretty common (again, tailor). What surprised me the most was non digital watches. Pretty much all watches I see have hands. Digital numbers on watches were a thing…in the 80s, something like that…if anything, it’s those watches that are obsolete. ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/130 "2014-09-04T18:12:56Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > What surprised me the most was non digital watches. Pretty much all watches I see have hands. Digital numbers on watches were a thing…in the 80s, something like that…if anything, it’s those watches that are obsolete. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. If all you need is the time, you have a cell phone. If you want to have a fashion accessory that happens to tell the time, you have a more normal watch. And the old Timex I had which was a digital display of hands is stuck back in the 80s where it probably belongs. ---
**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 4, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/131 "2014-09-04T19:38:36Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Mostly intended for air raids,originally, since the alert system was designed in the 50s (WWII and cold war in mind). And it’s not only in Paris. Here in the US Midwest they’re actually used for tornado warnings more than anything else. We never had to worry about bombing like Europe did, but we do get tornadoes every year. ---
**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 4, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/132 "2014-09-04T20:20:35Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > My high school was built on the cheap in 2001 and didn’t have any clocks installed in the classroom. There were digital LED clocks in the hallways, but for the classrooms there were just cheap wall clocks that, I believe, had to be fed batteries. > > I was on the quiz team and went to a few other schools, and several of the newer ones had digital clocks on the classroom walls. Thank you. This will save me the trouble of stopping in on new schools and having to explain, “Never mind me. I’m just checking to see what kind of clocks you have.” and probably getting put on a list. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/133 "2014-09-04T21:55:47Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Vacuum tubes in high-end audio amplifiers. > > Books made from paper. Not quite true about the audio [amplifiers](http://www.stereophile.com/category/tube-power-amp-reviews). Also, for guitarists it is highly unlikely that tube amps will go away any time soon. Solid state amps and amp sims range from crap to ok but nothing beats a tube amp. Slee ---
**Author:** ![James\_in\_Toronto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@James\_in\_Toronto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_in_Toronto)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/134 "2014-09-05T00:39:33Z")
In the first chapter of Jerry Pournelle’s book WEST OF HONOR, a character says “Ever think, Lieutenant, that every military generation since World War One has thought theirs would be the last to carry bayonets?” The year is 2064, and they’re debarking from a starship, carrying a weapon meant to convert a musket into a pike. Pournelle himself had a bayonet in Korea in 1950, and they’re still being carried by American troops in Afghanistan in 2014. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/135 "2014-09-05T01:04:12Z")
Although it’s not something you can buy off a shelf, there’s a resurgence amongst hobbyists who are building Nixie clocks. Nixie tubes have the digits 0 through 9 as small neon tubes, and they’re quite retro/steampunk looking.They haven’t been built for decades (except in the USSR where they were made into the 1980s), but there are enough stock and parts available, mainly on eBay. Frankly, I’m surprised some cheap Chinese knockoffs haven’t caught the trend. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/136 "2014-09-05T01:57:33Z")
> [@Oswald\_Bastable](#): > > I’d say rather more than a few. There’s still demand for wooden barrels, even if production is partly mechanised. Archery is a very popular pastime, and an international sport. There are thousands of thatched buildings still (in the UK alone). Traditional blacksmithing is, I’ll grant you, probably less in demand, but there’s still a trade to be made in artisanal iron work - there are a lot of farriers still about as well, anywhere there’s horses. > > OB Travel far enough and you’ll find these jobs. One of my favorite parts of living in rural Cameroon was the odd feeling of living in a nursery rhyme-- with my friends the blacksmith, the baker and the tailor fetching water from wells and waiting for the weekly market. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/137 "2014-09-05T02:23:53Z")
We’re had a milkman for the last 19 years. I also know a farrier and my next door neighbor is a third generation barber. My husband used to go with his dad, to have my neighbors dad cut his hair. Now my neighbor cuts my husband and my two son’s hair. I had to have a17 th century wicker settee repaired. That’s a specialty. I’ve had to have horse tack repaired. There’s some stucco guys we work with, big family, third generation, and some of the custom plaster work is phenomenal. My lumber yard where we buy must of our material is third generation. But seriously, with five kids, a milkman is totally worth not running to the store. Buying one candy bar is moss than the difference. ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/138 "2014-09-05T02:34:17Z")
> [@Anamorphic](#): > > Well, there is now [Jersey Jack Pinball](http://www.jerseyjackpinball.com) (formed by some guys who were laid off from Stern during the economic crisis of the last few years). I guess you could say they’re not ‘major’, but I believe until they started up, Stern was literally the ONLY company in the world in making pinball machines. > > The only reason I know this is because the latest Stuff You Should Know podcast is about pinball and I happened to listen to it last night. I think this is in kind of a different category. Pinball is still a thing, probably more popular than it was a few years ago. But the machines on the resale market are enough to satisfy most arcades, bars, and players. New manufacture is pretty damned expensive, and a niche even if the game itself isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/139 "2014-09-05T02:42:52Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Travel far enough and you’ll find these jobs. One of my favorite parts of living in rural Cameroon was the odd feeling of living in a nursery rhyme-- with my friends the blacksmith, the baker and the tailor fetching water from wells and waiting for the weekly market. > [@watchwolf49](#): > > … > Scribes are pretty obsolete in literate societies. > … After hearing many alarmist reports about the “terrible” state of literacy right here in the US, I wondered if I could move to an inbred hollow of Appalachia and set myself up as “that guy who can read and write” and make money telling people that this is a gas bill, it says you owe them $60, you need to send payment to 345 Utility Drive, Podunkville, West Virginia, that letter is a coupon for 50 cents off Shake and Bake, etc., and then charging them $10 a page to transcribe and format letters to their children in the city. It’s not actually _that_ bad. Do professional scribes exist in Cameroon or anywhere else in the 3rd world? In other words, are there any areas where just knowing how to read and write at a high school level is in and of itself an in-demand skill that people will hire you just to read and write for them (not do administrative work, not write technical documentation, not compose speeches, just read and write at a basic level)? ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307/140 "2014-09-05T04:02:40Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > This subject comes up occasionally here and I am always a little shocked when it does. Here in the Tacoma/South King County we have [a reasonably high profile milkman.](http://smithbrothersfarms.com/) And they’d be even more prominent in my neighborhood if they served apartments. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obsolete-services-and-or-products-are-still-available-today/697307.md?page=8)