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“Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

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Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#161

Post by 83 »

giantg2 wrote: post #152
tempestn wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shoes thing is so true. Especially runners, or any kind of athletic shoe really, where they feel the need to update not just the styling but the whole construction of the shoes every year. So when you need a replacement you basically have to start from scratch every time, because there's no guarantee even buying the new shoe in the same line will be a remotely similar experience.

I share the same sentiment. With all the replies you're getting, it seems like there could be a market for a solution. Not sure what that would be. Maybe a shoe finder app similar to ammoseek? Maybe a crowdsourced database of which current shoe model is rhe closest replacement to an outgoing one (like a dependency tree but for next closest shoe)?

I always wanted to create a social app for shoes and call it Sole Mate. Put in your specs and rank your own shoes and then find other people who have a similar fit to you and see what they liked.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#162

Post by krisoft »

rvba wrote: post #147
qwerty456127 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I taste something I liked in the past and feel like it's not the same, I think if that's my perception which has changed more significantly than the product.

Dont they usually change the recipes? Cheaper raw materials (e.g. high fructose corn syroup instead of sugar for soft drinks), different production methods (same line used for all products but different flavoring), various cost optimizations that compromise the quality..

> Dont they usually change the recipes?

Sometimes. Sometimes it also might be a process change.

There is a desert people in Hungary quite like. It's basically a bar of cottage cheese coated in chocolate. [1]

One day the factory manufacturing it received a huge amount of inquires about a recipe change. The only problem was that they haven't changed anything. As far as they could tell everything was the same as it always used to be. But still there were a lot of very vocal costumers demanding the old taste so they went and investigated.

According to the story what happened is that the logistic provider improved the refrigeration in the supply chain. Because of the cottage cheese these deserts require refrigeration. Of course they were already using refrigerated trucks, but there was some transshipment centre where the refrigeration was missing or not very effective. And what changed is that they fixed that.

So basically the old taste, the one people demanded back, was the result of the cottage cheese just a tad bit bit ripe from the heat during transport.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BAr%C3%B3_Rudi

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#164

Post by prepend »

newaccount74 wrote: post #128
hinkley wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shoes are this way for a lot of people, in that some of us can keep a pair of shoes long enough that the next fashion cycle has happened and you can't find anything like that again. I got to the point where if I really liked a pair of shoes, I'd buy a second pair and throw them in the closet for nine months, and cross my fingers that I like the shoes in the second refresh more than I liked the ones in the first one.…

If you buy stuff that's in fashion, you'll always have this problem, because fashion changes so quickly. If you just buy classic old-fashioned stuff, then you won't have this problem. I have a pair of old-fashioned leather boots, and when they were worn out after 5 years or so, I just bought exactly the same boots again. Those type of boots have been available for decades, and I really doubt they'll stop making them…

> If you just buy classic old-fashioned stuff, then you won't have this problem.

I used old spice anti-perspiring deodorant for like 20 years. It had never changed. It was like $1-2 and I liked it fine.

One day they started advertising and added like 20 new flavors and had super handsome spokesmodels. I couldn’t find my boring old flavor any more.

So even old and boring things can get the ax

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#165

Post by bigDinosaur »

thechao wrote: post #155
bigDinosaur wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you make it yourself? The ingredients are even given right there. It'll take some experimenting but that's fine, you might even hit on better flavours.

What, exactly, is the ingredient "flavour"?

Time to experiment!

If they've stopped selling a product, what choice do you have if your burgers are tasting like sadness?

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#166

Post by Delk »

jacquesm wrote: post #143
personjerry wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't they degrade over time sitting in your closet?

That's a good question and I should look into that but so far they come out like new and I've been doing this for more than a decade now.

I've understood that it's better e.g. for the soles of hiking boots if the boots are used somewhat regularly. Polyurethane degrades due to hydrolysis, and apparently using the shoes regularly (and letting them air and dry properly afterwards) reduces that. The movement and pressure help reduce moisture absorbed into the sole, or something.

It probably depends on the material of the sole, though.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#167

Post by mypalmike »

azalemeth wrote: post #74
niemandhier wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an European 'Grape Nuts' are highly confusing to me, since the neither include grapes nor nuts.

And for other non-us readers (like me), Grape-Nuts are [1]: > [A breakfast cereal containing] whole grain wheat flour, malted barley flour, sugar (maltose), salt, dried yeast, and the following added vitamins and minerals: iron, vitamin B3, zinc oxide, vitamin B6, vitamin B1, and folic acid. > According to the Grape-Nuts website, Grape-Nuts "actually contains neither grapes nor nuts". The name may have come from the…

And for anyone anywhere who has never eaten Grape Nuts, imagine kitty litter in milk.

I kid, but it's rather unlike any other breakfast cereal in its texture.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#168

Post by mcv »

ggm wrote: post #2

This.Happens.To.Me.All.The.Time. All.The.Time. that Amazing Neutrogena conditioner, which was really good and lasted a year? Gone: if it lasts a year, its too good. that original low-sugar chex? gone. we invented three new flavours. that jam? gone. butter? gone. that cut of meat? gone. those pens? I mean pentel pens. How can pentel can an entire line of really good, fine writer ballpens? Gone. Sorry dude, it was you…

I have never seen this as anything remotely related to me. There's a big supermarket chain (the biggest in my country) that for a long time had a tendency to cancel every product that I really liked. Or at least make it harder to buy.

Since I was young, I always loved spicy vegetable sandwich spread, but for many years I thought it had been discontinued, because this giant chain sold all the other flavours, but not my favourite. Until I discovered it at a different chain, and became aware of their betrayal. Then they introduced their home brand organic vanilla ice cream which I loved, so they quickly discontinued it. They did have same home brand organic chocolate ice cream which tasted far better than home brand ice cream has any reason to (it reminded me more of Australian), so a bit later they discontinued that too. A popular A-brand desert had a lemon-variety with a particularly addictive taste, and while they didn't discontinue it entirely, they did stop selling it online and in most of their supermarkets (only the very largest still had it).

But none of that has anything to do with me; it's just the supermarket chain that clearly has some grudge against me.

Good news: they recently started stocking my favourite sandwich spread flavour again.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#169

Post by lotsofpulp »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #55
lotsofpulp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of choice words for whoever decided to discontinue the red TJ’s jalapeño hot sauce. https://www.traderjoesgroceryreviews.com/trader-joes-hot-sau...

Wait that's gone? Are you 100% sure? I literally just grabbed a bottle of it out of my fridge and I swear I bought only a few months ago; San Francisco TJs on 9th street.

A couple weeks ago, the customer service reps in the store supposedly looked it up in their computer and told me it was discontinued.

They have also told me when things are out of stock, rather than discontinued, so I assume it was actually discontinued.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#170

Post by mcv »

etrautmann wrote: post #15
hinkley wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shoes are this way for a lot of people, in that some of us can keep a pair of shoes long enough that the next fashion cycle has happened and you can't find anything like that again. I got to the point where if I really liked a pair of shoes, I'd buy a second pair and throw them in the closet for nine months, and cross my fingers that I like the shoes in the second refresh more than I liked the ones in the first one.…

Hmm? skinny jeans started again in 2000s, had a run for ~20 years, and have rapidly decreased in popularity already. In NYC, everyone is wearing 90's styles again, including flares and parachute capris, but none of those will prevent you from having children.

Are flares finally getting back again? This time around I'm going to buy a couple of dozen of them, because it's incredibly frustrating that they keep disappearing.
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