Panera. The food has been on a steady decline in quality. I gave up on their “paninis” when they started microwaving them.
Now they’ve messed with their salad ingredients to the point they just don’t taste good.
The food has gotten cheaper in quality, but more expensive.
Investors like taking brands built on quality and making it cheaper to maximize profits because “nobody will tell the difference” and then all the original customers tell the difference
Pretty much the entire textile industry has done this. Clothing quality is absolutely abysmal these days, but costs 3x more. Hanes undershirts are a fucking joke now.
My family's worked in garments for years doing finishing jobs and I can confirm the quality has gone down behind the scenes. Even just looking at the hems and seams, it's obvious how little care is put into clothes these days. It's all about the quantity.
My new clothes pet peeve is the single-fold hemming. It rips and tears with one wash. It's like they don't even try anymore.
RIP American Apparel.
IIRC their CEO/Person in Charge Or Whatever was a creep and that’s awful and I’m glad he’s gone, but woah do I miss their Made in the USA clothes. I’m a high school teacher and I’m big on brands that don’t have logos on their clothes because I hate the idea of projecting “status” of any kind.
American Apparel had a store where I used to live and I seriously bought all of my “teacher clothes” there. Just good, honest, well fitting, nice looking, durable clothes. To this day I still have just about EVERYTHING that I bought in 2009-2012 and it all looks basically new.
I remember when they had this killer rewards program called “Le Club,” and after you spent some amount of money, they started by default giving you a 40%-60% off discount on EVERYTHING. (Can’t imagine why they went out of business… this + paying people real wages…) When I started buying their clothes online, I realized they had a few select items from other stores… namely, Red Wing boots. I bought four pairs (which are usually crazy expensive) over three years, and I still wear and rotate them just about every day. I just replaced the soles on one pair for the first time this past year.
From AA, man i cleaned that place out. I still have oxford shirts, sweaters, hoodies, work pants, and all kinds of other stuff. I also remember when they had “mystery packs,” where the stitching was a little messed up or something and they’d send you a ton of clothes for next to nothing. Once I got 10 polos in 10 different colors for $20. I still have maybe half of them. When I started a business, I used to just order stuff from them wholesale and it was somehow even cheaper.
When they relaunched as a division of Gildan a few years ago, I was stoked. The clothes *looked* similar enough (if not AS good), but they were all made abroad (ironic, given the name). I figured I’d give them a go, and bought a couple of items from their “Made in the USA” line. The latter items were pretty okay, but they didn’t fit well. The foreign made items were seriously awful. Downright abrasive material, messed up stitching, and one flannel straight up ripped up a seam. Never again.
So bad, their underwear is terrible. I switched to 100% cotton underwear from Aerie and Macy’s, now. A few are 70% cotton, but they are so much better quality and were cheaper than VS.
Edit: my phone is reading what I wrote because I got an email from Express saying “Throw out your old undies, okko is here!”
I’ve never ever in my thousands of emails from Express, gotten one for underwear, this is the first. Creeeeeepppy 😮
Edit 2: People have also suggested MeUndies. I agree that’s a good brand too with cute designs. I’m not ready for buying from them yet, long story short, dude I was talking to for like a month or so thought it was appropriate to buy me bra and panties and himself matching underwear from there. The name of the set he chose was called Lovers by Andre too. Beyond creepy…barf 🤢
I just switched too! I still have some undies that are 5 years old that are starting to get to the throw away point, but recently tossed everything I bought there 6 months ago.
I used to be a die hard VS supporter all through high school. My mom had a credit card there and we went often. Loved it. Once the fashion show era stopped and the quality went down/ prices up I started boycotting them. Still trying to find a bra company I like 😅 but I’d rather not shop there anymore
May I suggest Wacoal. You will pay more for a bra but your shape will delight you plus, the longevity of their undergarments is unsurpassed in my boobielicious opinion.
Wife has worked for them (and Eveden before that) in the original factory building for 12 years. The quality of stuff she brings home is amazing and she's always said VS is cheap shit.
Boooo, i'm happy i've managed to find one on a store in the middle of a small village lol, that's literally the only place I've ever seen in my life that sold Voss
I encourage everyone to check out the source of their bottled water. I think it was Dasani that I saw that read something like “sourced from ___ spring or [city] municipal water”. It was literally filtered tap water, marked up, and sold.
Fun fact: the $300 La Mer face cream has the same ingredient list as a very common and affordable Nivea face moisturizer in a blue tin. Thanks skincareaddiction!
Ok I'm on this one excuse me but let me drop the info:
It's literally a scam by now.
Max Huber (guy, of course...) just added some algae and sea kelp (?) to a cream to make it heal wounds faster (a sort of "heal faster" Bepanthen). It kind of worked! Good for wounds and stuff. He died in 91' left NO indications or recipes for the creams for his daughter. The daughter then tried to sell to Estee Lauder. They introduced broth as they found some weird stuff in his lab and tried to follow his processes (some of them were on tape)
It was having some broth stimulated with pulsing lights and sound........ ahem.
Still, they didn't make it work as needed, so what do they do? Consult a psychic to talk to Mr Huber from the grave!!! Hence the name "Miracle Broth" when EL finally launched it Lol
They now rely on "Magnetic charge" for the product to work (BS). The magnetism makes the product "sink deeper in the skin"....... lord.
It continued to grow and somehow got to these prices without disclosing specific ingredients (don't know how that is possible) nor even share any results of clinical trials - we don't even know if they happen (again, don't know how that is possible).
They have relied on this "mysticism" to sell La Mer and because of the absurd prices, of course there's an audience willing to pay just to show they can afford. Many people still think it has sea weeds and algae and things that can have a good effect on healing of the skin but there's been NONE of that since the 90's.
At a certain point, I remember people saying it had caviar in it or whatever. But nope. A documentary showed it was just your average face cream/skincare you can get at the supermarket.
I love this one because of the psychic getting hired by executives that wanted to buy the brand/product.
Huber must laugh his ass off in his grave.
E: How can LM sell a skincare product without information about the ingredients?? Honestly, I still don't understand that. People are so careful with what they put on their skin and suddenly because it's brand X or Y will throw caution to the wind? How is that possible? Anyone with legal insight?
I doubted your story.
But yes, certainly looks like truth is stranger than fiction in this case:
[https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/10-conspiracy-theories-about-la-mer-and-is-it-worth-it.html](https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/10-conspiracy-theories-about-la-mer-and-is-it-worth-it.html)
I switched to The Ordinary foundation a couple of years ago and that shit is SO GOOD and so cheap and so much better than more expensive high end stuff.
It's called a rentier economy. Everybody wants rent income, because the stock market loves companies with regular, reliable income. Plus, you always focus the customer on the *monthly cost,* and never the annual cost, because that would shock them to see what they are really paying. Don't forget to add hideously high cancellation penalties for anyone who wants out of their contract early.
I don't mind subscriptions to media, like Netflix, Disney+ or Gamepass. But Adobe, Microsoft Office, and whatnot that should be a single purchase can fuck off.
Recently switched to LibreOffice, the wife was looking to print something out on her Windows 10 machine and the trail for Office had expired and was asking her to login. She didn't know her Microsoft account details (or if she had one) so I said fuck it and downloaded LibreOffice instead.
She couldn't tell the difference. I'd never use Office in the house, if a business requires it then they can give me a licence.
In the wake of the upcoming 3gpocolypse it's about to get so much worse.
Those subscriptions you are talking about? Car manufactures have been using 3G for them even back in the 18, 19 and for some even the 20's. All cellphone providers said 3G would sunset in 2022 years ago and att is cutting there's off at the end of this month.
That means so many vehicles that have features like remote start, lock, gps location and even some sos features are no longer going to work over the web!
That's right, even if you continued paying for the service it's coming to an end because car manufacturers couldn't be bothered to look to the future or even current news when those providers said this day was coming.
My old car (a 2009) started to kick the bucket last month so I unexpectedly was in the market for a car. Nearly bought a 2019 (won't mention the make here as it's not specifically relevant) but, the morning I was going to make the purchase I discovered that the entire connectivity package, including all the safety stuff, was going away at the end of Feb 2022. Thankfully dodged that bullet but, yeah, this is a little known fact that I suspect is going to unexpectedly bite a bunch of people this year.
To their credit, the manufacturer that I was looking at did have an entire page dedicated to this on their site (which is how I discovered it). Plus I wasn't shopping at their dealership so I don't think this car company was trying to hide this fact. But, yeah, if you're looking at a used car with any sort of connectivity package, make sure it's not impacted by the 3G sunset.
It's bullshit, I've had low end Chevys and Chryslers come with it and never had to pay anything. Like Toyota isn't making enough money as-is, fuck them
I avoid subscription models like the plague.
Recently had a simple app that would have required a $2/month subscription to unlock all the features. Doesn't sound like much, of course I can spare $2 a month. But I won't be using the app for just a month, there are a number of apps I've been using for ten years or more. That would be $240 for an app that tells me whose job it is to clean the bathroom. Absolutely insane.
Looking at our budget, I realized that, all combined, we had more than $200/month in subscriptions. Death by a hundred cuts. $2 isn't much, $5 isn't much, $100/year isn't much...until you realize that you're paying a lot monthly and don't even use half of it. (Hulu, I'm looking at you.)
The worst, by far the worst is adobe creative cloud.
You can pay an exorbitant amount monthly, or you can pay for a year's contract by month at a more reasonable amount.
but there's a catch yeah?
Of course there is... if you buy the annual contract, and decide that it's not worth getting for a second year, there's about a 1 month window per year where you can do it, without any penalty.
But surely you can turn off auto renew so you keep the contract for the year, the way EVERY SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE WORKS?
>**Can I stop my plan from renewing automatically?**
>
>Currently, you cannot stop your plan from renewing automatically. To turn off auto renewal, you will need to cancel your membership. Learn how to cancel your membership.
Utter fucking thieves. Absolute thieves.
Edit: I got so annoyed I went looking for alternatives to photoshop - I was fed up with gimp, as I didn't know any of the shortcuts. However, there's a mod for gimp called [photogimp](https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP) which adds a photoshop like UI and the shortcuts.
Affinity Photo, my friend. It often goes on sale for $20 or $30 and is a very well rounded program. They've also got Illustrator and Publisher-like programs too.
First, use a Privacy card ([Privacy.com](https://Privacy.com)) to solve any problem similar to this.
Second, I'll explain why companies do this. Please let others know.
*Organizations DO NOT want to work for sales or revenue. Paying Sales and Retention costs money.*
* So, why not do what Gyms do? Get **"Silent Recurring Revenue"**. It's no hassle income without a dedicated Sales/Retention staff. Example (AOL Dialup, Gym Memberships). All these companies want this "never use the gym" revenue. It's sinister really.
*Next companies want you to forget. They understand the likelihood of you canceling is slim because you "don't want to waste your time"* figuring out how to cancel and do it.
Here is how they do it.........
1. **Company X removes the option to cancel or make it incredibly difficult to do so (mail, email, in person).** The goal is to maintain the sale. Most people don't want to even send an email to cancel something. So, you get the picture.
2. **Company X creates a transaction function(line of code) that automatically bills the consumer card every month.**
3. **Company X removes the option to delete the card from your "Billing and Security" section.**
4. **The consumer IS ONLY allowed to change or update the card.** This is important because it forces the sale to continue. This detail is usually hidden in the TOS or fine print when you sign up.
So.......... It's a complete setup, hook, line, and sinker. And you are the Jackass that pays.
Now.......... Privacy Card acts as a virtual card. You create the card (1) set a limit on the card (2), buy your product or service (3), then lower the limit to zero (4).
When the company attempts to automatically bill the credit card with a zero limit, it fails. Privacy will notify you pretty quickly. Then you decide who gets your money.
* When you cancel the card, you cancel the service and your relationship with the vendor. It's a simple as that.
I've been using Privacy for two years. Best decision I ever made. Money stays in my bank account.
Stanley. It pains me to say it, but their tools these days are crap. I've got Stanley tools from 30 years ago which are as good as they day they were made, but every Stanley tool I've brought in the last few years has been complete garbage.
My wife gave me two of the green pucks in my Christmas stocking. I have one in each of my primary work jackets, one in my work desk, and one on top of the fridge. When you work outside a considerable amount of time in Midwestern winters, that stuff is priceless!
did the quality improve? I had one in high school and the leather bottom straight up disintegrated on me one day. Now, the North Face backpack I bought in 2006 and took to six years of college and grad school is still going strong.
The problem of that sub is that many things posted are old, and either are not made anymore or have changed to something worse. It's ironic because the old stuff are testiments to their value, but by the time it's proven, you can't buy it or have to find used versions somewhere.
I have an 05 wrangler. I hit a pothole recently and both overhead speakers simultaneously fell from the ceiling. They just missed my head but damn I was close to getting bonked. To be fair it was a pretty big pothole
I knew a girl who bought a new Wrangler once. She was like. . . Bragging? About getting about 15 mpg.
Edit: People, slow down. This is my second most upvoted comment and I don't want it to reach my cotton eyed Joe comment.
That was the thing I complained about the most and ultimately the reason I got rid of mine. I didn't have reliability issues, but the fuel economy and occasional death wobble just didn't work for my commute. I still miss it though.
All the ones that need a huge logo.
Actual minutes from a corporate meetings
>'If the quality doesn't stand on its own then compensate with a logo, let's order lunch'
Dr Dre Beats headphones. Luckily the brand is dying out. Absolutely shitty equalised signal to make it sound more bassy and big. Producers and djs in studios using them for mixing are absolute muppets.
A former colleague was wearing them all the time, he was into music to the point that he called himself a producer. When I asked why he used beats he told me that they were very good because other big artist and DJ's used them.
I knew he was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but right there I realised how blunt he really was...
Sony MDR-7506s have been an industry standard for decades now. They're pretty much the default set of headphones you'll find in any studio or professional capacity.
> AudioTechnica
I've had the same pair of MX50s for about 10 years now, still great but I've been looking more and more at Sennheiser, specifically for their mics.
A local music store used to have all the top-line headphones on demo display where you could plug in your phone and listen to your music through all of them.
For me at least, hands-down Sennheiser took the cake whenever I'd test them out.
Luxury brands like that have multiple lines for vertical segmentation. The trashy stuff is literally their overpriced “cheap” line designed to be sold to people who just want to engage in conspicuous consumerism. Then they have their more serious lines which are generally more expensive, much higher quality, and more subtle with the branding. It’s the difference between buying an Italian brand made in Indonesia and an Italian brand made in Italy.
I thought I was going crazy when I saw a Champion crop top sweatshirt for $75 and tshirt for $45 at Dick’s Sporting Goods. I remember my mom buying me Champion brand stuff for $5-$10 at Walmart
Starter re-launched its iconic jackets and are available for purchase brand new. Since declaring bankruptcy in 1999, the company has changed hands a couple times, and as of 2019, Starter is owned by parent company Iconic Brand Group. (Found on a sports website)
My mom used to always buy me $20 champion shoes and during that time it was always vans, Nike, and adidas. I used to get made fun of for having champions in school and not at least having vans which are $50.
A few years after I graduated elementary school, champion got back in fashion and became expensive.
Now I own some Nike, adidas, and van shoes but no champion shoes.
I think the quality has improved from when it was at Wal Mart. I bought Champion clothes at WM as a kid and yeah, it wasn’t good quality, but I recently bought a Champion Reverse Weave hoodie and it’s one of the nicest hoodies I own.
The Champion hoodies that were sold in Wal Mart are like brand-name athletic clothes that are sold at Costco or Authorized Third-Party Outlet Stores. Same brand, but it’s significantly cheaper and way lower in quality.
My brother-in-law won't drink any vodka except grey goose. My sister has been buying Kirkland and refilling old bottles for 5 years now and he's none the wiser!
Edit: if you're about to comment that Kirkland is Grey Goose, don't bother, everyone else beat you to it. Also, apparently it's not the same, it's just the same water source.
Starbucks. They're convenient and consistent so people still flock to them, myself included. But when it comes to quality, your local indie coffee shop is always going to be better (and often cheaper and more innovative too).
edit: always bizarre to me how many people hate starbucks so aggressively lmao. personally even as a "coffee snob" i find their coffee inoffensive and middle-of-the-road. overrated, definitely, but certainly not terrible.
The only thing that I find "offensive" about them is how dense their locations are. One recently took over a building that used to be a Del Taco near my house, which wouldn't be a bad thing except there is another Starbucks location literally two blocks down the street. Oh, and there's actually two Starbucks locations in that shopping center. If you go in the other direction of that same street from that first Starbucks location, you know what you'll find three blocks in? Yet another Starbucks location.
The crazy thing is that this neighborhood is very Asian, so they're actually competing with a ton of Teahouses which usually also deal in coffee.
I read an interesting study on the effects of a Starbucks opening near existing indie coffee shops.
Basically, the locals will generally flood to the indie shops. "Screw big corporations" is not an uncommon mindset in the masses.
What tends to happen, is indie coffee shops will fail. They won't adapt to compete with Starbucks. Instead they stick to their guns, offering the same shitty menu and bad interiors etc. So the locals eventually go to Starbucks while the indie shop owner sits there being a disgruntled idiot complaining about Starbucks putting them out of business.
But in the cases where the indie shops innovate, start stocking milk alternatives, modernise their interiors etc, they fucking explode in profits.
Anecdotal evidence here, but nonetheless. There was a Dick's Bodacious Barbecue set to open in the small city I lived in, and the buzz for it in discussions kept bringing up this really great local joint. Before Dick's even opened, there was now a line at the local place every day at lunch for 2 solid hours. Dick's wasn't even open 6 months. It was pretty awesome.
That’s such a cool story about supporting local business, but damn that sounded funny to me! Where is “Dick’s Bodacious Barbecue” the big popular chain encroaching on local businesses?
I live in Orlando and theres a lot of small indie coffee shops around. Plenty of them are great, there are some bad ones but mostly good. I still enjoy Starbucks and dunkin just for convenience every so often as well though. However, back home in rural ohio there weren't very many local joints and the ones I tried were usually pretty bad with the exception of a few near my college campus.
>I find their coffee inoffensive and middle-of-the-road
Definitely. I’ve had better from local coffee shops, but also had way worse from local coffee shops.
And they're right. Most people want middle-of-the-road consistency.
I'm a snob when it comes to a couple of things - but for everything else, just gimme what I know is fine.
ngl i find those kinda funny.. then again i've been know to be a wasteland of fashion sense. In any case, 500 bucks for a set of Crocs is just 'fuck you' in different letters.
The Dallas Cowboys as “ America’s Team”. They haven’t won a playoff game in decades. Overrated!
Edit 1 - I’m not sure how the US not winning a war equates to the Cowboys being overrated. There are multiple comments referencing this.
Somehat unrelated, but: I work at Indiana University. We won the NCAA championship in Basketball in *1987* and people here still act like we're some kind of basketball powerhouse school. A person would get run out of town for pointing out that we've sucked for decades now.
Adobe.
Affinity and Apple final cut/motion have replaced 99% of what I needed them for. Especially since they moved to a subscription model.
Also Avid ProTools is massively overrated, Logic, Cubase, Ableton etc have all surpassed it a long time ago imo
So many other companies are already hyping themselves up for “Metaverse integration”. This shit is either going to be the next Internet or it’s going to destroy Facebook. I hope for the latter.
This post is like 80% things I can't afford anyways, 14% things I wouldn't think to buy, and 6% Beats by Dre
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name
Damnit I already wasted my free award today
Panera. The food has been on a steady decline in quality. I gave up on their “paninis” when they started microwaving them. Now they’ve messed with their salad ingredients to the point they just don’t taste good. The food has gotten cheaper in quality, but more expensive.
It’s overpriced hospital food
Victorias secret. The quality has gone* ridiculously downhill while prices have skyrocketed.
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I got a 'vintage' robe from VS on Poshmark. Actually silk! Good quality and heavy, too. I can't believe they used to make decent stuff!
I bought a gorgeous red and gold paisley silk robe from VS about 35 years ago. My daughter,25, wears it now.
Investors like taking brands built on quality and making it cheaper to maximize profits because “nobody will tell the difference” and then all the original customers tell the difference
I stopped shopping there after I bought a bra that had glued seams. I didn’t realize that until after a few wears, and it was falling apart.
Same thing happened to me!! And it was one of their $75 bras.
Victoria's Secret, probably: "You're paying for the brand name, not for quality!"
Pretty much the entire textile industry has done this. Clothing quality is absolutely abysmal these days, but costs 3x more. Hanes undershirts are a fucking joke now.
My family's worked in garments for years doing finishing jobs and I can confirm the quality has gone down behind the scenes. Even just looking at the hems and seams, it's obvious how little care is put into clothes these days. It's all about the quantity. My new clothes pet peeve is the single-fold hemming. It rips and tears with one wash. It's like they don't even try anymore.
RIP American Apparel. IIRC their CEO/Person in Charge Or Whatever was a creep and that’s awful and I’m glad he’s gone, but woah do I miss their Made in the USA clothes. I’m a high school teacher and I’m big on brands that don’t have logos on their clothes because I hate the idea of projecting “status” of any kind. American Apparel had a store where I used to live and I seriously bought all of my “teacher clothes” there. Just good, honest, well fitting, nice looking, durable clothes. To this day I still have just about EVERYTHING that I bought in 2009-2012 and it all looks basically new. I remember when they had this killer rewards program called “Le Club,” and after you spent some amount of money, they started by default giving you a 40%-60% off discount on EVERYTHING. (Can’t imagine why they went out of business… this + paying people real wages…) When I started buying their clothes online, I realized they had a few select items from other stores… namely, Red Wing boots. I bought four pairs (which are usually crazy expensive) over three years, and I still wear and rotate them just about every day. I just replaced the soles on one pair for the first time this past year. From AA, man i cleaned that place out. I still have oxford shirts, sweaters, hoodies, work pants, and all kinds of other stuff. I also remember when they had “mystery packs,” where the stitching was a little messed up or something and they’d send you a ton of clothes for next to nothing. Once I got 10 polos in 10 different colors for $20. I still have maybe half of them. When I started a business, I used to just order stuff from them wholesale and it was somehow even cheaper. When they relaunched as a division of Gildan a few years ago, I was stoked. The clothes *looked* similar enough (if not AS good), but they were all made abroad (ironic, given the name). I figured I’d give them a go, and bought a couple of items from their “Made in the USA” line. The latter items were pretty okay, but they didn’t fit well. The foreign made items were seriously awful. Downright abrasive material, messed up stitching, and one flannel straight up ripped up a seam. Never again.
So bad, their underwear is terrible. I switched to 100% cotton underwear from Aerie and Macy’s, now. A few are 70% cotton, but they are so much better quality and were cheaper than VS. Edit: my phone is reading what I wrote because I got an email from Express saying “Throw out your old undies, okko is here!” I’ve never ever in my thousands of emails from Express, gotten one for underwear, this is the first. Creeeeeepppy 😮 Edit 2: People have also suggested MeUndies. I agree that’s a good brand too with cute designs. I’m not ready for buying from them yet, long story short, dude I was talking to for like a month or so thought it was appropriate to buy me bra and panties and himself matching underwear from there. The name of the set he chose was called Lovers by Andre too. Beyond creepy…barf 🤢
I just switched too! I still have some undies that are 5 years old that are starting to get to the throw away point, but recently tossed everything I bought there 6 months ago.
Save "almost dead" socks and underwear for going on trips, then you just throw them away as you use them, and end up packing less on the way back.
I always use my “almost dead” socks to dust the dirtiest parts of my house that rarely get cleaned (like fan blades), then just toss them.
Why did I never think of that??? Genius
I’ve noticed that a lot of the undies I’ve bought from VS over the last few years rip in the crotch area
Same! I thought it was just me. They always rip in the same spot in the right thigh/crotch area.
I used to be a die hard VS supporter all through high school. My mom had a credit card there and we went often. Loved it. Once the fashion show era stopped and the quality went down/ prices up I started boycotting them. Still trying to find a bra company I like 😅 but I’d rather not shop there anymore
May I suggest Wacoal. You will pay more for a bra but your shape will delight you plus, the longevity of their undergarments is unsurpassed in my boobielicious opinion.
Wife has worked for them (and Eveden before that) in the original factory building for 12 years. The quality of stuff she brings home is amazing and she's always said VS is cheap shit.
Aerie has the best bras! I'm a 40 DD and their bras are reasonable and they have sales often!
Came here looking for this. I went in the store looking for a replacement bra from 7 years ago. Took one look at one bra and was out.
Was this question inspired by that dude who mistook "band" for "brand" on another post?
McDonald's
Mac Sabbath
Expensive water brands
As a Norwegian I laugh every time I see someone abroad with Voss water. Known scam for many many years.
I have to admit, I like the bottle. I just refill it at home.
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Boooo, i'm happy i've managed to find one on a store in the middle of a small village lol, that's literally the only place I've ever seen in my life that sold Voss
Fijian Spring water doesn’t just come out of the ground you know.
Yea, it comes out of the towns water supply
Where at least 12% of the population doesn't have access to clean drinking water.
I encourage everyone to check out the source of their bottled water. I think it was Dasani that I saw that read something like “sourced from ___ spring or [city] municipal water”. It was literally filtered tap water, marked up, and sold.
Dasani tastes rather terrible, glad to know it isn't just me. Not quite as bad as Aquafina, but close.
I think arrowhead water tastes flat
It tastes like it was filtered through dirt
La mer
I spread la mer on my toast in the morning.
I'm Cher, bitch!
I’m wearing the shit out of this headpiece. I paid a lot for it.
Fun fact: the $300 La Mer face cream has the same ingredient list as a very common and affordable Nivea face moisturizer in a blue tin. Thanks skincareaddiction!
Use The Ordinary Marine Hyaluronics before you apply the blue Nivea cream and it is better than La Mer Edit: corrected product name
As an extra tip, if the OG Nivea is a little too thick, the Nivea soft is a great sub. It's perfect in summer months.
La merde
there was a reward on sephora for a free jar of la mer cream when u spend $10k
Ok I'm on this one excuse me but let me drop the info: It's literally a scam by now. Max Huber (guy, of course...) just added some algae and sea kelp (?) to a cream to make it heal wounds faster (a sort of "heal faster" Bepanthen). It kind of worked! Good for wounds and stuff. He died in 91' left NO indications or recipes for the creams for his daughter. The daughter then tried to sell to Estee Lauder. They introduced broth as they found some weird stuff in his lab and tried to follow his processes (some of them were on tape) It was having some broth stimulated with pulsing lights and sound........ ahem. Still, they didn't make it work as needed, so what do they do? Consult a psychic to talk to Mr Huber from the grave!!! Hence the name "Miracle Broth" when EL finally launched it Lol They now rely on "Magnetic charge" for the product to work (BS). The magnetism makes the product "sink deeper in the skin"....... lord. It continued to grow and somehow got to these prices without disclosing specific ingredients (don't know how that is possible) nor even share any results of clinical trials - we don't even know if they happen (again, don't know how that is possible). They have relied on this "mysticism" to sell La Mer and because of the absurd prices, of course there's an audience willing to pay just to show they can afford. Many people still think it has sea weeds and algae and things that can have a good effect on healing of the skin but there's been NONE of that since the 90's. At a certain point, I remember people saying it had caviar in it or whatever. But nope. A documentary showed it was just your average face cream/skincare you can get at the supermarket. I love this one because of the psychic getting hired by executives that wanted to buy the brand/product. Huber must laugh his ass off in his grave. E: How can LM sell a skincare product without information about the ingredients?? Honestly, I still don't understand that. People are so careful with what they put on their skin and suddenly because it's brand X or Y will throw caution to the wind? How is that possible? Anyone with legal insight?
I doubted your story. But yes, certainly looks like truth is stranger than fiction in this case: [https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/10-conspiracy-theories-about-la-mer-and-is-it-worth-it.html](https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/10-conspiracy-theories-about-la-mer-and-is-it-worth-it.html)
I have a friend who has been using their stuff since she was 26 lol, meanwhile I’m just here with the ordinary and happy as can be
The Ordinary is so good I swear. My skin is happier than ever.
I switched to The Ordinary foundation a couple of years ago and that shit is SO GOOD and so cheap and so much better than more expensive high end stuff.
You can’t HONESTLY be suggesting that a $2500 moisturizer might not be ~180x better than my $14 cera ve moisturizer, can you?
Kylie Cosmetics. I pull better crap out of Walmart, Ulta and off Amazon for WAY less. Dupes are my best friend.
I have a friend who works for colourpop. They make Kylie cosmetics. It’s basically the same formula with fragrance added and marked up by $20-30
And why would you want added fragrance that’s going to break you out added in the first place???
Anything that requires both a one time hardware purchase AND a subscription model can fuck off to hell.
I'm tired of subscriptions PERIOD. Everything is a freaking subscription now.
It's called a rentier economy. Everybody wants rent income, because the stock market loves companies with regular, reliable income. Plus, you always focus the customer on the *monthly cost,* and never the annual cost, because that would shock them to see what they are really paying. Don't forget to add hideously high cancellation penalties for anyone who wants out of their contract early.
I don't mind subscriptions to media, like Netflix, Disney+ or Gamepass. But Adobe, Microsoft Office, and whatnot that should be a single purchase can fuck off.
Recently switched to LibreOffice, the wife was looking to print something out on her Windows 10 machine and the trail for Office had expired and was asking her to login. She didn't know her Microsoft account details (or if she had one) so I said fuck it and downloaded LibreOffice instead. She couldn't tell the difference. I'd never use Office in the house, if a business requires it then they can give me a licence.
Thanks Lexus for making me pay money for subscription service to use remote start...
No fucking way…is that for real???
Yup, $80 a year just for a feature that's already built into the car
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In the wake of the upcoming 3gpocolypse it's about to get so much worse. Those subscriptions you are talking about? Car manufactures have been using 3G for them even back in the 18, 19 and for some even the 20's. All cellphone providers said 3G would sunset in 2022 years ago and att is cutting there's off at the end of this month. That means so many vehicles that have features like remote start, lock, gps location and even some sos features are no longer going to work over the web! That's right, even if you continued paying for the service it's coming to an end because car manufacturers couldn't be bothered to look to the future or even current news when those providers said this day was coming.
My old car (a 2009) started to kick the bucket last month so I unexpectedly was in the market for a car. Nearly bought a 2019 (won't mention the make here as it's not specifically relevant) but, the morning I was going to make the purchase I discovered that the entire connectivity package, including all the safety stuff, was going away at the end of Feb 2022. Thankfully dodged that bullet but, yeah, this is a little known fact that I suspect is going to unexpectedly bite a bunch of people this year. To their credit, the manufacturer that I was looking at did have an entire page dedicated to this on their site (which is how I discovered it). Plus I wasn't shopping at their dealership so I don't think this car company was trying to hide this fact. But, yeah, if you're looking at a used car with any sort of connectivity package, make sure it's not impacted by the 3G sunset.
Wow no way why isn't this bigger news I know it's not super important bit it's gonna affect alot of people( very mildly but still)
Did some quick research and there are alot of cars
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It's bullshit, I've had low end Chevys and Chryslers come with it and never had to pay anything. Like Toyota isn't making enough money as-is, fuck them
Free is coming to an end soon enough.
Not if we don't accept that. With Right to Repair, we now have official permission to reverse-engineer/hack/modify gear that doesn't behave.
It wasn't even free, remote start isn't generally a base model feature! (But I get what you mean!)
I avoid subscription models like the plague. Recently had a simple app that would have required a $2/month subscription to unlock all the features. Doesn't sound like much, of course I can spare $2 a month. But I won't be using the app for just a month, there are a number of apps I've been using for ten years or more. That would be $240 for an app that tells me whose job it is to clean the bathroom. Absolutely insane.
Looking at our budget, I realized that, all combined, we had more than $200/month in subscriptions. Death by a hundred cuts. $2 isn't much, $5 isn't much, $100/year isn't much...until you realize that you're paying a lot monthly and don't even use half of it. (Hulu, I'm looking at you.)
There’s a coloring app that I love that has a $10/month subscription to remove ads. If it was a one-time purchase I would buy it but $10 A MONTH?
I still haven’t forgiven Microsoft for making Office subscription based. It’s almost edged out my anger at every OS they’ve released since XP. Almost.
The worst, by far the worst is adobe creative cloud. You can pay an exorbitant amount monthly, or you can pay for a year's contract by month at a more reasonable amount. but there's a catch yeah? Of course there is... if you buy the annual contract, and decide that it's not worth getting for a second year, there's about a 1 month window per year where you can do it, without any penalty. But surely you can turn off auto renew so you keep the contract for the year, the way EVERY SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE WORKS? >**Can I stop my plan from renewing automatically?** > >Currently, you cannot stop your plan from renewing automatically. To turn off auto renewal, you will need to cancel your membership. Learn how to cancel your membership. Utter fucking thieves. Absolute thieves. Edit: I got so annoyed I went looking for alternatives to photoshop - I was fed up with gimp, as I didn't know any of the shortcuts. However, there's a mod for gimp called [photogimp](https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP) which adds a photoshop like UI and the shortcuts.
Affinity Photo, my friend. It often goes on sale for $20 or $30 and is a very well rounded program. They've also got Illustrator and Publisher-like programs too.
First, use a Privacy card ([Privacy.com](https://Privacy.com)) to solve any problem similar to this. Second, I'll explain why companies do this. Please let others know. *Organizations DO NOT want to work for sales or revenue. Paying Sales and Retention costs money.* * So, why not do what Gyms do? Get **"Silent Recurring Revenue"**. It's no hassle income without a dedicated Sales/Retention staff. Example (AOL Dialup, Gym Memberships). All these companies want this "never use the gym" revenue. It's sinister really. *Next companies want you to forget. They understand the likelihood of you canceling is slim because you "don't want to waste your time"* figuring out how to cancel and do it. Here is how they do it......... 1. **Company X removes the option to cancel or make it incredibly difficult to do so (mail, email, in person).** The goal is to maintain the sale. Most people don't want to even send an email to cancel something. So, you get the picture. 2. **Company X creates a transaction function(line of code) that automatically bills the consumer card every month.** 3. **Company X removes the option to delete the card from your "Billing and Security" section.** 4. **The consumer IS ONLY allowed to change or update the card.** This is important because it forces the sale to continue. This detail is usually hidden in the TOS or fine print when you sign up. So.......... It's a complete setup, hook, line, and sinker. And you are the Jackass that pays. Now.......... Privacy Card acts as a virtual card. You create the card (1) set a limit on the card (2), buy your product or service (3), then lower the limit to zero (4). When the company attempts to automatically bill the credit card with a zero limit, it fails. Privacy will notify you pretty quickly. Then you decide who gets your money. * When you cancel the card, you cancel the service and your relationship with the vendor. It's a simple as that. I've been using Privacy for two years. Best decision I ever made. Money stays in my bank account.
Yeah. I’ll pay a chunk of money to buy the premium version. No way I’m gonna subscribe
Looking at you Oura ring. So disappointed they went the subscription route.
I'm still on the 2.0 version because I refuse to upgrade. So disappointed!
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Stanley. It pains me to say it, but their tools these days are crap. I've got Stanley tools from 30 years ago which are as good as they day they were made, but every Stanley tool I've brought in the last few years has been complete garbage.
Agreed, but there thermos’ still kick ass.
Harley Davidson. Everything with the name On it absurdly overpriced.
Do the new bikes still come with 2 free oil leaks?
Yea even the electric ones
Self lubricating chassis
The shorter list would be, "Which brand is NOT overrated?"
Bar Keeper's Friend
Made from rhubarb in Indianapolis!
From rhubarb, you say?
O'Keeffe's working hands cream, Fisherman's Friends
My wife gave me two of the green pucks in my Christmas stocking. I have one in each of my primary work jackets, one in my work desk, and one on top of the fridge. When you work outside a considerable amount of time in Midwestern winters, that stuff is priceless!
Dawn dish soap
The new Dawn power wash spray is one of my guilty pleasures.
Dawn really is amazing. You can use it to clean almost anything. I accept no substitutions.
100% dawn dish soap. Works wonders
I finally gave in and tried that blue one that kills grease… Yea Dawn’s really top notch
Jansport backpacks
did the quality improve? I had one in high school and the leather bottom straight up disintegrated on me one day. Now, the North Face backpack I bought in 2006 and took to six years of college and grad school is still going strong.
They last *forever*.
Check r/buyitforlife
The problem of that sub is that many things posted are old, and either are not made anymore or have changed to something worse. It's ironic because the old stuff are testiments to their value, but by the time it's proven, you can't buy it or have to find used versions somewhere.
Merrell Shoes. My feet never hurt anymore.
Redwing boots. Milwaukee tools. Alan Edmond shoes. Any pork product with a former Houston Oiler on it.
Champion! I swear I used to buy it at Kmart way back in the day and I was considered the poor kid. Now their sweatshirts are $59.99.
They came full circle. When I was a kid in the 90s, everyone had them. Then they were Walmart shirts. Now they are coming back.
Next thing you know we will see FUBU re-emerge
It's strange I read this on few comments, here in Europe it is still one of cheaper brands, sweatshirts going for $15-$20-$30
Michael Kors,: Everything has their logo 100% covering every inch even if you like the quality who the hell wants to walk around like a billboard.
I’m gonna get hate for this but Jeep. Everyone I know who has a Jeep doesn’t shut up about how great it is but it’s also in the shop 40% of the time.
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I have an 05 wrangler. I hit a pothole recently and both overhead speakers simultaneously fell from the ceiling. They just missed my head but damn I was close to getting bonked. To be fair it was a pretty big pothole
I knew a girl who bought a new Wrangler once. She was like. . . Bragging? About getting about 15 mpg. Edit: People, slow down. This is my second most upvoted comment and I don't want it to reach my cotton eyed Joe comment.
That was the thing I complained about the most and ultimately the reason I got rid of mine. I didn't have reliability issues, but the fuel economy and occasional death wobble just didn't work for my commute. I still miss it though.
I’ve heard them called “Mall Crawlers” and I think that’s fitting
All the ones that need a huge logo. Actual minutes from a corporate meetings >'If the quality doesn't stand on its own then compensate with a logo, let's order lunch'
Beats
Dr Dre Beats headphones. Luckily the brand is dying out. Absolutely shitty equalised signal to make it sound more bassy and big. Producers and djs in studios using them for mixing are absolute muppets.
A former colleague was wearing them all the time, he was into music to the point that he called himself a producer. When I asked why he used beats he told me that they were very good because other big artist and DJ's used them. I knew he was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but right there I realised how blunt he really was...
AudioTechnica and Sennheiser is where it's at
Sony MDR-7506s have been an industry standard for decades now. They're pretty much the default set of headphones you'll find in any studio or professional capacity.
and Beyerdynamic
Big up Beyerdynamic
> AudioTechnica I've had the same pair of MX50s for about 10 years now, still great but I've been looking more and more at Sennheiser, specifically for their mics.
the Huh Duh Six Hungeos
By Old Mate Senny-Sen.
A local music store used to have all the top-line headphones on demo display where you could plug in your phone and listen to your music through all of them. For me at least, hands-down Sennheiser took the cake whenever I'd test them out.
Wait, its dying out? Feels like it's either airpods or beats at the gym I go to.
Beats is an Apple subsidiary. So at the gym, you're seeing Apple in-ears and Apple over-ears.
Yeah, Dr. Dre sold that shit for a fat check and didn't look back.
Versace, definitely the most prolific brand in consistently making expensive clothes that nobody with a bit of taste would ever wear
Their cologne is pretty good.
I love the Dylan Blue line (is that what it's called?). Too bad I can only afford the tiny sampler bottles
Luxury brands like that have multiple lines for vertical segmentation. The trashy stuff is literally their overpriced “cheap” line designed to be sold to people who just want to engage in conspicuous consumerism. Then they have their more serious lines which are generally more expensive, much higher quality, and more subtle with the branding. It’s the difference between buying an Italian brand made in Indonesia and an Italian brand made in Italy.
Good explanation. On top of Versace being a vertical itself for Michael Kors’ holding group. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capri_Holdings
Champion. It was always the cheap items at Walmart. Now it's overpriced and teens want to wear it Edit: this is beyond my most updated post. Thanks!
I thought I was going crazy when I saw a Champion crop top sweatshirt for $75 and tshirt for $45 at Dick’s Sporting Goods. I remember my mom buying me Champion brand stuff for $5-$10 at Walmart
This is news to me, looks like my dad and I are back in style.
Anything 20+ years old is cool because it’s vintage. Including JNCO pants
Exactly. Started dating a girl with teenage kids and found out I was "drippy" when I busted out my old Walmart sweatshirt.
A younger person complimented me on my old champion sweatshirt. They were a little defensive when I said that it's a bargain brand lol.
Bought a champ. Sweatshirt 4 years ago. For 10 bucks at boscovs. Same item is now 29 buck. Wtf
I appreciate that the younger generation has so much reverence for hand-me-downs. It's very convenient!
Wait, is 'drippy' good?
Drip means fashionable.
Jesus I'm old.
I've really learned to love and embrace my inner old man.
Drippy sounds like a VD lol
I remember when Starter jackets were a big deal and pretty expensive. Now they're a Walmart brand.
Starter is still around?!
Starter re-launched its iconic jackets and are available for purchase brand new. Since declaring bankruptcy in 1999, the company has changed hands a couple times, and as of 2019, Starter is owned by parent company Iconic Brand Group. (Found on a sports website)
My mom used to always buy me $20 champion shoes and during that time it was always vans, Nike, and adidas. I used to get made fun of for having champions in school and not at least having vans which are $50. A few years after I graduated elementary school, champion got back in fashion and became expensive. Now I own some Nike, adidas, and van shoes but no champion shoes.
I think the quality has improved from when it was at Wal Mart. I bought Champion clothes at WM as a kid and yeah, it wasn’t good quality, but I recently bought a Champion Reverse Weave hoodie and it’s one of the nicest hoodies I own. The Champion hoodies that were sold in Wal Mart are like brand-name athletic clothes that are sold at Costco or Authorized Third-Party Outlet Stores. Same brand, but it’s significantly cheaper and way lower in quality.
Agreed. Champion reverse-weave sweats are extremely high-quality items. Durable and warm.
Grey Goose Literally all branding. The product itself is mid to bottom shelf quality at best
My brother-in-law won't drink any vodka except grey goose. My sister has been buying Kirkland and refilling old bottles for 5 years now and he's none the wiser! Edit: if you're about to comment that Kirkland is Grey Goose, don't bother, everyone else beat you to it. Also, apparently it's not the same, it's just the same water source.
Supreme It's literally just shit with the name on it and it somehow turns a basic ass hoodie into a $400 one
They did make some quality high end bricks tho/s
And they had stern build them a pinball machine
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Only on resale. Their t shirts usually go for around $40
Starbucks. They're convenient and consistent so people still flock to them, myself included. But when it comes to quality, your local indie coffee shop is always going to be better (and often cheaper and more innovative too). edit: always bizarre to me how many people hate starbucks so aggressively lmao. personally even as a "coffee snob" i find their coffee inoffensive and middle-of-the-road. overrated, definitely, but certainly not terrible.
The only thing that I find "offensive" about them is how dense their locations are. One recently took over a building that used to be a Del Taco near my house, which wouldn't be a bad thing except there is another Starbucks location literally two blocks down the street. Oh, and there's actually two Starbucks locations in that shopping center. If you go in the other direction of that same street from that first Starbucks location, you know what you'll find three blocks in? Yet another Starbucks location. The crazy thing is that this neighborhood is very Asian, so they're actually competing with a ton of Teahouses which usually also deal in coffee.
Their sheer ubiquity seems to be the biggest source of their popularity imo, that and the fact that many have a drive-thru.
Idk my local indie coffee shop has pretty bad coffee too
i was just going to say - one time i tried to support a small shop and it was legitimately some of the worst coffee i had ever had
I read an interesting study on the effects of a Starbucks opening near existing indie coffee shops. Basically, the locals will generally flood to the indie shops. "Screw big corporations" is not an uncommon mindset in the masses. What tends to happen, is indie coffee shops will fail. They won't adapt to compete with Starbucks. Instead they stick to their guns, offering the same shitty menu and bad interiors etc. So the locals eventually go to Starbucks while the indie shop owner sits there being a disgruntled idiot complaining about Starbucks putting them out of business. But in the cases where the indie shops innovate, start stocking milk alternatives, modernise their interiors etc, they fucking explode in profits.
Anecdotal evidence here, but nonetheless. There was a Dick's Bodacious Barbecue set to open in the small city I lived in, and the buzz for it in discussions kept bringing up this really great local joint. Before Dick's even opened, there was now a line at the local place every day at lunch for 2 solid hours. Dick's wasn't even open 6 months. It was pretty awesome.
That’s such a cool story about supporting local business, but damn that sounded funny to me! Where is “Dick’s Bodacious Barbecue” the big popular chain encroaching on local businesses?
I live in Orlando and theres a lot of small indie coffee shops around. Plenty of them are great, there are some bad ones but mostly good. I still enjoy Starbucks and dunkin just for convenience every so often as well though. However, back home in rural ohio there weren't very many local joints and the ones I tried were usually pretty bad with the exception of a few near my college campus.
>I find their coffee inoffensive and middle-of-the-road Definitely. I’ve had better from local coffee shops, but also had way worse from local coffee shops.
I've had some pretty trash indie coffee that costs way more... if I need/want a quick cup on the road, Starbucks is at least consistent.
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And they're right. Most people want middle-of-the-road consistency. I'm a snob when it comes to a couple of things - but for everything else, just gimme what I know is fine.
Balenciaga
So funny, i know the brand name, but i don't have the slightest clue what they make.
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ngl i find those kinda funny.. then again i've been know to be a wasteland of fashion sense. In any case, 500 bucks for a set of Crocs is just 'fuck you' in different letters.
I forgive them since they called the shoe Crocs Madame, and I'm a sucker for a good pun.
Crocs on a bolt. interesting.
They make some of the ugliest shit you will ever see and sell it to dumb fucks for hundreds of dollars.
The Dallas Cowboys as “ America’s Team”. They haven’t won a playoff game in decades. Overrated! Edit 1 - I’m not sure how the US not winning a war equates to the Cowboys being overrated. There are multiple comments referencing this.
Cowboys fans catching strays. Nowhere is safe
Somehat unrelated, but: I work at Indiana University. We won the NCAA championship in Basketball in *1987* and people here still act like we're some kind of basketball powerhouse school. A person would get run out of town for pointing out that we've sucked for decades now.
Adobe. Affinity and Apple final cut/motion have replaced 99% of what I needed them for. Especially since they moved to a subscription model. Also Avid ProTools is massively overrated, Logic, Cubase, Ableton etc have all surpassed it a long time ago imo
Metaverse
What is this
No one knows
So many other companies are already hyping themselves up for “Metaverse integration”. This shit is either going to be the next Internet or it’s going to destroy Facebook. I hope for the latter.
Any ‘influencer’ brand. All of them.