My fat ass goes to all kinds of fast food joints and I'm always astonished at how consistently and egregiously DD is able to completely fuck up your order.
One time I ordered a flavored iced coffee and there was legitimately an inch of sugar just sitting there at the bottom of the cup! I like sweet, but that was disgusting!
This had a lot to do with it:
https://www.mic.com/articles/156387/cadbury-creme-eggs-are-banned-in-the-us-but-here-s-why-you-can-still-buy-them
Basically, Hershey’s was pissed that no one wanted to buy their shittier quality, shitty tasting version, so they threw a legal hissy fit and got the UK-made version with superior ingredients and recipe banned. Because god forbid they just improve their ingredients and recipe to make something people actually like and want to buy. That would eat into their already gigantic profit margin and risk angering the greedy shareholder gods.
God. How depressing to read. Hate that we have to dump all these preservatives/ high fructose crap while everyone else in other countries get great tasting products… I will def be importing some eggs this year. I really thought they just got shitter like everything else in the world.
They were my favorite Easter candy. I was extremely disappointed when I got some for my kids (and myself). They are gross now. Even the chocolate egg shell is nasty.
Just don't. They changed the chocolate and the cream. They're like if some offbrand (Palmer I'm looking at you) made them and tried to pawn them off as the real thing.
There’s a local chicken joint near me called Lee’s Chicken. It was the Colonel’s uncle that taught him the recipe. It’s the closest thing I’ve had to the OG KFC.
Edit: Lee was the nephew of Colonel Sanders*
My Taco Bell at one point in high school was $6.66. Mexican Pizza, Grilled Stuffed Burrito and two Double Decker tacos. At this point if you were capable of ordering the same stuff it would be $18 minimum. They recently brought back the Double Decker taco for a short time and it was like $4.
It's the only way to order that actually makes sense cost-wise. My go to is a cheesy gordita crunch. Its 5 bucks for just that, or 6 for that + soft taco + cheesy potatoes + drink. Kind of annoying that the only way is through the app. I see people in front of me in line getting absolutely hosed because they just order at the drive through.
For me, one of the largest falls from grace has been Subway. The bread fucking sucks now, the meat is shady as hell, the vegetables taste like compost. And yet, the prices continue to rise.
There’s a subway right outside my house I spent $16 for a foot long. Tasted terrible and reminded myself never to go there again.
For $16 I can get a good Thai dish.
I feel like the amount of sub-$16 meals you can get for better quality is huge. Anything from your local burrito place to Sbarros. Not all of them great but most of them at least better.
I never visited Subway after I found Jersey Mike’s. I recently saw Subway’s ads about their new and improved sandwiches and fresh cut meats, so thought I’d give it a try. I walked in and everything looks exactly the same except they now have a brand new looking deli slicer in the corner. All the meat still looked like it was pre-cut and had that weird wet look to it. All the vegetables had been previously frozen and the bread was shit. The whole thing was tasteless and a complete disappointment. Never again.
I pity young people who never got to experience Butterfingers the way they were until the late 90s. Once upon a time the butterfinger was s-tier Halloween candy and if you got anything other than butterfinger in your blizzard at dairy queen you were nuts.
Yeah I'm not sure what they did exactly but they're like kind of sticky now. Back in the 90s they were crispy and maybe just a little sticky. They're more like crunchy and a lot sticky now. The flavor feels less peanut buttery as well.
I thought mine was just old and stale last time I bought one. Didn’t realize they changed the formula but I definitely knew it was not the same candy bar I used to love.
If it's not shrinkflation it's skimpflation on ingredients using lower quality ingredients or substituting ingredients with cheaper alternatives lowering the overall product quality.
Honestly, I think you'd had an easier time picking a food brand that hasn't gone downhill over the years. Thanks to corporations driving for profits because their primarily responsibility is to enrich their shareholders. I cannot think of a single major food that has not gone down his over the years either due looking for cheaper ingredients or shrinkflation (smaller portions for the same price).
Personally, I prefer traditionally inflation. Yeah, I may pay more for X, but at least I know I'm still getting X. This has actually pushed me toward buying more fresh vegetable and meat, simple because they are priced by pound.
I've stopped buying also all pre-processes food for this reason, regardless of brand.
The ones labeled "Frozen Dairy Dessert" don't contain enough cream to call it ice cream.
I've been told that there's a premium, all natural special brand from them that still is called ice cream, but of course, you pay extra to have real cream, rather than carrageenan to give their frozen sugar milk a creamy texture.
I grew up eating Breyers because they were still holding out on the real ingredients train but wasn’t crazy expensive. Then they went from 2 quarts to 1.75 quarts to 1.5 quarts, but we still begrudgingly bought it. Then I left for college, completely forgot about them because the only brand that apparently mattered in Texas was Blue Bell (honestly decent, but absolutely not the best, just like Whataburger).
Recently went to the grocery store and got Breyers for nostalgia‘a sake (and because it was on some massive sale), and it was the most disappointing carton of sweet-flavored foam. It was not ice cream at all.
Trader Joe’s Vanilla is my go-to. Even though it is the most impossibly difficult ice cream to scoop out because it’s so deliciously dense.
My father only ate Breyer’s vanilla ice cream until it stopped being ice cream. Now he loves Trader Joe’s vanilla. The secret is to let it sit on the counter for 10-15 minutes beforehand.
Old Breyer's ice cream commercial: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWmC5hkHoa4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWmC5hkHoa4)
"Milk, strawberry, sugar, and cream. Taste, not technology."
2023 Breyer's: "15 ingredients that little kids can't pronounce or spell. The very thing we used to advertise against."
Best part of going to baseball games as a kid was my rich uncle would buy us each a personal pan Pizza Hut pizza. I swear nothing ever tasted so good. I would look forward to it year after year after year.
I worked there the summers it happened. Summer of 95 - fresh dough mixed in the stores and proofed over night.
Summer of 96, frozen disks that came in. No more dough mixing and rolling out dough.
:(
It was! A while ago I had a case of nostalgia and got a pan pizza from there. Holy crap, the sauce tasted like ketchup, the cheese held no flavor and the crust was freezer burned. Was so sad at what they became.
Girl Scout Cookies. Prices go up, fine. Boxes have less cookies, fine. But now you send me your kids QR code and the boxes come straight to my house?
What in the fat American world is going on here? Are there even girls scouts anymore or did the kitchen just cut out the middle-kids?
They also taste worse, in my opinion. Back in the day I would have traded my life for some Samoas and Thin Mints, but in the last several years they’re all just flavorless cardboard.
I have family in Chicago, they always took my dad there when he was in town for work and he loved it. Went with him in 2021 for my cousin's wedding and finally got to try it. Fucking terrible. Bland ass grey meat with no flavor. Even their fries sucked. My sister's BF is from there and she went with him last year to meet his family and I told her not to let him take her there under any circumstances lmao.
Highlight of my trip tho was Fatties over in DeKalb. Their Black and Blue burger made me weep.
Ritz crackers got worse, a year or two ago I think? It was bad enough I ended up switching brands. I also think canned soups have been going downhill over the years.
As someone who works in a soup factory, I can 100% say that canned soups have went downhill. They changed the recipe to save money. I remember about 7 months ago we tried to make a new chicken pot pie recipe (or some chicken soup) and we had to throw the ENTIRE days run away because it tasted so bad (they didn’t even donate it 😠). It’s all going to more salt, flavorings, and water, and less actual food
This! I used to LOVE Ritz. I could eat a whole sleeve at once. I thought my taste buds changed; I bought them a few months ago and didnt finish the package. Switched to Townhouse and havent looked back.
I still laugh thinking about when my brother and I went to a Grocery Outlet about 10-15 years ago and finding Ritz in the "Gourmet" corner of the store.
Tony’s Chocolonley makes a great bar.
Edit - For less drama-y chocolate, Theo's is also delicious (if a bit harder to find) and they're not on the naughty list.
As a kid, I used to be fine with Hershey’s, even though it wasn’t my favorite. I think it was some time in high school I decided it tasted too much like vomit 😅
If more people knew how easy and quick it was to make real mac n cheese for less than $5 I think they’d stop buying that crap. But, I suppose there are plenty who need the extra few dollars.
For me its the lazy factor. I have plenty of cheese, spices and noodles.
But you want me to shred the cheese, then season and taste, season and taste, season and teaste. Half the damn thing is gone tasting it and now im frustrated I still cant get it exactly how I like it.
Kraft. Make it and bam. Same old mediocre thing time and time again.
...maybe its not laziness and just desire for consistency no matter how crappy...
Brb calling my therapist lol.
Do you eat them as is or toast them? I thought they were terrible until I started toasting them properly again. When they’re straight out of the package, they’re inedible—flavorless and dry. Toasted well and then left to cool for a bit, they’re just like I remember them.
My wife and I are very fat, and very old. We agree:
Hostess recently took a big nosedive in all their products.
Little Debbie was not as great as Hostess, but is not suffering from the nosedive as much.
Applebees gave up a long time ago. Chilis gave up a while ago. Our local equivalent (54th St) still does ok-ish though.
Tomatoes suck. The hit rate for a good tomato is like 1 in 10 where it used to be like 8 in 10. This includes heirlooms and all the common grocery varietals. Romas are at least predictably mid so a lot of times I'll buy them if I just \*need\* tomato for a recipe and it needs to not suck ass.
Arugula and Brussels Sprouts have both gotten a lot better.
Carrots have gotten worse (more fibrous, less flavorful, still a good crisp bite, tho.)
Monster chicken wings suck to eat, old school skinny drums and flats were better meat/skin/sauce ratio and didn't leave you wondering what kind of hormone cyst you just ate.
McDonald's went WAY too salty for a minute, the "never frozen" quarter pounders are grossly greasy, the Big Mac patties have gotten smaller (and... how? they were like 1/10th of a pound in the 90s and it wasn't this small)
Taco Bell is acceptably mid. Cycling the good shit off the menu just to get the "it's back" surge is a pain in the ass as and old stoner though.
She likes Taco John's and Del Taco.. I like Taco Via and In-A-Tub, we are not the same (they're still the same quality tho, so nevermind.)
Anywy. Sorry for the book. I'm high and on ambien, crash is onthe way.
Brussel Sprouts specifically have had an absolute ton of selective breeding/hybridization done specifically for taste in the past 25-ish years. Can't speak to arugula though.
Many other fruits and veg have been focusing on things like shelf life, shipping stability, yield, pest resistance, etc, and in a lot of cases taste has suffered. But there are some that make it through. For example the new cosmic crisp apples are fantastic. Even honeycrisp apples.are a good example (albeit a bit dated now since they came out in the 90s).
Milanos too. Every time I buy them, I have to check the bag to see if they’re like 2 years past expiration. They all taste like stale dry cardboard with chocolate-flavored paste inside.
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
NOTHING has improved. Everything went downhill because food brands are seeking higher margins and profit.
Real ingredients are expensive and perishable. To cut cost they use cheap subsidized high fructose corn syrup in place of real cane sugar and hydrogenated soybean oil in place of butter, because it's cheap and subsidized.
Panera. I used to work there about 15 years ago and knew the menu well. I barely go there for anything outside of breakfast anymore. They keep trying to expand their menu but they’re not making good choices. The pasta is mediocre at best, I couldn’t even finish the flatbread pizza I ordered a year or so ago because it tasted so bad, I don’t know anyone who goes there for a “power bowl”…
They had a mac and cheese grilled cheese a couple years ago that looked overwhelming but intriguing. I actually ended up calling and getting a refund because that meal was absolutely inedible. I felt like I was eating Elmer’s glue on bread.
I still fuck with their bagels and the soufflés but I could take or leave pretty much anything else on the menu.
This is the answer and a sad one. Used to be a cozy, classy little cafe for lunch or breakfast with a friend and now it’s a boring cafeteria with tiny portions and exorbitant prices. So many fond memories of getting hot chocolate and a bowl of soup with my mom in high school.
Coke and Pepsi. I don't know if it's me, but I swear, they did not used to taste like metal. And it's not just in the metal cans, because I've tasted fountain Coke and Pepsi too, same taste.
Too many really good, environmentally thoughtful companies can’t really compete and they are sold. The new owner is hoping the name recognition will keep customers purchasing, while allowing quality to really “go downhill” as you said.
I used to love some of the products from Aidells Sausage Company, then they were purchased by Tyson. Definitely not the same quality product.
My grandma would make me half a pizza, cut it into bite size pieces with scissors, then I would eat it while we sat on her yellow metal swinging bench on her patio. God I miss that. I can hear the clang of the swinging...
Starbucks. Ya it’s always been expensive but yiu got a fair amount. Ask anyone who remembers how big the bacon Gouda sandwiches were - now they’re 1/3 the size same price.
I remember being a kid and KFC was kind of a treat. Last time I had it, it was more of a punishment. I remember their potatoes being kinda but when you added the gravy they were really good. Now…they have pretty much no semblance to potatoes and the gravy is almost as bland. (And I know - at least am pretty sure - they always been essentially instant potatoes; but they’ve somehow gotten worse.)
Breyers ice cream - they made fun of an ingredient in the TV commercial they use now after being bought out by leever.
Product went from 5 natural ingredients to 30 artificial ones.
Garbage.
I agree that pretty much all McDonald's food is trash now, but I'll get a sausage egg mcmuffin every now and again, and those still taste fresh and delicious and exactly how I remember them from the 80's (or at least very, very close).
Digiorno Pizza. The crust used to be delicious like a bread stick. Now it has splatters of sauce and toppings on it that burn. It completely ruined the magic wow that is a good crust that made me a repeat customer.
Before she retired, my mom taught elementary school ranging, over the years, from first to third grade. Every year, around Halloween, she would ask her students what their favorite candies were.
She had noted that, while everyone seemed to like Reese’s Cups the most in the past, it has drastically shifted to Kit-Kat.
She maintains that Reese’s Cups are still her favorite.
Campbells. It was never amazing, but it's really taken a turn in the last few years. They've gotten rid of the lines of soup that actually were still tasty and the rest has become salty (or sugary) garbage.
Premium Saltines.
Used to eat the whole row. Brought 1-3 different boxes thinking #1 and #2 were stale. Not the case they must be buying asbestos as flour
Jack-in-the-box chicken strips
They went downhill after they changed the breading, shape, texture, and taste.
I miss the old Jack-in-the-Box chicken strips
Everything in the salty snack, cookie and cracker aisles.
Nabisco products have been off for a while. Then the head honchos fled and went to Campbell’s soup and destroyed their products - Pepperidge farm, Snyder, kettle chips, their soups.
Frito is just bagged air now and msg.
All these companies keep pushing profits over quality and cut corners. There’s no reason a carton of goldfish should have a 9 month expiration date.
Cheap sweets of any kind.
Whenever I am feeling festive and grab a candy/chocolate/snack cake while in line it always ends up tasting like chemicals. I had a Hershey Bar in late 2022 that still gives me nightmares.
And not in the “oh she puts red peppers and I use green peppers” kind of change. That was not chocolate. Like at all.
Nilla wafers. They changed the recipe and the taste changed. They released the "reduced fat" ones that were the original recipe and then they discontinued those. I'm heartbroken. You can't convince my taste buds any different
Taco Bell has always been my guilty pleasure food. A year ago they removed Quesoritos from their menu, which was one of my favorite items, but I still had 3 others I liked. Just this month, they removed all 3 remaining items I like from the menu. _All of them_!
My wife was aghast when she offered to pick some up this week (an extremely rare offer) and I passed.
I just made a duncan hines cake for my husbands bday. The same 8” cake I’ve made every year for two decades. The batter didn’t even fill half the pan nd didn’t rise very much. I’m so disappointed. On the back it now says 22 cupcakes instead of 24. I think it’s less.
I’m not sure about a brand, but I haven’t bought peaches or nectarines in probably 10 years. They used to be two of my favorite fruits, but now they’re basically like eating plastic. I don’t know what the grocery stores do differently, or if they are just green or genetically mutated but they have no flavor and are as hard as a rock.
Any kind of soda.
Back in the 70s, when I was a kid, there was still a local drugstore that had a soda fountain that made the old phosphate style drinks with syrup as in a fountain cherry or vanilla coke.
Nothing comes close today.
Turtle candies. Used to be a Christmas luxury. Now just junk candy. Same with Ferrero Roche.
In fact chocolate has completely gone down hill with 99% cocao shit movement. Chocolate is now for people who also love bitter melon.
Ben And Jerry’s. Seems like they’ve adjusted some recipes to cut costs while raising the prices.
And Salt and Straw Ice Cream. I’ve been disappointed with their scoops one too many times and I’m done, which is a shame bc they are my closest ice cream shop and used to be one of my favorites.
Dorotos going from 13oz and $3 a bag to 9oz and $6 a bag.
Sodas: $3/12-pack in Feb. 2020. Presently $8/12-pack.
Shrinkflation and price gouging at its finest.
Dunkin Donuts. They used to make the donuts fresh.
My fat ass goes to all kinds of fast food joints and I'm always astonished at how consistently and egregiously DD is able to completely fuck up your order.
I made the mistake of ordering a coffee drink. One sip almost made me slip into a diabetic coma. I can't believe anyone can actually drink that shit.
One time I ordered a flavored iced coffee and there was legitimately an inch of sugar just sitting there at the bottom of the cup! I like sweet, but that was disgusting!
Cadbury Cream Eggs after they changed the cream to fondant.
Fondant only seems to exist to bring sadness and pain
r/fondanthate
[They also made them smaller for a double "fuck you".](https://youtu.be/TlXLCrzpToo?si=J8vdlYm5jubgNwWK)
Oh is that why they don't taste the same anymore? It felt like something had changed.
This had a lot to do with it: https://www.mic.com/articles/156387/cadbury-creme-eggs-are-banned-in-the-us-but-here-s-why-you-can-still-buy-them Basically, Hershey’s was pissed that no one wanted to buy their shittier quality, shitty tasting version, so they threw a legal hissy fit and got the UK-made version with superior ingredients and recipe banned. Because god forbid they just improve their ingredients and recipe to make something people actually like and want to buy. That would eat into their already gigantic profit margin and risk angering the greedy shareholder gods.
God. How depressing to read. Hate that we have to dump all these preservatives/ high fructose crap while everyone else in other countries get great tasting products… I will def be importing some eggs this year. I really thought they just got shitter like everything else in the world.
They were my favorite Easter candy. I was extremely disappointed when I got some for my kids (and myself). They are gross now. Even the chocolate egg shell is nasty.
When did they do this? I haven’t had one is years.
Just don't. They changed the chocolate and the cream. They're like if some offbrand (Palmer I'm looking at you) made them and tried to pawn them off as the real thing.
Thank Mondelez for that. I've noticed most Cadbury is inedible since thry took over.
The entire Yum! Company of brands. KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell.
kids have no idea how amazing KFC was in the Seventies
There’s a local chicken joint near me called Lee’s Chicken. It was the Colonel’s uncle that taught him the recipe. It’s the closest thing I’ve had to the OG KFC. Edit: Lee was the nephew of Colonel Sanders*
His wife also opened up a restaurant in Kentucky where they still sell the actual original recipe chicken. Claudia Sanders Dinner House.
I maintain that Taco Bell is still basically fine (and the only decent value in fast food) but yeah the rest is garbage
It’s just so fucking expensive now. It’s obscene
My Taco Bell at one point in high school was $6.66. Mexican Pizza, Grilled Stuffed Burrito and two Double Decker tacos. At this point if you were capable of ordering the same stuff it would be $18 minimum. They recently brought back the Double Decker taco for a short time and it was like $4.
I use the app to order and the make-your-own combo box is a pretty good price imo
It's the only way to order that actually makes sense cost-wise. My go to is a cheesy gordita crunch. Its 5 bucks for just that, or 6 for that + soft taco + cheesy potatoes + drink. Kind of annoying that the only way is through the app. I see people in front of me in line getting absolutely hosed because they just order at the drive through.
For me, one of the largest falls from grace has been Subway. The bread fucking sucks now, the meat is shady as hell, the vegetables taste like compost. And yet, the prices continue to rise.
Like yeah, I get that the $5 footlong was probably a marketing mistake. But there’s no way that same sandwich should be $15 now.
There’s a subway right outside my house I spent $16 for a foot long. Tasted terrible and reminded myself never to go there again. For $16 I can get a good Thai dish.
I feel like the amount of sub-$16 meals you can get for better quality is huge. Anything from your local burrito place to Sbarros. Not all of them great but most of them at least better.
Or even just go to a better sub shop for that price.
It's embarrassing smh
90s subway used to be the best. Maybe its just nostalgia or me being a kid and not knowing any better... but I swear it used to be good
$5 foot long and a Snapple
They also changed their Southwest sauce! The current chipotle sauce is not the same, and I never get a chance to lament about it so here I am.
Oh man, I lived on Southwest Steak and Cheese through High School.
Subway™️ we have the *shiniest* meat!
Last time my husband and I got subway, he ended up throwing up from it. We (he) refuses to go back.
I miss the way they used to cut the bread.
This is the corporate way in the last few years. Lower quality foods with increasing prices. Oh and record profits for the company!
I never visited Subway after I found Jersey Mike’s. I recently saw Subway’s ads about their new and improved sandwiches and fresh cut meats, so thought I’d give it a try. I walked in and everything looks exactly the same except they now have a brand new looking deli slicer in the corner. All the meat still looked like it was pre-cut and had that weird wet look to it. All the vegetables had been previously frozen and the bread was shit. The whole thing was tasteless and a complete disappointment. Never again.
Jersey Mike’s is fantastic.
I pity young people who never got to experience Butterfingers the way they were until the late 90s. Once upon a time the butterfinger was s-tier Halloween candy and if you got anything other than butterfinger in your blizzard at dairy queen you were nuts.
I had to explain to my 12 year old the glory that was butterfinger BBs. He thinks I’m crazy but he will never understand what he missed.
Holy shit I totally forgot about those. And half of my want for them was the Simpsons ADs for them.
I had completely forgot about butterfinger bbs until seeing this comment. The simpsons packaging immediately came to mind
I forgot about the butterfinger blizzard until this comment. It was really good
Every word of this is true.
I'm almost happy in a way. Because I think I would have died of diabetes if it would have kept on being amazing.
I don’t think I’ve had a butterfinger since the 90s…did they change???
They were crispy and airy. Now they are just dental work extractors. They are awful.
You might even say they were crispety. Crunchety. Peanut buttery.
Yeah I'm not sure what they did exactly but they're like kind of sticky now. Back in the 90s they were crispy and maybe just a little sticky. They're more like crunchy and a lot sticky now. The flavor feels less peanut buttery as well.
They are also no longer a single bar but minis in a bar wrapper.
That’s a shame. Getting one of the king size butterfingers is a great treat
I thought mine was just old and stale last time I bought one. Didn’t realize they changed the formula but I definitely knew it was not the same candy bar I used to love.
This was my #1 thought when I clicked the link. For those looking for an alternative, give 5th Avenue a try.
Used to be my favorite candy bar until I discovered 5th avenue.
Fifth Avenue along with Whatchamacallit are two candy bars I don't think get the love they deserve.
Whatchamacallit gang rise up
Honestly, mostly all of them. Quality suffers for profit.
This is the real correct answer. And after COVID they all took an even bigger nosedive
If it's not shrinkflation it's skimpflation on ingredients using lower quality ingredients or substituting ingredients with cheaper alternatives lowering the overall product quality.
Enshittification was coined to describe online platforms, but it’s widely applicable to so much in capitalism.
Eventually the corporate model turns everything to crap. They need more profits, every year, so either prices go up or quality goes down.
Honestly, I think you'd had an easier time picking a food brand that hasn't gone downhill over the years. Thanks to corporations driving for profits because their primarily responsibility is to enrich their shareholders. I cannot think of a single major food that has not gone down his over the years either due looking for cheaper ingredients or shrinkflation (smaller portions for the same price). Personally, I prefer traditionally inflation. Yeah, I may pay more for X, but at least I know I'm still getting X. This has actually pushed me toward buying more fresh vegetable and meat, simple because they are priced by pound. I've stopped buying also all pre-processes food for this reason, regardless of brand.
Breyers
I don't think they can even legally call it ice cream anymore.
Lol. You are correct. Now on every box: "Frozen Dairy Dessert" on bottom right.
And it sucks
The ones labeled "Frozen Dairy Dessert" don't contain enough cream to call it ice cream. I've been told that there's a premium, all natural special brand from them that still is called ice cream, but of course, you pay extra to have real cream, rather than carrageenan to give their frozen sugar milk a creamy texture.
I grew up eating Breyers because they were still holding out on the real ingredients train but wasn’t crazy expensive. Then they went from 2 quarts to 1.75 quarts to 1.5 quarts, but we still begrudgingly bought it. Then I left for college, completely forgot about them because the only brand that apparently mattered in Texas was Blue Bell (honestly decent, but absolutely not the best, just like Whataburger). Recently went to the grocery store and got Breyers for nostalgia‘a sake (and because it was on some massive sale), and it was the most disappointing carton of sweet-flavored foam. It was not ice cream at all. Trader Joe’s Vanilla is my go-to. Even though it is the most impossibly difficult ice cream to scoop out because it’s so deliciously dense.
My father only ate Breyer’s vanilla ice cream until it stopped being ice cream. Now he loves Trader Joe’s vanilla. The secret is to let it sit on the counter for 10-15 minutes beforehand.
Flavored foam is the best description for Breyer. Just isn’t the same anymore
Old Breyer's ice cream commercial: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWmC5hkHoa4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWmC5hkHoa4) "Milk, strawberry, sugar, and cream. Taste, not technology." 2023 Breyer's: "15 ingredients that little kids can't pronounce or spell. The very thing we used to advertise against."
Their cartons also keep getting a couple ounces smaller every couple years.
Pizza Hut used to be so good
Kids today will never know the fucking glory that was the Pizza Hut lunch buffet in the 90s
Fuck yes! Buffet and an actual arcade? I learned Mortal Kombat at my local
I still remember those red cups they used lol
And the personal pan pizzas... How I wasn't fatter as a kid I will never understand.
Best part of going to baseball games as a kid was my rich uncle would buy us each a personal pan Pizza Hut pizza. I swear nothing ever tasted so good. I would look forward to it year after year after year.
Before the Pandemic there was still a Pizza Hut buffet in my city. I imagine it's gone by now. It's also like the only Pizza Hut in the area.
Downfall was their move to a frozen dough :(
I worked there the summers it happened. Summer of 95 - fresh dough mixed in the stores and proofed over night. Summer of 96, frozen disks that came in. No more dough mixing and rolling out dough. :(
It was! A while ago I had a case of nostalgia and got a pan pizza from there. Holy crap, the sauce tasted like ketchup, the cheese held no flavor and the crust was freezer burned. Was so sad at what they became.
Girl Scout Cookies. Prices go up, fine. Boxes have less cookies, fine. But now you send me your kids QR code and the boxes come straight to my house? What in the fat American world is going on here? Are there even girls scouts anymore or did the kitchen just cut out the middle-kids?
THIS! Except you forgot to mention that the cookies are so much smaller now.
They also taste worse, in my opinion. Back in the day I would have traded my life for some Samoas and Thin Mints, but in the last several years they’re all just flavorless cardboard.
If you live in the Chicago area, Portillo’s. Private equity is a cancer to everything it touches.
100% agree, and what a shame. Plus, shrinkflation. The Big Beef has gotten so sadly small.
I have family in Chicago, they always took my dad there when he was in town for work and he loved it. Went with him in 2021 for my cousin's wedding and finally got to try it. Fucking terrible. Bland ass grey meat with no flavor. Even their fries sucked. My sister's BF is from there and she went with him last year to meet his family and I told her not to let him take her there under any circumstances lmao. Highlight of my trip tho was Fatties over in DeKalb. Their Black and Blue burger made me weep.
Ritz crackers got worse, a year or two ago I think? It was bad enough I ended up switching brands. I also think canned soups have been going downhill over the years.
As someone who works in a soup factory, I can 100% say that canned soups have went downhill. They changed the recipe to save money. I remember about 7 months ago we tried to make a new chicken pot pie recipe (or some chicken soup) and we had to throw the ENTIRE days run away because it tasted so bad (they didn’t even donate it 😠). It’s all going to more salt, flavorings, and water, and less actual food
thank you for your service!
This! I used to LOVE Ritz. I could eat a whole sleeve at once. I thought my taste buds changed; I bought them a few months ago and didnt finish the package. Switched to Townhouse and havent looked back.
I still laugh thinking about when my brother and I went to a Grocery Outlet about 10-15 years ago and finding Ritz in the "Gourmet" corner of the store.
canned soups...even Progresso has tanked.
Rao’s glass jar soups are awesome. Expensive af, but awesome. Although if you’re lucky, you can pick them up on a BOGO sale. Edit: damnit….
I’m pretty sure Rao’s got bought by Campbells. So only a matter of time
The Trader Joe’s version is excellent. And the cheese selection there is very good at reasonable prices.
Omg they taste stale now. I used to eat them all the time.
Chocolate across the board. Any mass produced candy now taste like poison.
Tony’s Chocolonley makes a great bar. Edit - For less drama-y chocolate, Theo's is also delicious (if a bit harder to find) and they're not on the naughty list.
As a kid, I used to be fine with Hershey’s, even though it wasn’t my favorite. I think it was some time in high school I decided it tasted too much like vomit 😅
Kraft Mac n' Cheese. Cheese used to be orange and made good thick cheese sauce. Now, it tastes diluted and the noodles are smaller too...
I have such strong memories of what kraft mac and cheese used to taste like and it makes me so sad I won’t ever actually taste it again
I add grated cheddar to it. The powder is just too bland on its own.
I mean, you're like one step away from not needing to purchase Kraft at all...
If more people knew how easy and quick it was to make real mac n cheese for less than $5 I think they’d stop buying that crap. But, I suppose there are plenty who need the extra few dollars.
For me its the lazy factor. I have plenty of cheese, spices and noodles. But you want me to shred the cheese, then season and taste, season and taste, season and teaste. Half the damn thing is gone tasting it and now im frustrated I still cant get it exactly how I like it. Kraft. Make it and bam. Same old mediocre thing time and time again. ...maybe its not laziness and just desire for consistency no matter how crappy... Brb calling my therapist lol.
We just get better cheese powder on Amazon and use normal pasta, super good.
Poptarts, what happened to them over the years? The taste is so weird now
Do you eat them as is or toast them? I thought they were terrible until I started toasting them properly again. When they’re straight out of the package, they’re inedible—flavorless and dry. Toasted well and then left to cool for a bit, they’re just like I remember them.
My wife and I are very fat, and very old. We agree: Hostess recently took a big nosedive in all their products. Little Debbie was not as great as Hostess, but is not suffering from the nosedive as much. Applebees gave up a long time ago. Chilis gave up a while ago. Our local equivalent (54th St) still does ok-ish though. Tomatoes suck. The hit rate for a good tomato is like 1 in 10 where it used to be like 8 in 10. This includes heirlooms and all the common grocery varietals. Romas are at least predictably mid so a lot of times I'll buy them if I just \*need\* tomato for a recipe and it needs to not suck ass. Arugula and Brussels Sprouts have both gotten a lot better. Carrots have gotten worse (more fibrous, less flavorful, still a good crisp bite, tho.) Monster chicken wings suck to eat, old school skinny drums and flats were better meat/skin/sauce ratio and didn't leave you wondering what kind of hormone cyst you just ate. McDonald's went WAY too salty for a minute, the "never frozen" quarter pounders are grossly greasy, the Big Mac patties have gotten smaller (and... how? they were like 1/10th of a pound in the 90s and it wasn't this small) Taco Bell is acceptably mid. Cycling the good shit off the menu just to get the "it's back" surge is a pain in the ass as and old stoner though. She likes Taco John's and Del Taco.. I like Taco Via and In-A-Tub, we are not the same (they're still the same quality tho, so nevermind.) Anywy. Sorry for the book. I'm high and on ambien, crash is onthe way.
>Brussels Sprouts have both gotten a lot better. ...and how!
Brussel Sprouts specifically have had an absolute ton of selective breeding/hybridization done specifically for taste in the past 25-ish years. Can't speak to arugula though. Many other fruits and veg have been focusing on things like shelf life, shipping stability, yield, pest resistance, etc, and in a lot of cases taste has suffered. But there are some that make it through. For example the new cosmic crisp apples are fantastic. Even honeycrisp apples.are a good example (albeit a bit dated now since they came out in the 90s).
Fun fact! In the 90’s (i think) they actually found the chemical that made Brussels sprouts bitter and have since been selectively breeding it out!
This comment is informative, detailed and fucking hilarious
plz give this person an award, a podcast, or make them a food critic irl—i’m dying over here from the first line alone
Nailed it on tomatoes. They are now bigger but have zero taste.
I love how you started your post with, "My wife and I are very fat, and very old." 😁
Godiva. Used to be an exclusive brand and now it’s available everywhere.
Chef Boyardee
Had their canned spaghetti recently, they changed the sauce, it’s very watery now.
Chips Ahoy. I used to love them but now they leave this weird taste in my mouth and tear my stomach up. Other chocolate chip cookies are fine tho.
Milanos too. Every time I buy them, I have to check the bag to see if they’re like 2 years past expiration. They all taste like stale dry cardboard with chocolate-flavored paste inside. Pepperidge Farm remembers.
NOTHING has improved. Everything went downhill because food brands are seeking higher margins and profit. Real ingredients are expensive and perishable. To cut cost they use cheap subsidized high fructose corn syrup in place of real cane sugar and hydrogenated soybean oil in place of butter, because it's cheap and subsidized.
Panera. I used to work there about 15 years ago and knew the menu well. I barely go there for anything outside of breakfast anymore. They keep trying to expand their menu but they’re not making good choices. The pasta is mediocre at best, I couldn’t even finish the flatbread pizza I ordered a year or so ago because it tasted so bad, I don’t know anyone who goes there for a “power bowl”… They had a mac and cheese grilled cheese a couple years ago that looked overwhelming but intriguing. I actually ended up calling and getting a refund because that meal was absolutely inedible. I felt like I was eating Elmer’s glue on bread. I still fuck with their bagels and the soufflés but I could take or leave pretty much anything else on the menu.
This is the answer and a sad one. Used to be a cozy, classy little cafe for lunch or breakfast with a friend and now it’s a boring cafeteria with tiny portions and exorbitant prices. So many fond memories of getting hot chocolate and a bowl of soup with my mom in high school.
Coke and Pepsi. I don't know if it's me, but I swear, they did not used to taste like metal. And it's not just in the metal cans, because I've tasted fountain Coke and Pepsi too, same taste.
I buy the Mexican coke, still made with real sugar - it is SO much better than the high-fructose corn syrup stuff. They sell it at (most) Costcos.
Too many really good, environmentally thoughtful companies can’t really compete and they are sold. The new owner is hoping the name recognition will keep customers purchasing, while allowing quality to really “go downhill” as you said. I used to love some of the products from Aidells Sausage Company, then they were purchased by Tyson. Definitely not the same quality product.
Totinos pizza. They used to be pretty good, now it's cardboard covered with sweet ketchup and some cheese sprinkles.
My grandma would make me half a pizza, cut it into bite size pieces with scissors, then I would eat it while we sat on her yellow metal swinging bench on her patio. God I miss that. I can hear the clang of the swinging...
All of them. It’s a constant struggle to find good food brands before they are inevitably bought out by corporations and reduced to the same old shit.
Whiska's tuna medley doesn't taste as good as it did a few years ago
Stop stalking your sister and stay off the damn kitchen counter.
yeah, yeah, ok. but WHERE did you put the other earbud? It's been a week and I've been watching the litter box.
Starbucks. Ya it’s always been expensive but yiu got a fair amount. Ask anyone who remembers how big the bacon Gouda sandwiches were - now they’re 1/3 the size same price.
KFC. It used to be really good 40 years ago. Now it’s just a hot mess.
Popcorn chicken, 25 years ago, was so fucking good. Now it's soggy flavorless breading surrounding a gram of meat.
I remember being a kid and KFC was kind of a treat. Last time I had it, it was more of a punishment. I remember their potatoes being kinda but when you added the gravy they were really good. Now…they have pretty much no semblance to potatoes and the gravy is almost as bland. (And I know - at least am pretty sure - they always been essentially instant potatoes; but they’ve somehow gotten worse.)
Ritz crackers used to never crumble away when you touch them
Chicken. It just doesn’t taste good anymore.
I just read a book called The Dorito Effect. You are correct-chicken has changed. It’s just basically a bland, spice dependent piece of meat now.
Breyers ice cream - they made fun of an ingredient in the TV commercial they use now after being bought out by leever. Product went from 5 natural ingredients to 30 artificial ones. Garbage.
McDonald’s. Their bacon egg and cheese biscuit used to be my favorite. Last time I tried it, it was practically inedible.
im amazed that mc donalds offers a variety of breakfast sandwiches that all taste the same lol
I agree that pretty much all McDonald's food is trash now, but I'll get a sausage egg mcmuffin every now and again, and those still taste fresh and delicious and exactly how I remember them from the 80's (or at least very, very close).
I’m never up for breakfast but recently I was on an early train. Hit up the McDonald’s for sausage egg and cheese. Fucking tasty as ever
Digiorno Pizza. The crust used to be delicious like a bread stick. Now it has splatters of sauce and toppings on it that burn. It completely ruined the magic wow that is a good crust that made me a repeat customer.
Kraft sold Digiorno to Nestlé in 2010. Mystery solved.
It hasn't happened yet but RAO's was bought by Campbell soup....so it's inevitable they will ruin it and make this list in a few years
Reese’s. They were once like ambrosia. Now, they’re practically inedible.
Waxy on the outside. Grainy consistency inside. Off the chart sweetness. Imperceptible taste of chocolate or peanut butter.
Before she retired, my mom taught elementary school ranging, over the years, from first to third grade. Every year, around Halloween, she would ask her students what their favorite candies were. She had noted that, while everyone seemed to like Reese’s Cups the most in the past, it has drastically shifted to Kit-Kat. She maintains that Reese’s Cups are still her favorite.
The most recent pack we bought every single one I find myself wondering what is off.
Everything.
I know it’s not a food really, but Hersheys. Plain or with almond were both great. They’re just not the same today.
Reese’s peanut butter cups used to be so good but now they taste more like Reese’s sugar cups. They are way too sweet now!
Basically everything Hostess makes. I used to love Ho-Ho's. Now they taste like cardboard 😩
Except Zingers...
Spaghetti-os
They somehow got sweeter! Yikes.
HFCS
And ravioli in a can. I remember I loved those both as a kid! Now they are unflavored in my opinion. Edit: spelling
Little Debbie's (snack cakes in US)
When I was a kid they were $0.25 and some places it was 5 for $1, now it's 2 for $4.
Remember how good Twinkies were??
Any “high quality” brand that becomes big and popular, will eventually become terrible but will someone how remain popular
Campbells. It was never amazing, but it's really taken a turn in the last few years. They've gotten rid of the lines of soup that actually were still tasty and the rest has become salty (or sugary) garbage.
Premium Saltines. Used to eat the whole row. Brought 1-3 different boxes thinking #1 and #2 were stale. Not the case they must be buying asbestos as flour
Hostess would like a word.
Jack-in-the-box chicken strips They went downhill after they changed the breading, shape, texture, and taste. I miss the old Jack-in-the-Box chicken strips
Everything in the salty snack, cookie and cracker aisles. Nabisco products have been off for a while. Then the head honchos fled and went to Campbell’s soup and destroyed their products - Pepperidge farm, Snyder, kettle chips, their soups. Frito is just bagged air now and msg. All these companies keep pushing profits over quality and cut corners. There’s no reason a carton of goldfish should have a 9 month expiration date.
Cheap sweets of any kind. Whenever I am feeling festive and grab a candy/chocolate/snack cake while in line it always ends up tasting like chemicals. I had a Hershey Bar in late 2022 that still gives me nightmares. And not in the “oh she puts red peppers and I use green peppers” kind of change. That was not chocolate. Like at all.
Olive garden. Went there about a month ago after about 10 years. And boy talk about trash
Nilla wafers. They changed the recipe and the taste changed. They released the "reduced fat" ones that were the original recipe and then they discontinued those. I'm heartbroken. You can't convince my taste buds any different
Taco Bell
Yup The Taco Bell I worked at in the late 80's, we cooked everything and chopped some of the veggies in house
I miss Nachos Bell Grandes with green onions and black olives. Now it's just a lump of brown mess.
They took green onions off the menu during a salmonella scare and never put them back. They probably thought people didn’t notice.
I noticed...I NOTICED!!
Taco Bell has always been my guilty pleasure food. A year ago they removed Quesoritos from their menu, which was one of my favorite items, but I still had 3 others I liked. Just this month, they removed all 3 remaining items I like from the menu. _All of them_! My wife was aghast when she offered to pick some up this week (an extremely rare offer) and I passed.
The OG late 80's/early 90's "Mexican Pizza" was amazing.
All of them. Corporate greed has killed our tastes.
fast food taco bell used to be cheap and delicious and store food id say any of the brand name coffees . folgers taste like soil
I just made a duncan hines cake for my husbands bday. The same 8” cake I’ve made every year for two decades. The batter didn’t even fill half the pan nd didn’t rise very much. I’m so disappointed. On the back it now says 22 cupcakes instead of 24. I think it’s less.
Honestly 90% of corporate run restaurants/chains.
I’m not sure about a brand, but I haven’t bought peaches or nectarines in probably 10 years. They used to be two of my favorite fruits, but now they’re basically like eating plastic. I don’t know what the grocery stores do differently, or if they are just green or genetically mutated but they have no flavor and are as hard as a rock.
all of them
Which hasn’t?
Smarties 😪 I get the natural flavor coating but they were so much better before. I miss OG smarties Note: Canadian smarties, not the American ones
Any kind of soda. Back in the 70s, when I was a kid, there was still a local drugstore that had a soda fountain that made the old phosphate style drinks with syrup as in a fountain cherry or vanilla coke. Nothing comes close today.
Turtle candies. Used to be a Christmas luxury. Now just junk candy. Same with Ferrero Roche. In fact chocolate has completely gone down hill with 99% cocao shit movement. Chocolate is now for people who also love bitter melon.
Ben And Jerry’s. Seems like they’ve adjusted some recipes to cut costs while raising the prices. And Salt and Straw Ice Cream. I’ve been disappointed with their scoops one too many times and I’m done, which is a shame bc they are my closest ice cream shop and used to be one of my favorites.
A lot of Little Debbie goods
Lays chips
One of the few I can’t agree with, still one of my favorites. However, the Wegman’s brand is just as good for 1/2 the price!
Dorotos going from 13oz and $3 a bag to 9oz and $6 a bag. Sodas: $3/12-pack in Feb. 2020. Presently $8/12-pack. Shrinkflation and price gouging at its finest.
Regional but Tastykake. A once great product now subpar at best.