I once worked for a chain restaurant that prided themselves on quality.
Everything was fresh and nothing was microwaved.
You could taste the difference.
Then as the years went by, cut a corner here, microwave a manicotti there.
From what I hear now, the tomato sauce comes pre-packaged when it was made fresh with ripe tomatoes daily.
Everything in service eventually falters at the altar of saving a dollar.
Yet the prices never go down.
Quality degrade, money vanish.
Redditor littleallred008 wanted to compare notes on all the degraded quality in the world of retail.
"What has simultaneously gotten worse and more expensive?"
Fast food in general. Wendy's? Your potatoes are shriveled and sad. They used to make me happy.
Ronald?
big mac 80s GIFGiphy"Big Macs. That burger 'patty' is a stones throw away from being a slice of roast beef."
badmangoodguy
Read Closer
"Cable/ Internet providers. Oh yes sorry your trial period was over, your bill went up 200 dollars. Oh no we didn't promise you 200mb/s download speed constantly, we said UP TO. read the fine print."
demonardvark
"In the US, if you’re lucky enough to live in a place with more than one option, call and threaten to cancel (speak with retentions) at the end of your contract."
"You should be able to renew at a better rate (maybe not as good as the trial offer). I actually just switch every year between Comcast and AT&T. I just set a calendar reminder for the following year once I sign a new contract. It’s a small hassle but worth it to save hundreds per year."
sameoldtexans
Skin
"I swear that Reese's peanut butter cups have gotten shi**ier over the years. the peanut butter seems chalkier and the chocolate tastes blander.
Plus I can't ever seem to pry them out of that little cup wrapper without leaving the bottom chocolate 'skin' stuck to it...
"I think the push to put them in the freezer and eat them chilled is a ploy to cover the declining quality."
thatstupidthing
No place like no home...
"As someone shopping for a house, I have to say homes. Not only has the real estate market been ridiculously inflated (especially in NYC, my residence), I'm finding that the actual quality of a lot of these homes are absolute crap. Due to the ability to find and source cheap materials and labor, developers are able to make huge profits off high prices and low costs. It's making me really rethink if I want buy a house, or just use all that money to aggressively invest."
orange_cuse
Not so Wild
I Hate You Wings GIF by The BachelorGiphy"Buffalo Wild Wings. I don’t know if it’s just me, but their prices have gone up and the quality has gone down."
ChongerHonger333
From my reviews, wings in general have just taken a hit.
Never Lasting
Show Off Renee Zellweger GIF by Working TitleGiphy"Clothes, very few companies make clothes to last and fast fashion is rising while the cost of items continue to increase!"
Longest_YeahBoi_Ever
Yuck
"Scented candles, Yankee Candle in particular used to be the candle that was considered premium. But while they've never been cheap at least a while ago it was worth the money. But now they're just exorbitant in price, they don't smell like they used to, and they are not worth the money."
llcucf80
Use an IPhone...
"Photo booths! Oh the old ones were so cool! Four different real photos for 1 dollar. - Now you pay $ 7 for four identical bad laser prints."
aSadGirlsTongue
"This is why we bought all the supplies and just made one ourselves, super easily. Literally bought a backdrop & frame, all the fancy lighting, props, tablet, tablet stand, color printer, and even the little clicker thing to press when to take the photo."
"All of that off of Amazon, for less than 1/3 the price we were quoted to rent one from a company. And now we have a photo booth... lol. We can be that cool couple that can bring a whole photo booth setup anytime we're invited to our friend's weddings, parties, events, etc."
Rachelalala
Ruined
"The Cadbury Egg is honestly the most disappointing to me, because nearly every one of the food products mentioned has plenty of viable alternatives that haven't been ruined. You can find a thousand high-quality chocolate bars or ice creams or whatever."
"But the Cadbury Egg is a singularly unique product. There's nothing else like it on Earth, so once Cadbury ruined the recipe, it was a treat lost forever."
KlaatuBrute
Learning
Robin Williams Movie GIFGiphy"My university education, specifically this year. They are raising tuition AND fall semester has no in-person sessions."
BlueKnightBrownHorse
Pay Up
"College tuition. When I hear college used to be paid with a summer job, my eyes get watery. I’m a college student."
MsMeself
"I didn't pay for mine on a summer job but worked nights and lived alone and could take 3 classes a semester + summer classes (and paid 1/3 rent) with the money I made."
DpvReno
"A friend of mine pays for his own tuition and covers some house bills for his single mom because he lives at home but he works 2-3 jobs year round, one of them being construction. I don't know how he does it. He's stressed and tired all the time."
trottingtriever
“save and share”
"Smarties. Never been right since they got rid of all the artificial colours. Better for you, I'm sure, but chemical blue was the best flavor."
BlindMansJesus
"Went to poop when they got rid of the tube and replaced it with that weird hexagon box. Actually all my childhood favorites taste worse when you find out Nestle makes them all."
"I can’t stand the box that they’ve split into three sections trying to get you to 'save and share.' If I wanna open the box and pour the lot down my gullet, that is my Canadian-born right."
msstirius
Dang Bucket
"I’m sure this will get overlooked but KFC. I remember growing up a whole family could eat there and it was great! Now it’s just garbage, super greasy, and will cost you an arm and a leg for a dang bucket of chicken. They have gotten way worse and the price has went up."
rprider1a1a2435
Frozens
Ben And Jerrys Empowerment GIFGiphy"Ice cream with fudge in it. Used to get massive slabs of fudge now they just have tiny nuggets."
ThatFinnishGu
"I can pretty much only stand to buy Ben and Jerry's these days. It ruined other 'frozen dairy desserts' for me."
marvlyn
the cheapest bidder...
"New homes. Cookie cutter houses, built with cheap contractors who cut corners left and right, situated in neighborhoods with ever higher HOA fees: and the HOAs are getting more expensive too."
aznuke
"I agree with this one. I thought buying a newly built home would be great. Turns out everything is cheap. Those nice looking base boards? Particle board. Cabinets? Particle board. Nice front door? it’s plastic and warps when the temperature changes."
"Everything ‘looks’ nice, but at the core it’s all super cheap material that was installed as fast as possible by the cheapest bidder."
fanpoppa749
Greedy Mickey
"Disney Theme Parks. (Speaking pre Covid world). They were better when you could do an entire park in a day, cost much less, like $40 vs whatever the insane price is now, and they limited who could get in."
"Universal is the same way, specifically Halloween Horror nights. It was $15 the first time I went, they capped how many tickets they sold and you had time to do every house plus a couple of rides. It was my favorite and we would go every year."
"Now? It's like $70 for a ticket, you have to buy fast pass for another $30 or $40 just so you have a chance to do every house because the lines can literally be hours long because they don't cap ticket sales and they recycle the same houses but pretend it's a new theme. It's so miserable we stopped going."
BrokenCankle
House Stuff
Giphy"Certain house appliances. My grandma has had the same fridge for 40 years. My parents recently had to replace theirs. It's their third in 20 years."
I_hate_traveling
"On the other hand, you don't want a 40 year old fridge because they are super energy inefficient."
lyrasorial
"Imagine how efficient those old fridges could be with modern technology and materials but the old mechanical design and quality control."
ICC-u
We like Bigger!
"I remember the donuts at Dunkin' Donuts to be bigger and cheaper."
Aero222
"When Donuts were their main thing. now, with all of the sandwiches, breakfast foods, shakes, smoothies, etc... donuts are an after thought."
politicsdrone704
I feel like life itself has degraded and become too expensive in general.
Who knows what things you can find in another person's house?
The place we call home can easily be a base for the strange, the bizarre and the unexpected.
Reddit user Aura_Blaze_Official asked:
"Redditors who have a job where they go into other people's homes (plumbers, electricians, etc) what's the weirdest most disturbing thing you've seen while working in a customer's house?"
At least she has a hobby.
"Was a firefighter another time in my life."
"Had a middle of the night call to a mobile home for an elderly lady once."
"We walk in and it's dark but as my eyes start to adjust I think 'oh that's weird wallpaper'."
"I keep looking around 'huh, it's on the ceiling too'."
"Weird inconsistent patterns and rectangle shapes."
"Eyes adjust some more while we are talking to her. "
"Wtf? 'Are those puzzles?!'"
"'She had hundreds of puzzles that she had glued when completed and then glued them to every surface of her mobile home'."
"Walls, ceiling, living room, bedroom'."
"'Every square inch covered'."
"'Weird.'"
"'But you do you'."
"Especially in your own home."
"Certainly not as bad as most ITT."- WhilstTakingADump
Look at all these chickens.
"Used to deliver oxygen to people's homes."
"Saw plenty of weird things."
"Lots of hoarders, but this one took the cake."
"He didn't want to let us into his house, but I had to do a home safety assessment before I could set up the equipment."
"He was anxious about letting me in because his house was mess."
"He kept telling me about his messy house."
"Come to find out, it wasn't just messy."
"It was filled with 200 chickens."
"He was proud of his show chickens and wouldn't let them live in a barn or coop."
"The smell was unbearable."
"Other than that, he was a super nice guy."-Good_Looking_Karl
GiphyWhat an awful sight.
"A few years back I worked as an electrician."
"I found a guy with a rifle laying next to him where he had tried to shoot himself, but he had 'missed' the vital parts."
"Blood was all over the bed but he was still breathing, he was in coma state of mind, heard later that he died that day."-dude_above_me_is_gay
No idea.
"Long ago I did estimates for fire and water damage repairs for a restoration company."
"This couple had a smallish fire in their bedroom."
"When I enter the home it's seemingly normal, smells like smoke (there was a fire, makes sense)."
"They take me to the bedroom and it was the mattress that had endured the majority of the fire, along with some of the wall above the head of the bed and smoke damage to the ceiling."
"Next to each side of the bed are 10 gallon buckets FILLED TO THE BRIM with cigarette butts, and hundreds of spilled over butts all over the floor."
"I was just in awe how they could live like this in their bedroom, especially since the rest of their home seemed tidy and normal."
"Also completely beyond me why they wouldn't clean it up after the fire if for no other reason than insurance adjusters being able to blame them (rightly) and possibly not pay out."
"'How did the fire start,' I asked. (required to ask)"
"'No idea,' the husband replied."- Living_Kumquat.
Gross.
"I was a paramedic in Oakland and once I was in a home where a child has been bitten by a rat in her crib."
"As we were standing there talking to the mother about her options a rat walked up to one of the firefighters and bit his boot."
"The firefighters stomp to the rat to death and the rat was taken to the health department for testing."
"That was a strange situation."-HenryRN
GiphyAwkward.
"Fire Alarm Inspector."
"Working in a cheap long term hotel and knocked on a door where a larger man dressed in essentially a purple bikini opens the door half asleep."
"Enter to test the smoke detector and tried to keep my eyes off the bed but I knew I had seen something."
"Tried not to look but I did and there's a big old purple adult toy next to the tv remote."
"The detector then decides to not alarm in a timely fashion so I'm just staring at the wall hoping it will alarm so I get out of the room."- Karlen89
Probably the right move.
"Bunch of used pregnancy tests on the floor of the teenage daughter's closet."
"I didn't say a damn word to anybody."-stupidlyugly.
Anxiety sucks.
"Just read a post in another subreddit about a girl with social anxiety who hid under her bed when the plumbers came and then the plumbers caught her under there."
"And then she ran and hid in the bathroom until they left."
"Wonder if those plumbers are on reddit."
"I most definitely want to hear their side."- killthecacti
GiphyGood call.
"I use to do flooring and when we had to get up the sub flooring due to water damage."
"Underneath it there was a black garbage bag."
"When I opened said bag it had a bunch of women's clothes in it."
"Didn't think anything about it until we dumped it out and found ripped underwear and torn dresses."
"Told the owner we had forgot some stuff at work and wouldn't be back until tomorrow."
"Called the police and never went back."
"The house was soon up for sale a month or so later."- Rzr117.
That's kinda wholesome.
"Food bank delivery to home bound elders."
"I always fill two banana boxes (around foot and a half by 3 and a foot deep) of all types of food and deliver to his house."
"One time after delivering to him for 3 years I have to come inside because he hurt his foot."
"He had never thrown out a single box."
"They lined every wall and entrance."
"He built a castle around his bed, and a series of paths through his house. It was like those pillow forts you would make as a kid but with boxes."
"I asked him if he wanted help getting rid of them and he said no."
"That it was fun and helped with his dementia. He's super fun."- DirtyMartiniMan.
Who left the window open?
"I used to work for a exterminating company I went to exterminatw a house it was scheduled with the owner."
" I knocked no one answered ."
"I heard a woman screaming for help, so the door was unlocked I opened it went in followed the screams coming from the bathroom."
"I asked if she was ok, she said the door knob had come off and she was stuck so I got the door open."
"Sure enough she was stuck half way out the window, head first a** sticking out naked so helped her out she was so embarassed I'm just glad I could help."- dennyntx.
We've got a surprise for you!
"I am a plumber and I got a call to do an ice maker line in a small condo in my area."
"I arrived and met the couple and performed the work."
"After I wrapped up and collected payment, I was having casual convo with the couple and the guy says 'you haven't met someone yet'.
" And I said who?"
"He then moves a curtain that was in the doorway of a closet and the craziest f*cking bird."
"May have been a cockatiel started attacking me and chased me out of the door."
"The couple just laughed maniacally and I just got in my truck and left."
"No "'have a nice day' no nothing."
"F*cking weird dude."
"I have a ton of them lol."- PipelineKingJon.
mother nature parrot GIFGiphyA memento of a special occasion.
"I am a housing officer."
"I visited a house last year where a lady who seemed completely normal, very nice, very together, was keeping the 'dropped off piece' of umbilical cord from her 9 month old baby, i.e. it dropped off 8 months ago or so on her bed side table!!"- Blackbird04.
It left a lasting impression.
"My father works as a plumber for 15 years."
"I live in a small town, where everybody knows every about each other."
"Once, a woman, who lived in my town for a long time called my dad to repair something."
"As I had holidays, my dad decided to take me with him."
"While he was working, I decided to look through the house."
"One of the rooms was full of Barbie dolls, but their heads and bodies were separated."
"It has been 10 years, I’m 23 now, and my family still live in that town."
"I’m married with that woman’s son."
"He doesn’t know what THAT meant."- thehornoftheunicorn.
One way to deal with the problem.
"Plumber."
"Back when I was in the install department my coworker and I were in the middle of a repipe."
"We have to Swiss cheese the home to get to all the pipes."
"The wife could not handle what was happening in the home seeing all the holes."
"Everyday we were there wanting to know why we had to cut so many holes yelling at her husband."
"Every single day the husband was dressed in a suit for work and would apologize for his wife."
"We showed up one morning and the husband opened the door in a robe, not closed, and a pair of boxers."
"And was Drunk as a skunk."
"Said he sent his wife to the beach house until the job was done with and the house was ours to do as we pleased."
"Job went smoothly after that."- MrJon0053.
guy perfect loops GIFGiphyOne and Done.
"I am a plumber of 20 years."
"I could go with serval stories."
"For example cat piss ladies home where the entire first floor was the cat litter box and the entire first floor smelled like cat pee."
"The basement, which was a relief, smelled like weed and cigarettes, from the son living in the basement."
"The owner had a leak under the kitchen sink so I had to lay down on the pee covered, dryed, floor to get under the sink."
"Long story short, I caused a minor flood which I contained."
"Owner however demanded a manager come to the home to look at the damaged I caused."
"When he showed up she took him to the spot I damaged, he looked at her and said 'you'rw complaining because he cleaned your floor?'"
"'House was put on the do not serve list after that.'"
"'Never went back.'"
"This was about 15 years ago.'"- MrJon0053.
"You're trying to seduce me... aren't you?
"Started as a furniture and appliance delivery driver and nothing too serious."
"Took an old guy a tv and he had pornhub open on his old one and a bunch of anal dvds laying around."
"Only other one worth saying is we took a really cute chick a bunkbed and after we got done building it, I told her i was going to grab my clipboard for a signature."
"I come back in the room and she's on all fours on the top bunk spreading the sheets in daisy dukes where I could, lets just say, see more than i should have."
"As I walked into the room her, a** was about 2 feet from me and i nearly choked on my own words."- VeilOFMayaa.
Hanging on to those we love.
"My mom was a parole officer in the 80's and they had to do house evaluations to be sure the guys could be sent to live with their family and/or relatives."
"Lot of gross and disturbing stuff."
"My favorite: went to visit a guy's mom to see if he could go live with her when he got paroled."
"The woman hated him since he was a failure (jail)."
"On the other hand, she loooved her other son and kept talking about him during the interview."
"He was some kind of magician and would do a show with his python in bars all over the province (Québec)."
"He would lay down in a casket with it and taddaaa! "
"Survive the thing."
"Except one time he didn't and the snake suffocated him during the show."
"The woman pointed her finger up and my mom lifted her eyes."
"She had the python stuffed and hanged along the upper part of the walls."
"It made almost the entire room."
"Looking down she realize the coffee table was, in fact, the "casket" the guy died into."
"Nice place."- sunforrest.
python GIFGiphyA long uncovered secret.
"In my hometown, the landlord of a basement apartment noticed that the water pipes were getting backed up all throughout his house that he lived above from this basement apartment."
"Decided to call a plumber, hoping it'd fix the issue."
"Plumber finds mushy bits of human organs and dismembered limbs."
"After the police were involved, it was discovered about 6 months later that confirmed the human remains belonged to a 15-year-old girl who went missing months ago."
"So f*cking twisted."- erind22.
On the other hand, may it is best to just stay home, right?
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