Not a patch on what they used to be.

[bfcjg]

Measure tapes....when I started of in construction over 40 years ago you could push your tape 16 feet up a wall to measure up,you could hold it against a datum post to set out and it would travel without bending, you could even whack somebody with it yards away ( none of your fancy dan metric in those days ) it would retract back to you and you could play dumb, we had competions at brew time seeing who vould extend the old Stanley power lock up right to it's full height. Nowadays they are like a flacid gentleman's member after a night on the beer ( so I'm told) I'm semi retired so get lists and lists of jobs,one is to measure a family members house for cladding, do a spec and get prices, my tape pushes a few feet up the wall then just gives up and collapses back like an acrophobic high jumper. Grr.
What else isn't as good as it used to be ? Another bugbear are bin bags, ffs they are so thin now you could read a bloody newspaper through them, Useless.

[Bosscat]

[Bosscat]

Measure tapes....when I started of in construction over 40 years ago you could push your tape 16 feet up a wall to measure up,you could hold it against a datum post to set out and it would travel without bending, you could even whack somebody with it yards away ( none of your fancy dan metric in those days ) it would retract back to you and you could play dumb, we had competions at brew time seeing who vould extend the old Stanley power lock up right to it's full height. Nowadays they are like a flacid gentleman's member after a night on the beer ( so I'm told) I'm semi retired so get lists and lists of jobs,one is to measure a family members house for cladding, do a spec and get prices, my tape pushes a few feet up the wall then just gives up and collapses back like an acrophobic high jumper. Grr.
What else isn't as good as it used to be ? Another bugbear are bin bags, ffs they are so thin now you could read a bloody newspaper through them, Useless.

Bassets Allsorts aren't as good either

[bfcjg]

Bassets Allsorts aren't as good either

They were never any good un the first place !

[Bosscat]

They were never any good un the first place !

A helluva food count though

[bfcjg]

A helluva food count though

True ,

[cbx750]

Midget Gems since Maynard's took over, Lyon's are rare as rocking horse droppings now.

[cbx750]

Lion's

[Bullabill]

Tapes are done. These days you use an electronic digital measuring unit which gives you metric or imperial measurements accurate to millimetres over as much as ten metres. And they cost no more than the equivalent of a good tape.

[Buxtonclaret]

Think Quality over just about everything has gone down a rabbit hole.
Electrical kettles & vacuum cleaners are my bug bear.
They used to have a self life of years & years.
Now your lucky to get 3 years out of a medium priced one.
Just adding to the waste mountains we're only now thinking about recycling in any meaningful way.

[CharlieinNewMexico]

My hot water tank went out last month. I’ve had this house 9 years and it came with it. When we finally managed to pull the beast out of the closet, there were “checked / serviced ” initials from plumbers on a label starting in 1972! Weighed about 150lbs.

[Burnley1989]

Get yourself a Leica Tracker

[Hipper]

I bet your original tape measure weighed a lot more then today's ones.

Shoe laces. They don't seem to last as long before they start slipping out of their knots.

Print on various items - food, instructions etc. - has become so small that even with glasses they need a magnifying glass to read.

[dougcollins]

Tapes are done. These days you use an electronic digital measuring unit which gives you metric or imperial measurements accurate to millimetres over as much as ten metres. And they cost no more than the equivalent of a good tape.

Where's the fun in that?

[fatboy47]

Trains.

Used to love it..overnight to Cornwall..9.15pm from Piccadilly, family of 5, compartment to ourselves, luggage above on the rack, no changes,little buffet trolley after Shrewsbury, yob free, Penzance at 6am and onto the boat for Scillies. Relatively cheap.

These days?...no overnight service...no direct daytime trains, min 2 changes, every train jam packed, rubbish strewn, bogs never working, no privacy ,noise, some w*nker papping over the intercom throughout in barely understandable English, journey takes longer than in 1964 and you need a degree in computer science to buy one of the eye wateringly priced tickets.

Dont talk to me about progress.

[bfcjg]

Bags for life when they came out first were exactly that,my wife has still got the first one I bought her for Christmas ( I know I know but you have to push the boat out for loved ones)
Now their lifespan is that of a Hamas guy wandering around Gaza with a target tee shirt .

[Clovius Boofus]

Telly were shite and even crap brands were very expensive. I remember our dad buying our first colour TV in the early 1970s - it was a GEC. We spent more time watching the repairman than the actual telly.

[Clovius Boofus]

Oh, and when it did work, we had the colour turned up full blast - everyone did the same back in those days - it was the law.

[Hipper]

Telly were shite and even crap brands were very expensive. I remember our dad buying our first colour TV in the early 1970s - it was a GEC. We spent more time watching the repairman than the actual telly.

.... and you had to get up from the chair to change channels (only two) and volume. And it closed down at midnight.

We had a TV in the 60s. It was black and white of course but for changing channels it had a rotating disc with push buttons around its circumference (it had loads of buttons even though there were only the two channels because it was preparing for the introduction of more channels, we were told). When you pressed, say, the button on the bottom of the disc it would rotate until that button was at the top. For us children that was fun! Plus it took an age to warm up it seemed so we had to turn it on some five minutes before a programme.

Without the TV service going off at midnight Clifford T Ward would never have seen Jayne from Andromeda Spiral on his TV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW5KX7sEPzY