Dollar Tree stores, when they were a dollar.
Yeah it was a very nice point in time when you were tight on a budget and there was dollar tree near you, everything very affordable. Not everything was built to last and most of the food were arguably unhealthy but you got by with what you could get. Nowadays, we’ve seen Dollar Tree turn into just any dollar store you could think of.
24/7 Wal-Marts
It’s been a while but there was that time Wal-Mart was opened for 24 hours. This allowed you to shop at 2 in the morning, in a big store, with next to no one. Sure some of the services might not be available but that isn’t the point. And maybe it disgruntled a lot of overnight workers who’re trying to get the store ready for the normal period of the day, now having anything disrupted and so few people to cover the store.
Video Games that were shipped in complete versions
Back when developers actually had to make sure that what they’re shipping out to be played, was both good and functioning. Now everyone lately is so quick to release games that breaks on Day 1, require lots of patches that take weeks to even years, slapping on Early Access to milk even more money from people and eventually not even test it. While still charging top dollar.
The pre-algorithm internet and social media era of about 2000-2014.
I remember when Instagram was just pictures of my friends cats, hikes, and thrift finds. It was great and fun.
When Facebook status windows automatically had an “is” following your name. So posts would start with “Mary is” and you’d fill in what you’re doing or how you’re feeling.
When Twitter used SMS and you could use it just to follow your favorite band, so whenever they posted it felt like you got a text from them. That was pretty cool.
Pensions
I barely got grandfathered into a pension program with the US military. They went away in 2015. I had served over a decade at that point and they still let me retire in 2022 under that program. The new program is a sort of 401k type system, but I didn’t have enough years in service to contribute to it for retirement, so they didn’t even give me the option to switch over.
Granted, I retired after only 20 years served so my pension is not very big. But it’s money in my pocket every month for the rest of my life, so I’m not complaining. I’ll never starve or go without shelter.
- Dollar menus at fast food places
- Firefly
- Halloween neighborhood roam trick or treating
- Calvin & Hobbes but I’m glad Watterson ended it when he did
- Angular car design (yeah down with car centrism but those angles looked cool)
- Internet 1.0 and the separation of offline and online life
- The Beyond Taco at Del
- Personal privacy
C&H was the GOAT.
Weeping upvote for Firefly, taken too soon 😭 🪦 😭 😭
Early internet 2000-2011ish.
Physical buttons.
Watching sports without a subscription.
Keebler pizzeria chips.
The News.
Physical media.
Video games releasing finished without a day one patch.
The internet.
internet 1.0
TIL that Walmart aren’t open 24hrs anymore. I thought it switched back after COVID, but I guess not.
I haven’t tried visiting a Walmart after 7pm in a very long time.
I think the covid thing happening was their excuse to seize doing that. They were 24/7 right around that period. But I could also see other reasons why they stopped. I mean, overnights were poorly staffed and it’s wal-mart, everyone is going to be getting away with tons of shit like stealing and customers getting rowdy.
Personally, as an overnight worker, I’m glad it ended. I miss being able to shop peacefully but, better safe than convenient.
When one still could have the reasonable impression that everyone is the same before the law.
When was that?
Childhood.
We believed a lot of wonderful things in the 90s.
Freedom? Democracy? An Internet before the eternal September, SPAM, marketing surveillance, and ads everywhere?
Firefly.
The climate.
Minidiscs. More durable than CDs. They just looked cool. Sounded way better than cassettes and easier to record and modify tracks. If the data drives were easier to acquire (i.e. like a CD drive) I think they could’ve taken off.
Netflix 2013 had basically everything for 8 dollars. What an experience that was.
I guess I knew it couldn’t last if it got super popular. It would have to get filled with ads or you’d be charged per show or movie you watched, I thought.
But for a brief window you had the perfect application for watching tv and movies.
Eh, the suckers way back then are why things are how they are now.
They were proud to pay for things they could be getting for free, and so businessmen see that opportunity and take full advantage of it.
It was called Netflix and chill because no bitches wanted to fuck you after watching you fumble around with your computer and usb drives for 15 minutes before watching How I Met Your Mother at 720p with no subtitles
yo papa
Sorry, I had to-
US Democracy
deleted by creator
