Few people love unmet expectations, and that goes for pretty much everything, from people and companies to items and services, among other things. That’s why it’s no surprise that when something does not live up to a certain standard, they can get quite upset.

As a matter of fact, roughly four-in-five customers have had an upsetting or a disappointing experience with a brand, which typically leads to some unfortunate consequences, be it blacklisting the brand—which 44% of unhappy people reportedly do—or sharing their negative feedback with those around them—the means nearly 90% of them take.

The latter was seen to be true with members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community who were invited to share their opinions about the quality of certain brands. User ‘bapboopbeep’ asked them which ones were actively watering down their quality, and netizens didn’t hold back their opinions. Scroll down to find their answers on the list below, and see what brands were no longer living up to the expectations in the eyes of these redditors.

#1

Etsy used to have so many good products made by creative and talented people. But more and more I’m seeing s**tty T-shirt prints and stuff from Amazon.

Image credits: TonyThePapyrus

#2

Panera.

Just what the world needs. A thimble full of soup for $12.

Image credits: BoredBSEE

#3

YouTube is rapidly turning into just ads.

Image credits: Mr_Mouthbreather

#4

Netflix, Hulu, Prime video – pretty much all the streaming services. S**ttier content, introduction of ads, constant price increases for zero added value

Image credits: weech

#5

Dr Martens boots. Most of them are made in China now and even the Made in England Docs are made with inferior cheap leather and don’t even have a shank.

They are nothing more than fad fashion now.

Image credits: Zimbo2016

#6

Breyer’s ice cream was a premium brand when I was younger. A bunch of years ago they changed and are now the crappy brand.

Image credits: DeaddyRuxpin

#7

Disney. I hate to say it, but more recent movies just don’t have the same charm as they used to

Image credits: I_Have_A_Name37654

#8

Kahlua is literally watering down their product, ABV went from 25% to 22% to 18%

Image credits: murse_joe

#9

Google – the search engine is now the same as Alta Vista where you have to scroll past all the sponsored content you are not interested in and you tube is now showing 3 ads to watch a 20 second clip

Image credits: kanemano

#10

Prime just announced they are adding advertising to their movies. Bastards.

Image credits: Eucentric

#11

Yankee Candle. Well, a lot of candles, but it sucks when such a big candle brand known for having amazing candles has fallen off so tremendously. Went into a Yankee Candle store and picked up my favorite candle, Red Apple Wreath, and could barely smell it with my nose held just aboce the wax. Genuinely got scared I had covid. Went home and opened the one I have that’s several years old and the scent filled the whole room without even having to light it. The quality really has gone downhill. 

Image credits: moonflannel

#12

Anything candy with chocolate.

Image credits: a1ien51

#13

Subway.

Used to make halfway decent sandwiches that were a pretty good deal. Now? Paper thin meat slices, fillers in the meat, browning gross veggies, three day old stale bread…for $12

Hard pass.

Image credits: yada_u

#14

McDonald’s.

Granted, they were never great (at least as long as I’ve been eating them). But over the past few years, I’ve definitely noticed a downward trend. Virtually anything you get from their menu is going to taste almost exactly the same. The only minor exception is the Quarter Pounder, but I don’t feel like spending that much on a fast food burger often. Which brings me to my biggest complaint: most of their sandwiches have shrunk to about 2/3 of the original size, but the prices have somehow doubled or tripled.

Image credits: UsefulIdiot85

#15

Levis. Every new pair I bought had a problem.

Image credits: SLObro152

#16

Dorito’s. Their sweet chili flavor is starting to become very bland.

Pringles has already reached the point where whichever flavor you buy, it’s original.

Image credits: eggtart_prince

#17

Amazon. I’ve returned probably half of things I’ve ordered recently and I’ve been getting a lot of knock offs.Amazon. I’ve returned probably half of things I’ve ordered recently and I’ve been getting a lot of knock offs.

Image credits: Honest-qs

#18

Lately it feels more like which brand ISNT watering down their quality and quantity tbh.

Image credits: Noodlelicious11

#19

Lululemon, my aligns from 5 years ago are only just pilling a bit, my aligns from 3 months ago started pilling before I even washed them, they also have some loose threads.

Image credits: vareenoo

#20

If you’re Canadian, you’ll know: Tim Hortons. What was once a beloved coffee shop brand that offered decent food and coffee has now become a pale imitation of itself. Burger King purchased it, like, (edit) 10 or so years ago, so it’s obvious why. A friend recently said that the owner is notorious for getting food down to the bare minimum of what people will accept and finding the profits there.

Image credits: Fragrant-Policy4182

#21

Pop-Tart

Wtf happened to their frosting placement

Image credits: kingnimbus

#22

Appliance companies. My folks have a 35 year old hotpoint refrigerator that is still running strong. Meanwhile a chip on the motherboard in my 3 year old GE refrigerator fried itself and now it won’t dispense water or ice. My Samsung dishwasher shit the bed after two years, and same with my Rheem water heater. Their quality is going down the drain but “OmG mY fRiDgE hAs WiFi :)”

#23

Bath and Body Works used to have Vitamin E in their body wash. Expensive—buy on clearance—but effective for dry skin.

Now they switched to B5 instead and it doesn’t really work. Trying to buy the older formula ones off of eBay now

#24

Dollar Tree 🙁 They used to sell everything for just $1.00. Then they raised everything to $1.25, I think just earlier this year or sometime in 2022. Now they’re adding in products for $3 and $5.

It used to be I could go to Dollar Tree and feel like I could afford anything. Now I’m annoyed by the changes and don’t want to buy much of anything, only the specific items that I usually get there.

They’re just becoming Dollar General and it’s gross and sad. 🙁

#25

Surprised no one has said this yet but Fanatics, the sports gear store. They are TRASH now.

Back when they first started several years ago it used to be a good store with good service that was basically another place to buy your fan gear from. Now, they have exclusive licensing for merchandise for all the major sports leagues and as a result the “Fanatics Branded” merchandise they make (so like your standard team shirt or hat for example) is trash quality and they charge out the nose for it. Shipping is expensive and takes weeks for it to come and the customer service is basically nonexistent. Oh and they charge $9.99 for shipping if you return something but they’ll “waive the return shipping charge” if you take your refund in the form of a store credit so they’re literally holding your money hostage.

I once ordered a shirt from them that was clearly defective when it showed up (the logo was crooked). As much as I never want to be rude to customer service people, I basically had to throw a temper tantrum to get them to waive the return shipping charge when they initially said no, even though the item was defective (they ultimately did “just this one time as a courtesy”…..literally their words).

Look at @FanaticsSucks on Twitter for so many examples of why they’re so bad.

#26

Health insurance.

#27

Old Navy. Anything clothing.

#28

Most toilet paper brands are shorter now, I noticed honey maid and nabisco graham crackers now only have 7 crackers per pack..

BUT most of all GOOGLE search all of a sudden sucks bad for some reason. Just last night I googled “what channel is Sundance on Charter Spectrum” and I almost couldn’t even find it. I had to click on like 6 different pages and reword my search multiple times before I finally found it. That’s just the most recent example I can think of but it’s gotten so bad I don’t know what else to use honestly.

Don’t even get me started on YOUTUBE. Good lord the ads drive me insane. Sometimes there’s up to 3 or 4 ad breaks on a 10min video. They’re skippable for the most part, but the way they’re going, they won’t be skippable this time next year. Or there will be 6 ad breaks instead of 3 or 4. It’s gotten to the point that I cant watch YouTube at night to fall asleep anymore on my tv because unless I actively hit skip every 3 minutes, I get stuck listening to a 2 minute ad about something fucking stupid like click bait $200 bearskin hoodie or Chinese pos flashlight that I promise you I will never buy.

It’s not just YouTube though. It’s Hulu, DIRECTV, Dish, cable, Netflix. It’s everyone and I hate it. Like I’m not going to buy anything you force me to watch I promise you. I pinky promise. Like 0% chance, all the ads do is interrupt the feeling of enjoyment im getting from your service and replace it with annoyance. God I hate ads. There has to be a better way.

Our generation left cable and satellite for streaming services and YouTube to get away from the having to deal with ads.

#29

Chef Boyardee ravioli used to have rich sauce. Ever since the pandemic it’s watery, and plain tasting.

#30

I used to work for a brand and we weren’t as much as watering down, ask much as we were replacing water with sugar. So much sugar. I suspect that this is true for other brands too.

#31

As a German I can say all German cars. Same as most German tools etc. American cars are the same bad quality but the old times of engineers building a part so it lasts the longest are long over. Any car which has an oil pump break before 200 000 km should be a warranty case. Same as any other part.

The only breaking parts should be the engine after 250 000+ km for petrol and 500 000km+ for Diesel. Anything breaking before that is an absolute joke and should be covered by warranty.

It is also a joke that Chinese car sellers give you a higher warranty on their cars than German ones… That says it all.

Ps: I drive a Mercedes, but I’m just disappointed about the service. My grandfather only drove Mercedes and the service was beyond great and the cars were better.

#32

Digiorno pizza went through shrinkflation. I used to buy their crispy pan pepperoni pizza and now I can’t find it in stores. What replaced it is Detroit style pizza that’s about 25% smaller.

#33

Johnnie Walker Blue Label scotch whisky is their “top of the line” blend, but most agree that it’s way overpriced for what it is. It isn’t even a blended malt, like the cheaper and superior Green Label – it contains generic grain alcohol mixed with malt whiskies.

#34

Whole Foods! Shopped there for Christmas dinner and 2 ingredients were rancid when we opened them. Their stock is also abysmal – could hardly find the basics we needed.

#35

Didn’t see this one, so I’ll throw it out there: Google products.

Putting aside the more fundamental concerns about data privacy or ethics and all that. Just focused on quality for this.

Search – it’s a mess. If I want an answer, I need to add Reddit to my search. There are no more finding relevant info from unique sites. Every result is branded seo stuff to filter you to some big entity in the space. It just isn’t good at what it’s supposed to do. The chat AIs are only a threat to Google because search is so clearly just a money maker now, and not useful at all.

YouTube – it’s a mess. Its search functions are almost worse than search, shorts are so annoying, ads get longer and longer. The way they compensate content creators kills the content. Easy example: I followed a channel of a guy who did these long video series, where he’d play a game and wax philosophical. It made them very popular and beloved in his niche. Now he only makes 5-10 minute quick videos released rapidly. He was asked why, and he said that the algorithms reward shorter content, posting more often. Longer videos just don’t get promoted (probably because the ad ratios get lower).

The google suite tools still work well (likely because those are sold to businesses so maintaining quality is more important). But their flagships, YouTube and search, are just no good. Too big to be replaced though, so it’s gonna be a long spiral downward for them.

Image credits: CarpeValde

#36

I can’t offer an example of a brand that isn’t guilty of this. Cheap, poor quality, replaceable products and goods is literally the fuel of our global economy. No company makes their products to last a lifetime or even a decade that I can think of… everything from buildings, homes, cars, complete infrastructure to the little things like shoes, phones, T-shirts, lipstick… it is no longer a goal for products to last… quite the opposite- the shorter the lifespan, the more the consumer will replace, repurchase and reinvest.

We are living in an era where the norm is to purposely withhold and prevent longevity. We have consciously become a society where progress is discouraged. We allow/accept lack of innovation and improvement because of the money flow that is generated from dependency on outdated and poor technologies by today’s standards.

Image credits: Away_Coast_2558

#37

Cadbury

Image credits: JustEstablishment594

#38

Craftsman tools. The drills used to be competitive, now everything has to be Milwaukee, which is triple the price.

Image credits: SpencerAgnew69

#39

Target. Target used to be the best for decorations for different holidays. Now the pickings are slim and sad. There’s more stuff if you shop their online store but it’s not great. I don’t need a Halloween tree, I need costumes.

Image credits: bev665

#40

The “Native” brand products you can usually find at target. The body lotion is like straight water and several other people have said that too.

Image credits: YogiCanoes

#41

Cable tv stations – TBS, TNT, AMC, Sundance, Comedy Central, etc. All running the same shows for hours on end, repeating day after day, running cheap reality TV, with little variety and far less original content than their earlier days. And the commercial loading … off the charts. Utter garbage for maximum price.

Image credits: 1KinderWorld

#42

Hasbro,

They’ve just fired 1500 staff a few weeks before Christmas. While their ceo Chris Cocks earned a 9.5 million bonus. Disgusting.

Their games are terrible quality, they have entered last stage capitalism and are grinding every penny out of their reputation

Image credits: jasperfilofax

#43

Not a certain brand but I think a lot of restaurant have gone down hill. The food just tastes average and rushed, but at the same time the prices are more than ever.

Image credits: bakedlikeabean

#44

Nabisco. Their products feel and taste like cardboard now, not to mention that they’re 2x smaller than they used to be.

#45

Anything that Kohl’s sells. I bought a pair of jeans there just 2 months ago and there’s already crotch holes somehow…2. Goddamn. Months.

#46

Lands End and L.L. Bean. They used to have great gear—coats were solid quality and great for cold winters. I bought a Lands End coat—their “warmest” rating—and I’d be shocked if it kept me warm during break-up. Cheap fabric and awful quality. L.L. Bean was just as bad. Returned both. Eddie Bauer is still solid.

#47

The Seattle Mariners baseball team. Indisputable.

#48

As someone that worked for Macys for over a year…Macys

#49

american eagle. not the jeans. the t shirts, sweaters, pullovers, etc.

#50

Little Debbie Snack Cakes. They taste like sugar and wax.

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