People Call Out 25 Brands That Are Actively Watering Down Their Quality

There are certain brands which built their name on consistency and quality that are slowly devolving into a shallow version of their original selves. The appeal they once oozed with ease has died down over time, likely due to changes in management or business decisions being taken from a financial perspective rather than from a consumer’s viewpoint. 

#1 YouTube is rapidly turning into just ads.

Image source: Mr_Mouthbreather, Joshua Miranda

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

Image source: Noodlelicious11, Craig Adderley

#3

Image source: BabbMrBabb, Vlada Karpovich

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.

#4 Levis. Every new pair I bought had a problem.

Image source: SLObro152, Jimi A.

#5 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.

Image source: Unknown-U

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

Image source: weech, Anastasia Shuraeva

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

Image source: I_Have_A_Name37654, Brandon

#8 Subway.

Image source: yada_u, Linzi

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.

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

Image source: BoredBSEE, Mike Mozart

#10 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. :(

Image source: moosboosh

#11 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 source: TonyThePapyrus, Kevin Menajang

#12 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 :)”

Image source: FormerStuff

#13 Hasbro,

Image source: jasperfilofax, Mooshuu

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

#14 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 source: 1KinderWorld, cottonbro studio

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

Image source: CarpeValde, Valeri Mak

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.

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

Image source: Eucentric, Thibault Penin

#17 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 source: Zimbo2016, Kilian Seiler

#18 Health insurance.

Image source: HotResponsibility829

#19 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 source: Fragrant-Policy4182, Ron Bulovs

#20 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 source: Honest-qs, Super Straho

#21 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 source: kanemano, Pixabay

#22

Image source: Away_Coast_2558, Mikhail Nilov

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.

#23 McDonald’s.

Image source: UsefulIdiot85

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.

#24

Image source: moonflannel, Mike Mozart

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.

#25 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 source: DeaddyRuxpin, Mike Mozart