Wednesday 18 May 2011

Where Have They Gone?

Author Cherie Reich joins us today and discusses something that I think many of us have found, much to our dismay. Why? Why do companies do this? I don't have an answer, but I think Cherie has a good idea of what to do about it. (grin)

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Although they say you shouldn't pick favorites, I do. It's human nature to have favorite items, but what do you do when those great things disappear?

A few years ago, my favorite soup was Campbell's Old Fashioned Tomato Rice Soup. I would eat it one to two times a week. No other soup could measure up to the rice and tomato within. It went perfectly with cheese and crackers. A real soup you could scoop up and enjoy. Slowly, we realized that less and less of the soup was in the store. We and quite a few other patrons would scour the soup aisle for a single can of Old Fashioned Tomato Rice Soup. It was the first aisle we went to in every store carrying soup. When we found the cans, we would buy them all, not leaving one for someone else. Stingy? Yes. Do I regret it? No. Then there were no more cans. No more favorite soup. And, no, it's not the same using tomato soup and adding rice. It really isn't, so don't suggest it. The tomato part of the soup tasted different. They took it away.

I've slowly grown use to Campbell's Healthy Choice Tomato Soup, but nothing compares to the tomato rice soup. It isn't the last thing gone either.

I started using John Freida's Weather-Control Conditioner. It worked pretty well, but it was getting harder and harder to find it at Walmart. It, too, disappeared, but I've moved on. There're always other types of conditioner.

I could get over the conditioner. I still miss the soup, but nothing prepared me for the next item to disappear.

I used to eat Yoplait YoPlus Strawberry Yogurt. It was the absolute perfect yogurt. Sweet but not too sweet. A perfect consistency, not too liquidy and not thick like Greek Yogurt. It had real pieces of fruit in it. My cat Romeo even loved it. I ate it every day religiously. Then it became hard to find. I would scour Walmart, Kroger, other grocery stores. Sometimes I would find it. Sometimes not. Then they removed the price tag from the shelves. No more Yoplait YoPlus Yogurt. The most perfect yogurt in the world was gone. It's been a couple months. I've tried all sorts of other yogurt. Right now I'm eating Activia yogurt with the granola. It's…edible. The granola really helps. It's not the same. Not at all.

They also took the cat treats I had been getting.

Where does it end? Why remove an object that people buy? That people love?

Bastards! Everyone of them.

Is it just me? Or have you found old favorites disappearing off the shelves never to be seen again?

Perhaps it is time for a horror story…one of sweet vengeance against a certain company.

I'd really like my yogurt back.

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Author Bio: Cherie Reich is a writer, freelance editor, and library assistant living in Virginia. Her works have appeared in various magazines and anthologies, and her horror ebook Once Upon a December Nightmare is published by Wild Child Publishing. She is a member of Valley Writers and the Virginia Writers Club and placed third in Roanoke Valley's Big Read writing contest.

Links:

  1. Website: http://cheriereich.webs.com
  2. Blog: http://cheriereich.blogspot.com
  3. Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/bookworm0753
  4. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/authorcheriereich

14 comments:

Faith Bicknell said...

Cherie, you weren't eating the cat treats, too, were you? {wink}

Cherie Reich said...

Hehe! No cat treats for me, but the cats seemed to like them. It's just disappointing not to find such things in the store. Then on Friday, I had trouble finding my vegetarian foods. They just moved them to another shelf, but someone was going to die if they had taken them too.

Thanks for having me!

Becky Mushko said...

I remember a few years ago when she was still alive, my mother insisted on my buying her some Bon-Ami to clean her sink. Couldn't find it anywhere! I had to get her some other kind of "new & improved" cleanser.

I still kinda miss Space Food Sticks from the early 70s. They were a tasty snack.

Marci Baun said...

It doesn't make sense to discontinue something that people are obviously buying. The only one I can remember is the razor I use. I've had the handle for some 20 years. (The design looks it, too.) when I couldn't find the blades, I was upset. Fortunately, they started making them again.

Jenn Nixon said...

There's a Campbell's Factory right down the street from me. When they cook soup...it smells HORRIBLE around here, but I love their chicken & egg noodle soup, it helped me lose a ton of weight!

Aubrie said...

Boy, I miss that soup, too. I eat the healthy choice one, and it's not the same.

Terri Talley Venters said...

I feel your pain, Cherie. What I'm about to confess sounds pathetic, but the same thing is happening in St. Augustine with my favorite red wine. There are only 2 stores left who carry it. But unlike soup, yogurt,or cat treats, I can't buy the store out without feeling like a boozer! I limit myself to buying 4 bottles at a time. But even then, I'm bound to run into another parent from my son's Catholic school.

Lisa Rusczyk said...

How frustrating! I've had it happen with shampoo, too. I guess products die like the rest of us.

Christine Rains said...

There use to be a chocolate bar called Bubbles when I was a kid. My mom use to work for Nestle and we got a preview box of them. Chocolate was my first love and that bar claimed me fully. It disappeared not a year or two later. I still remember how it use to melt in my mouth, though.

I missed a lot of products when I moved from Canada to the US. Did you know Canadian Corn Pops are different from American Corn Pops? Same box, different shape and taste.

Cherie Reich said...

Becky - Space Food Sticks sound cool. I remember going to the Air and Space Museum in D.C. and seeing space food. Never tried it, though.

Marci - Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either why they would take things away that are selling.

Jenn - That's sad that the Campbell's soup factory smells bad.

Aubrie - Yeah, the Healthy Choice tomato is good, but the other was so wonderful.

Terri - You should see if they have it online or find friends to buy you some. :)

Lisa - Yeah, I guess products do die too. Still sad and frustrating, though.

Christine - Wow! I didn't think the cereal would be so different. Which one do you like better?

Thanks for dropping by and commenting!

Alleged Author said...

Great post! I miss Reese's Peanut Butter (the actual peanut butter). Booo!

Fiona McGier said...

Sometimes you can find the obscure old labels through the Vermont Country Store catalog. I've found things my late Mom used to love there. Even if they don't carry it, they will research for you to see if it's still being made. I used to love Regal Crown sour cherries...kind of like Lifesavers, but no hole in the middle, and a chewy kind of outer layer...but they were really sour, not just "faux sour" like Warheads, where the sour wears off after a minute or so. They were hard candies that were sour all the way through and I LOVED them! Company no longer exists.

N. R. Williams said...

There was a certain sausage that I used to buy when the kids were little. It is gone and has been for a long time. I don't even remember the name of it or who made it. All this disappearing stuff reminds me of publishers and what they do to successful authors who don't measure up to the big time guys. I know they still write books. Thank God for e-books. Now they can publish their stuff.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, The Treasures of Carmelidrium

Jim Hartley said...

Quaker Instant Grits. There are/were several good flavors, but it was a pain because my wife shops Publix, and Publix doesn't carry them, and my wife complains if I go to WinnDixie to get them. My favorite flavor was "Ham and Cheese" and all of a sudden it disappeared from the WinnDixie shelves, too. If you look on the box, it is still shown, but I have no idea where to get it.

Tomorrow's chapter - Hungry Man Sub Sandwiches.doestme