Haven’t bought name brand Pop-Tarts in years, but have occasionally picked up Toaster 'Betes or whatever the off-brand versions are called.
Noticed a ‘sale’ on the name brand and got conned into buying them. They’re now smaller, have less frosting, and have way less filling. The damn things were so flimsy that two of them snapped trying to take them out of the toaster.
If you get a craving for some nice sugary betes for breakfast, stick to the off-brands. They’re now higher quality than the name brand.
The future is stupid.
I buy store brand everything now. It’s ridiculous. Have you had a brand name Fig Newton lately? It’s sawdust. Ridiculous.
I have not but I might have made that mistake in the future. Thanks for the warning. It’s so weird that off-brands for everything appeared as cheaper lower quality versions and then the world went to such shit they’re now the higher quality version.
How are so many things now worse quality and higher priced than their own knock-offs? They should all be committing Sudoku in shame.
How are so many things now worse quality and higher priced than their own knock-offs?
They earned public trust and brand-recognition over many years. Then, once they became the de facto product, they started min-maxing their production. Smaller portions, cheaper ingredients, automating as much of the production line as possible to cut employees, reducing wages for “less work”, etc. They’re hoping no one would notice that the product you’re buying isn’t living up to the original standard.
If you’re willing to pay the same price for cheaper production, then the company can literally make money without having to sell more product. They can show in their shareholder meetings that sales are going way up, even though consumer purchases may not have changed much at all. Heck, even if sales are going down, profits could still show an increase!
Then of course, there’s “inflation,” which they use to justify raising prices over time. Even though the product is worse than the original, you’re now paying way more for it.
This is the endgame of capitalism. Maximize profits at the cost of consumers. When money is the primary focus of a business, quality of goods and services will always degrade over time.
committing Sudoku in shame
The Pillsbury Doughboy has a bit of a belly, it might be difficult to disembowel himself with a math puzzle.
I appreciate the typo, it’s funnier.
It’s not a typo, just a meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/commit-sudoku
Paper cuts are no joke when you’re only 2 inches tall.
appeared as cheaper lower quality versions
They really never were. This was a reputation, yes, but it was not warranted. It’s taken a hell of a long time for enough people to realize this.
Nothing significant has changed in the last couple of decades, at least. Maybe back into the 60s, 70s, 80s or so, I won’t debate. But since the turn fo the century at a minimum, store brands almost always use a producer that produces for name brands. It’s often literally the same product. At worst, it might be stuff that didn’t quite make the name brand standards, or it might hvae a little less quality or something, but almost all of the time, it’s the same thing.
There might be some exception - I certainly haven’t tried the myriad of store brands for stores I haven’t gone to, but i’ve been buying mostly store brands for quite a number of years now, and almost all the time, there’s no difference.
Like one I can think of: Store-brand “Doritos” might have a bit less “cheese” on them. Or might have the same, depends. Most of the time it’s the same thing, though.
Yeah… I’m talking about all those years you’re skipping. Off-brands didn’t used to be made on the same production lines. And since the off-brand pop tarts are much different and better, it seems they’re still not.
Seppuku*
Gesundheit
If you can get them, the Clover Valley ones ($1.85 @ Dollar General) are pretty good, although the fig filling is golden rather than brown.
Thank you. Will give em a try!
psssst… Nature’s Bakery are dope.
As a US emigrant, every time I go back to the US the first thing I buy is Pop Tarts because it’s the hardest thing to get outside the US, and is the thing I miss the most. And it’s years between. And every time it’s significantly worse than the last time. It’s not just your imagination - the quality loss is not just noticeable but STAGGERING.
Removed by mod
You have your priorities, others have theirs…
Woah woah woah. What are you thinking? We need all the pop tart revenue we can get. The line doesn’t keep going up all by itself!
Pray tell, what did Trump Rapes Kids comment to get banned?
People in the UK are saying it about Cadbury too. :(
Kinder chocolate is still safe. Hershey’s been dead since 2006. Kitkats died (for me) when they removed the foil barrier, sad moment for chocolate lovers everywhere.
Fortunately and unexpected Milano Cookies are really good and have replaced Kinder Buenos because they’ve gotten too sweet.
I think I’ve hit my mid 30’s dark chocolate phase because dark chocolate is delicious.
They got bought by an American company, so naturally the suck followed. Sale should’ve been stopped.
That explains a lot. I used to live the raspberry ones so much and couldn’t wait to share them with my two girls.
All I got was, “Dad, these suck.”
So I tried one and was just baffled. It did suck. I chalked it up to my taste buds changing, but this makes much more sense.
Chocolate has gotten worse and worse too.
I’m fairly certain they stopped using actual ingredients and make all the flavors exclusively with artificial flavors now. Everything tastes like the same corn syrupy artificially flavored trash. The flavors used to actually be differentiated and taste like something besides sweetened chemical disaster.
I tried a twinkie for the first time in ages and maybe it is just a rose‑tinted memory but I swear they tasted better when I was a kid. It was really dry and the filling barely had any flavor. It was just greasy.
Cosmic brownies and oatmeal cream pies… Not good now either.
It’s also because they’re shit. I loved them once, too. They were shit then, too. I just didn’t realize how shit this shit was because of the sugar high. Every few years you just cone more to your senses. Shitty chemical sugar foods are worse than any drug.
I don’t know if it’s nostalgia or if the recipe has changed but I feel Pop Tarts are worse than when I was a kid (late 80s / early 90s).
Pop tarts are infinitely shittier than they were even 5 years ago, it’s not just you. I bought one pack last year and never will again. They are trash crackers that feel like some bean counter went “yep still frosted on top, filling in the middle, good to go”. Now they are trying to sell “super stuffed” variants too that still don’t meet the old standards. Fuck poptarts.
Trash.
Same way with hot pockets, you can’t drip any hot sauce or grease on your face because there’s almost nothing in them. These days I make my snacks.
Ever since Pop Tarts started going down the shitter I’ve been saying they’d make a fortune if they did their own version of the Double Stuf Oreo aka just sell Pop Tarts with an actual amount of filling with measurable thickness rather than a thin sheen. Now by the time they’ve gotten around to it, they’re still a bastardized shrinkflation shadow of their former selves, and the flavors they chose for them look utterly unappealing on the box to boot.
Late 40s here so same, it’s definitely not nostalgia. I was a chonkey bastard so I’d get the s’mores ones once they came out and eat the crust ring on the outside then pull them open to gorge on the sweet s’mores innards.
There’s so little filling now that both halves seem bare, and the things are so thin and brittle they crack into a dozen pieces in the attempt.
They were based on real tarts originally. They’ve gotten so crappy you might as well go back to baking them yourself.
I think baking tarts is a sex crime.
Pillsbury Toaster Strudel has been the superior product in this space since the 90s.
Winco ones are the bomb. Love employee owned stores - overall quality there is top-notch.
What the fuck is happening to WinCo’s bulk food prices though? Ive bought there for decades and it’s now more expensive per pound than boxed Quaker oats(General Mills) granola sold in the same store, WinCo!?!
I almost lost my shit last month trying to reconcile how it could happen. Is WinCo doing target enshittification? Is GM reducing gouging?
I’ve also noticed yogurt pricing is not competitive some times with grocery outlet.
If anyone’s interested, Bon Appétit had a “Gourmet Makes” or something where one of their chefs would recreate snacks like Oreos, Pop Tarts, and others. They look great. I tried a version of the oreos, mine were nowhere near as pretty, but the taste is so much better.
Product death by a thousand cuts. Cut here, cut there…
So it’s basically a cracker now?
It’s like a cracker sandwich with the same amount of filling you’d get by lightly buttering toast.
I’ll have to keep that in mind: I get a craving for pop tarts every 6 months ago. I never understood it because it’s so much worse than my memory and they are just not edible. I’d rather eat the box.
Next time I’ll have to see whether there is a generic
Boring ass dystopia. They also made a “new” one that’s has extra filling etc. It’s basically the original but now they charge out the ass and give you half as many
Oh we know.
They are garbage.
The future is stupid.
True dat. There is Lemmy tho, so. Half-credit.
Scan with with Yuka app and I bet you’ll find more garbage in them. Oddly enough, a lot of big named brands have the most toxic additives.
That’s a cool app.
the most toxic additives.
Food sold in the US or Europe, at least, does not have toxic additives. If you’re scared of “chemicals”, please for the love of the earth, educate yourself.
Must be nice to have it all figured out. I’m just going to keep being naive and scan my food for junk additives.
Name some of your “scary” chemicals.
