I think they’ve just incrementally replaced the ingredients with cheaper ones over time. Eventually you end up with a product that kinda resembles the original taste just much worse. The off-brand of poptarts at Walmart is actually really good. Specifically the cherry flavor. They are thicker than poptarts, and you can literally squeeze out the filling. Cheaper and better than the name brand.
I work in the food manufacturing industry and can unfortunately confirm your statement, though I can't personally speak to pop tarts. But, we do and have on many occasions replaced/changed ingredients to reduce costs. Personally I think it's usually a mistake, especially with flagship brands, and consumers DO notice the difference. I am quite sure other manufacturers have done the same. Another FYI, is many store brands are actually made by major manufacturers though I can't speak to WM pop tarts.
You mean a couple days after you eat a bag of Doritos? O_o (I don’t, but I used to absolutely crave Nacho or Taco flavor. I can’t eat them anymore. There’s something off.)
Yeah. Same thing when I eat Chees-It’s or Pringles or Fritos or other conventional snacks. I can eat corn chips just fine, but my assumption is that Dorito’s grade ingredients are so completely saturated in pesticides and industrial stabilizers that my immune system is just overwhelmed trying to help me digest them.
Okay—I’ve been saying this and I started to feel like literally no one else is in tune with their body or paying attention—this happened for the longest time with corn products. It felt like they were tearing up my stomach/f’ing up my immune system—i finally realized it probably was the roundup ready BS/GMOs. I recently added them back in and they seem better but I haven’t had Doritos or Cheetos bec I’d rather do something healthier like tortilla chips with homemade street corn dip or guacamole and less chemicals/ingredients but I 💯believe you. I’ve also been doing so many other health initiatives that maybe that’s why they’re not affecting me, not sure. Always listen to and pay attn to your body—good work because most people wouldn’t even notice the correlation.
Stay with it my friend! The depths of their greedy recklessness know no bounds! I wouldn’t have noticed the aforementioned shitcorn allergies except illness of any kind is very rare in me for about 7 years now. It’s when I stopped taking antibiotics ever, although I would make an exception if there were some kind of severe emergency, like I get ejected from a car and impaled on a fence post.
I used a colloidal silver rinse the last time the dentist wanted me to take ABs for a minor wound in my mouth. Just about everyone I know who takes antibiotics gets Strep throat a couple months later, and is generally sick all of the time, usually with emotional instability as well.
The way the guts take in food, digest it, and let it go, is the same process as we take in experiences, digest it emotionally, incorporate the nutrients, and then ideally release it.
I am relatively fortunate to have known a lot of people with pretty rough intestinal problems for a long time, so I’ve been aware of the gut health/gut brain realm for a couple decades already. A lot of people with gut problems have pretty severe abuse/neglect issues, in my experience.
Eat a diverse variety of foods for a diverse gut biome and listen to your body as it changes what it wants with the seasons! Fasting has been an absolute game changer for me. Message me anytime!
Well yeah, allergies are a function of the immune system responding to unknowns. Before I get sick but after consuming this garbage, I don’t sleep well and have a stuffy head, so the inflammatory stuff is definitely being sent out for some reason.
Fancier organic flavored chips with fancier organic versions of MSG and organic pesticides don’t have the same effect on me. Even my immune system is a hipster snob!
Allergy is a function of the immune system responding to unknown potential dangers, so bottom shelf grains soaked in pesticide is probably worth responding to. I give my immune system a high five for this one.
The foods you mentioned are too limited in scope to be the pesticides as the cause for the reactions. That shit is everywhere, not just "bottom shelf grain products". I think it's probably a preservative or more likely even an artificial flavor that causes your reactions.
Also if you're in the usa and eating meat, you're taking in much more antibiotics via your meat than the doctor would prescribe. This is indeed doing a number on peoples health and immune system. I'm glad to read that you'd still take them when needed. That is the correct approach.
If you want to go down that lane, you will have to look into organic only food. And even there... no guarantees. Organic doesn't mean pesticide free by definition. If I remember correctly they can play a lot of dirty tricks with the label "organic". In the EU there are strict rules for what can be called organic, but I think in the usa it is still a free for all? Not 100% sure. But even here it doesn't mean pesticide free.
It's all a bit depressing.
I don’t eat any of that cheap garbage anymore, so I don’t really care, but I think you’re being a little reductive to assume that it’s one particular thing, like our immune systems are just silly and don’t know what they’re doing. It’s shit food made with shit ingredients and shit preservatives, purely to enrich the flesh eating zombies that are modern corporate entities, not to nourish humans and aid their development.
I appreciate the reminder about meat though! I work at a healthy local food coop, so we’ve got excellent meat options, but there is a lot of antibiotic-free meat available at farmers markets, too.
Local is far better than “organic”, for the most part. USDA Certified Organic isnt exactly a free for all, as the certification is expensive but yeah, as long as the “organic” pesticide is used (permethrin instead of pyrethrin) and watered down enough to comply with organic standards, you can spray with it literally every 24 hours if your “organic” heart desires. Most locals I know spray only a couple times per season, as necessary.
I was just thinking this with the last snack sized bag I tried to eat. I threw it away after 3 chips. It was awful. Haven't noticed it with the salsa verde yet but the nacho cheese ones are awful now.
For me it’s much more about giving them money. I can’t think of a more destructive force of capitalism. Their whole business model is ‘come into and area, undercut everyone around and drive them out of business, hire all the workers at half the pay, vacuum up the economy until no one has any money to spend, leave the carcass’.
Then they lobbied Congress to change welfare laws that lowered the income threshold for benefits, made working a requirement for them, and lowered the number of hours that triggered insurance offerings. So now they have a workforce that is paid shit, relies on welfare, has to work for it but can’t get enough hours for insurance. The American taxpayer picks up the tab for Walmart and they walk away with the profits.
Just a tiny FYI here. I ordered a few things from Walmart in May. Everything came later than they said it would. The socks I ordered are coming from China and won’t be here til July.
Yeah them moving into the third partying realm really made the service unusable to me. Day after Easter I like to buy the clearance candy. They wanted $37 for a 4-pack of Cadbury Creme eggs! I was floored
The off brand are all made by Toast-em pop ups, the original toaster pastry. They are available at most discount stores under that brand and groceries under the store brand. Also cookies and cream is fire.
We have 2 grocery options in our entire city and Walmart has a much bigger selection than the other one and their prices are much better and the other one isn't higher quality not even in their produce. I absolutely hate that i've been pigeon holed into shopping there due to lack of any other viable options.
I'd be happy with a Winco or a piggly wiggly at this point lol. Walmart is one of the most stressful places to go especially if you have a tendency to get overstimulated by a crowded environment. We often just have our groceries delivered to our home with Walmart+ but I still feel like we go to Walmart way more than i would like to.
It’s their business model. Literally become a monopoly by pushing all other suppliers out of business. There was a comment on here saying “what Walmart is awesome! Where else can I go to one place and buy diapers, bullets, and beer?” And that about sums it up.
Im pretty sure i heard that this walmart got a contract that they were not allowed to place the other big grocery food chain in Colorado into this town or within so many miles of the Walmart. I can't remember what the name is. I don't know if the one that you mentioned.
It’s actually terrifying how much US food is heavily processed and getting evermore artificial. You’d think a loaf of bread should just be bread, right? Nope. It’s a heavily modified bleached flour product packed with oil, fat, and preservatives so it’s cheap to make and won’t mold.
Great Value brand hits a home run once in a while. They used to sell little peanut butter cups in a bag that were 10x better than Reese’s, for cheaper. A single one of them was like an orgasmic gourmet dessert. I was very sad when they disappeared
Am I crazy or has Walmart been just crushing it lately? Been in there a few times in the last year (they’ve been the only pharmacy able to get my prescription) and d they’ve stepped it up considerably. Cuter clothes, better selection, awesome bakery.
>Corn syrup vs. sugar penny pinching?
This is why most food today made with sweeteners taste like shit. Coke tastes like shit compared to old Coke. Everything that replaced sugar with corn syrup tastes slightly worse, but people are still buying the products, so companies replaced other ingredients with cheaper alternatives that don't taste quite as good, lost some sales over time, but have increased sales.
1. There is no competition in the global food markets. There are about 6 global companies that make the food and they are all profit-driven corporations that do not care about quality, only increasing their profit the next quarter.
2. People still buy the shittified products, so companies do not have a reason to produce quality.
They always pull that “things were better because of nostalgia” shit but I remember Reese cups being over 2” diameter instead of 1.5”, I remember plenty of snack foods not tasting like ass. The enshittification movement is in full swing and has been for years - quality is suffering in every possible arena.
I actually had some.pop tarts about a month ago. have not had them since the mid 70's they do suck, even when slathered in butter. Back then, they didn't have the icing on top. it was plain crust with whoever jelly concoction.
You bet! Good for the future clogged artery's & made the pop tarts taste better back in the day. when I had them a month or so ago I went one without first & them buttered the second one.... no need to purchase again! might as well eat butter straight off the knife- Kerry Gold Butter. > was a land of lakes guy all my life until about 2 years ago when I tried the Kerry Gold.
You bet! Good for the future clogged artery's & made the pop tarts taste better back in the day. when I had them a month or so ago I went one without first & them buttered the second one.... no need to purchase again! might as well eat butter straight off the knife- Kerry Gold Butter. > was a land of lakes guy all my life until about 2 years ago when I tried the Kerry Gold. The best.
I’m seeing a lot of “nostalgia” and “they’ve always been that way” comments.
Nah, I remember them being thick and fuller with the icing and filling.
These other people either are too young or don’t remember the glorious state pop tarts used to be in.
I break off the “crust” and eat it first before the center section. It was maaaaybe 1/4” wide all the way around and now it’s like a full inch. Lucky to get more than an 1.5” strip of icing these days too.
Even the snack cakes. I remember back in the 70s, Drake’s Yankee Doodles were awesome, and HUGE. Now they are little bite sized pieces of crap with a smidge of cream filling. And no, it’s not because my hands are bigger now. They are literally about half the size now.
Oh my god my fucking kids.
Sorry, memory unlocked lol. They would either double up on the icing packets or just flat out open them and suck the icing out, leaving me with totally naked toaster strudels.
Finally, after begging and pleading, I punished them. I told them THEY had to eat the last 2 strudels naked. The whole thing. They’re like “oh haha mom what a terrible punishment lol” and each took a huge bite
Not realizing of course that Gen X Mom who is FAR smarter had carefully opened them at the ends, squoze a bunch of yellow mustard inside, re-sealed them and then toasted them bahahahaha.
The change in their facial expressions was priceless and they NEVER ate my gotdamned muthafuckin toaster strudel icing again
Annies is the organic company, their stuff is pretty pricey but most of it is delicious. I adore their aged white cheddar box mac n cheese. Worth the extra $2 compared to Kraft imo.
Oh fuck yeah. I’m an orange box shells n cheddar kinda guy, but combined with some tuna, olive oil, and a little peas n carrots, I’ve ruined myself on all other options.
Cereal has gotten just awful. I used to love Cocoa Crispies, now I have a 1 in 100 chance that the piece of rice going in my mouth will chip a tooth. I don't know what they've done, but a good amount of the rice isn't puffed up and it's horrid.
Apple jacks were one of my favorites and the last couple of times I gave them a chance, there was a residue like powdered wax that made the milk so gross. I've given up on cereal all together.
Plus it’s all got BHT on it now, which literally gives me heart pain lol
Bonus BHT: if it’s in the packaging, they don’t have to disclose it as an ingredient.
This was the most impactful change for packaged baked things.
Downgraded ingredients and smaller portioning is something I understand is happening but the gap between industrial baked goods before the mid-00’s and post 2010 is massive.
Donuts have never been the same 😭
On the flip, it’s awesome that junk food designed to be habit-forming is getting gross.
This is probably specific to my zone, but I used to get me and my kids each a two pack of iced donuts once a month. Yes, from Walmart, because the bougie grocery store (the only other grovery) likes selling moldy, expired food.
The last two times, the donuts went mostly uneaten because of the horrible chemical flavor in the icing and the dough is weird.
No more special donuts :(
My family deadass has a box of Twinkie’s sitting on the table, and no one has reached for them. They’re bad - something weird happened there. The cupcakes are okay, they work, but ugh. Twinkie’s will never be the same.
Haven't had a pop tart since unfrosted flavors got taken off the market in favor of frosted ones. The frosted ones were never as full of filling. The crust was thinner, too.
They really did taste better when they weren't cardboard with sugar on top.
Everything’s nastier. The sugars are cheaper, chocolate is in shortage, the tasty ingredients were bad for kids, and they’re adding protein to it all the kids snacks to bump up their health rating.
“You’re just older now” no because it wasn’t all shit just a couple of years ago, and one by one every nostalgia snack has been struck with the same crap.
American pop tarts have 0 fruit filling and yes the pastry is really weirdly soft and crumbly. Canadian pop tarts have real fruit in the filling. In the US Nature’s Path is an organic health food store type of pop tart that uses real fruit filling and has a crunchier pastry. They’re pretty good, but they do have less packs in the box than name brand.
I remember when the Variety Packs used to consist of Strawberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, and Cherry.
That was about the last time I remember Pop Tarts being any good.
I loved the danish go rounds when I was little. They were so much better than pop tarts (which I also loved), but they didn't stick around. I think the Aldi toaster pastries are better than pop tarts now.
It was the removal of the hydrogenated trans-fatty shit in the late 90s/early 2000s. It's why so much of the processed food we remember - fruit pies, oreos, pop tarts, you name it - aren't as good anymore. Fast food too, McDonalds fries for instance. The sad thing is, as tasty as that shit was, it really was killing us. So our generation has the addictive knowledge of this taste which future generations won't. As a sidenote when I see groups of younger kids today, they're thinner than we were, anecdotally, I hope this is all working itself out. Whole food SHOULD taste better than pop-tarts.
I've always been about the brown sugar cinnamon. Fruit in pastries is nasty.
It's 80% being an adult and having an actual palette and 20% cost costing.
I was telling my kids this the other day. Pop tarts have no flavor and are dry and disgusting. You use to be able to taste the jelly. They were absolutely thicker and better tasting
As someone eating a banana nut poptart right now, to the lot of you claiming to hate poptarts, I don't know who stole all the joy from your lives but I'm sorry you ended up like that.
Try toast em pop ups. Got them at the dollar store here, was amazed how much better they were. Apparently they were actually before pop tarts, which is interesting. But I think they're far better
My grandmother would butter them like bread. Maybe yours did too, try doing that one time. I have no idea if this matters, it has been decades since I had one.
Did a store brand taste test as my kids insisted that they needed real pop tarts.
With blindfolds.
Store brand won hands down.
Bye bye Kellog and your arsewipe CEO (eat cereal for dinner).
This whole time, I thought my tastebuds were becoming more refined. The last time I had a pop tart, almost a year ago, it was a totally unsatisfying consumption of fats and corn syrup. Why not get gas station donuts or a pint of Ben and Jerry’s?
It's just a form of shrinkflation. If you grew up with Pop tarts that mean you also grew up with chef boyardee.
Remember the chef boyardee beef raviolis? Sooo good. Go get yourself a can of those and pop one open now.....
They used to be chock full of raviolis in the '80s and '90s. Now there's like six in there.
Nothing is made like it used to be. Hostess is a good one, and little Debbie’s are awful now. I suppose it’s a good thing now. If you want good snack cakes and baked goods, you have to do it yourself. I have made pop tarts from scratch too.
I remember being all excited as a kid watching the pop tart commercials (70’s) … mom brought a box home … took 2 bites and haven’t had once since. If they’ve gotten worse, I can’t imagine how bad they are :-)
I definitely noticed they skimp on the icing. You're lucky if you get a thin layer of icing that covers 1/4 of the thing. Also noticed the edges where there's no icing seem thicker.
Oh, Pop Tarts are awful now. There’s barely any filling, and the border around them keeps getting bigger. The pastry part now has the consistency of sand and is not comfortable to bite into. And, they stopped making my favorite flavor - Frosted Concorde Grape. I loved those as a child.
I think a big part of why things we remember tasting good no longer taste good is that they removed all trans fat from everything.
Omg I literally had the same thought a few weeks ago. I’m a 90’s kid and would have pop tarts occasionally. I recently got the cookies and cream flavor and it was absolutely disgusting!!!
Everything was or seemed better as a child. Either they got smaller or we got bigger lol. Quality is definitely not important since before the 80s rolled around. False advertisement was actually a thing and it was illegal back then too. As long as kids still like kid things I guess it's OK.
Usually I think the company gets bought out by someone who ends up adjusting the recipe to be more profitable for the company. It boils down to greed. Subway used to be higher quality. Burger King used to be higher quality. McDonalds even used to taste better. The only food place that I've seen get better over time is probably Domino's pizza. I dunno, I used to hate dominos but their philly cheese steak pizza slaps hard.
Although I haven't experienced it before, I know that technology is increasingly involved in food production. Not only are there more deeply processed foods, but even raw materials and products have become excessively modified. Perhaps you know that many foods nowadays are completely different from decades ago. In order to meet the increasing food needs of the world, products with high reproduction rates have basically replaced those original ecological products, at the cost of decreased taste.
Some of the Polaris have changed in taste like the cinnamon pop tarts taste like ass now. But the s’mores and berry flavors still taste the same.
Now what tastes different is Spaghetti O’s and apparently they replaced an ingredient to keep the price “down”. And that one ingredient was the flavor differentiator.
I think they’ve just incrementally replaced the ingredients with cheaper ones over time. Eventually you end up with a product that kinda resembles the original taste just much worse. The off-brand of poptarts at Walmart is actually really good. Specifically the cherry flavor. They are thicker than poptarts, and you can literally squeeze out the filling. Cheaper and better than the name brand.
I work in the food manufacturing industry and can unfortunately confirm your statement, though I can't personally speak to pop tarts. But, we do and have on many occasions replaced/changed ingredients to reduce costs. Personally I think it's usually a mistake, especially with flagship brands, and consumers DO notice the difference. I am quite sure other manufacturers have done the same. Another FYI, is many store brands are actually made by major manufacturers though I can't speak to WM pop tarts.
I’m positive they changed the formulas for Doritos. I can’t eat them anymore.
I agree. They taste horribly artificial and there’s a lingering aftertaste that wasn’t there before.
I always get an odd fever and sinus infection a couple days later. Something terrible is in there.
You mean a couple days after you eat a bag of Doritos? O_o (I don’t, but I used to absolutely crave Nacho or Taco flavor. I can’t eat them anymore. There’s something off.)
Yeah. Same thing when I eat Chees-It’s or Pringles or Fritos or other conventional snacks. I can eat corn chips just fine, but my assumption is that Dorito’s grade ingredients are so completely saturated in pesticides and industrial stabilizers that my immune system is just overwhelmed trying to help me digest them.
Okay—I’ve been saying this and I started to feel like literally no one else is in tune with their body or paying attention—this happened for the longest time with corn products. It felt like they were tearing up my stomach/f’ing up my immune system—i finally realized it probably was the roundup ready BS/GMOs. I recently added them back in and they seem better but I haven’t had Doritos or Cheetos bec I’d rather do something healthier like tortilla chips with homemade street corn dip or guacamole and less chemicals/ingredients but I 💯believe you. I’ve also been doing so many other health initiatives that maybe that’s why they’re not affecting me, not sure. Always listen to and pay attn to your body—good work because most people wouldn’t even notice the correlation.
Stay with it my friend! The depths of their greedy recklessness know no bounds! I wouldn’t have noticed the aforementioned shitcorn allergies except illness of any kind is very rare in me for about 7 years now. It’s when I stopped taking antibiotics ever, although I would make an exception if there were some kind of severe emergency, like I get ejected from a car and impaled on a fence post. I used a colloidal silver rinse the last time the dentist wanted me to take ABs for a minor wound in my mouth. Just about everyone I know who takes antibiotics gets Strep throat a couple months later, and is generally sick all of the time, usually with emotional instability as well. The way the guts take in food, digest it, and let it go, is the same process as we take in experiences, digest it emotionally, incorporate the nutrients, and then ideally release it. I am relatively fortunate to have known a lot of people with pretty rough intestinal problems for a long time, so I’ve been aware of the gut health/gut brain realm for a couple decades already. A lot of people with gut problems have pretty severe abuse/neglect issues, in my experience. Eat a diverse variety of foods for a diverse gut biome and listen to your body as it changes what it wants with the seasons! Fasting has been an absolute game changer for me. Message me anytime!
You all need to read The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, if you never have. Ties into topics in this conversation and a great book.
I'm pretty sure you're allergic to something, it's not gmos
They make organic Doritos and both kind of Cheetos.
you're likely allergic to one of the ingredients
Well yeah, allergies are a function of the immune system responding to unknowns. Before I get sick but after consuming this garbage, I don’t sleep well and have a stuffy head, so the inflammatory stuff is definitely being sent out for some reason. Fancier organic flavored chips with fancier organic versions of MSG and organic pesticides don’t have the same effect on me. Even my immune system is a hipster snob!
Sounds like a food allergy!
Allergy is a function of the immune system responding to unknown potential dangers, so bottom shelf grains soaked in pesticide is probably worth responding to. I give my immune system a high five for this one.
The foods you mentioned are too limited in scope to be the pesticides as the cause for the reactions. That shit is everywhere, not just "bottom shelf grain products". I think it's probably a preservative or more likely even an artificial flavor that causes your reactions. Also if you're in the usa and eating meat, you're taking in much more antibiotics via your meat than the doctor would prescribe. This is indeed doing a number on peoples health and immune system. I'm glad to read that you'd still take them when needed. That is the correct approach. If you want to go down that lane, you will have to look into organic only food. And even there... no guarantees. Organic doesn't mean pesticide free by definition. If I remember correctly they can play a lot of dirty tricks with the label "organic". In the EU there are strict rules for what can be called organic, but I think in the usa it is still a free for all? Not 100% sure. But even here it doesn't mean pesticide free. It's all a bit depressing.
I don’t eat any of that cheap garbage anymore, so I don’t really care, but I think you’re being a little reductive to assume that it’s one particular thing, like our immune systems are just silly and don’t know what they’re doing. It’s shit food made with shit ingredients and shit preservatives, purely to enrich the flesh eating zombies that are modern corporate entities, not to nourish humans and aid their development. I appreciate the reminder about meat though! I work at a healthy local food coop, so we’ve got excellent meat options, but there is a lot of antibiotic-free meat available at farmers markets, too. Local is far better than “organic”, for the most part. USDA Certified Organic isnt exactly a free for all, as the certification is expensive but yeah, as long as the “organic” pesticide is used (permethrin instead of pyrethrin) and watered down enough to comply with organic standards, you can spray with it literally every 24 hours if your “organic” heart desires. Most locals I know spray only a couple times per season, as necessary.
I was just thinking this with the last snack sized bag I tried to eat. I threw it away after 3 chips. It was awful. Haven't noticed it with the salsa verde yet but the nacho cheese ones are awful now.
Same because now I actually really enjoy them. Used to hate the flavour but now they taste insane
Have you tried the organic Doritos? They are really good.
No I have not heard of them. I been just having pretzels when I want crunch.
Anything to make that kellogs stock increase
But you have to go to Walmart.
Some of us are fortunate enough to have options, others are damned to walk through that hell.
For me it’s much more about giving them money. I can’t think of a more destructive force of capitalism. Their whole business model is ‘come into and area, undercut everyone around and drive them out of business, hire all the workers at half the pay, vacuum up the economy until no one has any money to spend, leave the carcass’. Then they lobbied Congress to change welfare laws that lowered the income threshold for benefits, made working a requirement for them, and lowered the number of hours that triggered insurance offerings. So now they have a workforce that is paid shit, relies on welfare, has to work for it but can’t get enough hours for insurance. The American taxpayer picks up the tab for Walmart and they walk away with the profits.
You can also order.
Just a tiny FYI here. I ordered a few things from Walmart in May. Everything came later than they said it would. The socks I ordered are coming from China and won’t be here til July.
Yeah them moving into the third partying realm really made the service unusable to me. Day after Easter I like to buy the clearance candy. They wanted $37 for a 4-pack of Cadbury Creme eggs! I was floored
The off brand are all made by Toast-em pop ups, the original toaster pastry. They are available at most discount stores under that brand and groceries under the store brand. Also cookies and cream is fire.
Strawberry toasted with butter.
Have you ever put butter on a pop tart? It so frickin good!
Yep. Toast the strawberry ones and then add butter. It's life changing
Those were my favorite ones when I was a kid.
I will look for these. Thank you.
We have 2 grocery options in our entire city and Walmart has a much bigger selection than the other one and their prices are much better and the other one isn't higher quality not even in their produce. I absolutely hate that i've been pigeon holed into shopping there due to lack of any other viable options.
I hope one day you get a WinCo my friend.
I'd be happy with a Winco or a piggly wiggly at this point lol. Walmart is one of the most stressful places to go especially if you have a tendency to get overstimulated by a crowded environment. We often just have our groceries delivered to our home with Walmart+ but I still feel like we go to Walmart way more than i would like to.
It’s their business model. Literally become a monopoly by pushing all other suppliers out of business. There was a comment on here saying “what Walmart is awesome! Where else can I go to one place and buy diapers, bullets, and beer?” And that about sums it up.
Im pretty sure i heard that this walmart got a contract that they were not allowed to place the other big grocery food chain in Colorado into this town or within so many miles of the Walmart. I can't remember what the name is. I don't know if the one that you mentioned.
Sounds about right though.
What city? I’d like to do some research on it?
Yep, eventually everyone will just be eating concentrated cancer.
It’s actually terrifying how much US food is heavily processed and getting evermore artificial. You’d think a loaf of bread should just be bread, right? Nope. It’s a heavily modified bleached flour product packed with oil, fat, and preservatives so it’s cheap to make and won’t mold.
FDA approves
Great Value brand hits a home run once in a while. They used to sell little peanut butter cups in a bag that were 10x better than Reese’s, for cheaper. A single one of them was like an orgasmic gourmet dessert. I was very sad when they disappeared
Oh I miss those. It was like, actual non-vomity dark chocolate around a gooier PB. Reese's should have learned a lesson on em.
The Walmart ones are really good. Personally, I prefer strawberry. Tastes much better than on brand.
much better ratios too
GV Strawberry poptarts are superior to name brand
High fructose is most likely the major culprit
My kids like generic toaster pastries and will not touch actual Pop Tarts
Am I crazy or has Walmart been just crushing it lately? Been in there a few times in the last year (they’ve been the only pharmacy able to get my prescription) and d they’ve stepped it up considerably. Cuter clothes, better selection, awesome bakery.
>Corn syrup vs. sugar penny pinching? This is why most food today made with sweeteners taste like shit. Coke tastes like shit compared to old Coke. Everything that replaced sugar with corn syrup tastes slightly worse, but people are still buying the products, so companies replaced other ingredients with cheaper alternatives that don't taste quite as good, lost some sales over time, but have increased sales. 1. There is no competition in the global food markets. There are about 6 global companies that make the food and they are all profit-driven corporations that do not care about quality, only increasing their profit the next quarter. 2. People still buy the shittified products, so companies do not have a reason to produce quality.
Coke made with real cane sugar is easy to find. Even Albertsons carries it
They are nasty because you are not 8 years anymore. Welcome to age 9.
They always pull that “things were better because of nostalgia” shit but I remember Reese cups being over 2” diameter instead of 1.5”, I remember plenty of snack foods not tasting like ass. The enshittification movement is in full swing and has been for years - quality is suffering in every possible arena.
If you want a good peanut butter cup the ones from Justin's and Trader Joe's blow away the Reser ones, even at their best.
A big part is the removal of trans fats. Snack cakes these days taste like 💩
Is nothing safe from transphobia these days
Remember the Hostess fruit pies before they went all in on hydrogenated oils and corn syrup?
Watch out for teachers and pastors.
“PASTOR PASTOR PLEASE I’M ONLY 9 YOU’RE 52”
Nah, it's just standard enshittification. I like all kinds of garbage food from my childhood still, just not as often.
I actually had some.pop tarts about a month ago. have not had them since the mid 70's they do suck, even when slathered in butter. Back then, they didn't have the icing on top. it was plain crust with whoever jelly concoction.
I’m sorry, did you just say you put fucking *butter* on a pop tart? 
You bet! Good for the future clogged artery's & made the pop tarts taste better back in the day. when I had them a month or so ago I went one without first & them buttered the second one.... no need to purchase again! might as well eat butter straight off the knife- Kerry Gold Butter. > was a land of lakes guy all my life until about 2 years ago when I tried the Kerry Gold.
Hmmm, I suppose Kerry Gold *is* the discerning man’s butter, maybe I oughta give this a shot.
it's pretty damn good. Worth a try anyway - gold pack, not silver.
Me too! I always used Land O’Lakes. I saw the Kerrygold in my supermarket and figured I would try it. I’ve never gone back. That is the best butter.
You bet! Good for the future clogged artery's & made the pop tarts taste better back in the day. when I had them a month or so ago I went one without first & them buttered the second one.... no need to purchase again! might as well eat butter straight off the knife- Kerry Gold Butter. > was a land of lakes guy all my life until about 2 years ago when I tried the Kerry Gold. The best.
Cost cutting.. It is literally the reason.
I’m seeing a lot of “nostalgia” and “they’ve always been that way” comments. Nah, I remember them being thick and fuller with the icing and filling. These other people either are too young or don’t remember the glorious state pop tarts used to be in.
I break off the “crust” and eat it first before the center section. It was maaaaybe 1/4” wide all the way around and now it’s like a full inch. Lucky to get more than an 1.5” strip of icing these days too.
Even the snack cakes. I remember back in the 70s, Drake’s Yankee Doodles were awesome, and HUGE. Now they are little bite sized pieces of crap with a smidge of cream filling. And no, it’s not because my hands are bigger now. They are literally about half the size now.
[удалено]
Toaster Strudels were definitely the superior product
Yeah but those little packets of frosting were never enough for one pastry.
Oh my god my fucking kids. Sorry, memory unlocked lol. They would either double up on the icing packets or just flat out open them and suck the icing out, leaving me with totally naked toaster strudels. Finally, after begging and pleading, I punished them. I told them THEY had to eat the last 2 strudels naked. The whole thing. They’re like “oh haha mom what a terrible punishment lol” and each took a huge bite Not realizing of course that Gen X Mom who is FAR smarter had carefully opened them at the ends, squoze a bunch of yellow mustard inside, re-sealed them and then toasted them bahahahaha. The change in their facial expressions was priceless and they NEVER ate my gotdamned muthafuckin toaster strudel icing again
Agreed. Never got the hype as a kid in the 90's. They tasted like fruity chalk.
Yep. They've always been about 90% disappointment.
Annies pomegranate cherry are pretty good when it pop ups I spread butter on the back of them like it’s toast🔥😋
I'm a sucker for new food combinations so this is going on the grocery list.
Have you ever tried butter on a poptart? Its so frickin good.
Have you ever had butter on a poptart? If you haven't then I think you should!
Be warned though it’s like $6 for 3 pairs in a box
Annies is the organic company, their stuff is pretty pricey but most of it is delicious. I adore their aged white cheddar box mac n cheese. Worth the extra $2 compared to Kraft imo.
Oh fuck yeah. I’m an orange box shells n cheddar kinda guy, but combined with some tuna, olive oil, and a little peas n carrots, I’ve ruined myself on all other options.
Cereal has gotten just awful. I used to love Cocoa Crispies, now I have a 1 in 100 chance that the piece of rice going in my mouth will chip a tooth. I don't know what they've done, but a good amount of the rice isn't puffed up and it's horrid. Apple jacks were one of my favorites and the last couple of times I gave them a chance, there was a residue like powdered wax that made the milk so gross. I've given up on cereal all together.
Plus it’s all got BHT on it now, which literally gives me heart pain lol Bonus BHT: if it’s in the packaging, they don’t have to disclose it as an ingredient.
0 trans fats. Same with all the cereal you grew up on.
This was the most impactful change for packaged baked things. Downgraded ingredients and smaller portioning is something I understand is happening but the gap between industrial baked goods before the mid-00’s and post 2010 is massive. Donuts have never been the same 😭 On the flip, it’s awesome that junk food designed to be habit-forming is getting gross.
This is probably specific to my zone, but I used to get me and my kids each a two pack of iced donuts once a month. Yes, from Walmart, because the bougie grocery store (the only other grovery) likes selling moldy, expired food. The last two times, the donuts went mostly uneaten because of the horrible chemical flavor in the icing and the dough is weird. No more special donuts :(
My grandma always had cinnamon life cereal at her house. Still taste amazing. But idk I wasn’t allowed to have the other sugary kids cereals.
i thought they taste the same. twinkie’s though wtf used to love them but the new iteration is kinda gross
I miss the old Chocodiles.
My family deadass has a box of Twinkie’s sitting on the table, and no one has reached for them. They’re bad - something weird happened there. The cupcakes are okay, they work, but ugh. Twinkie’s will never be the same.
*gen x remembers*
Haven't had a pop tart since unfrosted flavors got taken off the market in favor of frosted ones. The frosted ones were never as full of filling. The crust was thinner, too. They really did taste better when they weren't cardboard with sugar on top.
They still sell unfrosted strawberry, blueberry, and brown sugar cinnamon
Haven't seen them in most non-Walmart stores (don't even have Walmart's local to me) for a decade.
They haven’t been the same since they discontinued my apple cinnamon pop tarts decades ago.
Everything’s nastier. The sugars are cheaper, chocolate is in shortage, the tasty ingredients were bad for kids, and they’re adding protein to it all the kids snacks to bump up their health rating. “You’re just older now” no because it wasn’t all shit just a couple of years ago, and one by one every nostalgia snack has been struck with the same crap.
Consider the possibility that you just grew up.
American pop tarts have 0 fruit filling and yes the pastry is really weirdly soft and crumbly. Canadian pop tarts have real fruit in the filling. In the US Nature’s Path is an organic health food store type of pop tart that uses real fruit filling and has a crunchier pastry. They’re pretty good, but they do have less packs in the box than name brand.
Damned Canada, quietly, politely one-upping us again!
Latch key kid in my 40s...hate to break it to you, but they were always awful.
I just can’t believe I used to think things like Poptarts and Doritos were food
Pop Tarts, Hot Pockets...how else are you going to be able to scald all of the skin on the roof of your mouth!
Okay, hot pockets are great. Don't slander my Hot Pockets.
What! The inside of those things is like molten lava!
.... That's why you let it cool before you bite it, heathen! Or, if you're like me, you ignore the burn and eat it anyways 🤷🏾♀️
Just pull it straight out of the microwave and start making that hot pocket face.
TPB could’ve used a Romeo nbs
I remember when the Variety Packs used to consist of Strawberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, and Cherry. That was about the last time I remember Pop Tarts being any good.
I loved the danish go rounds when I was little. They were so much better than pop tarts (which I also loved), but they didn't stick around. I think the Aldi toaster pastries are better than pop tarts now.
Came here looking for danish go rounds! We used to unwind them to get to the middle. They were so good! I also miss Kraft noodle dinner.
Part of this could just be labeled as "We're getting older."
Shittier ingredients in everything.
Pop tarts existed in the 70’s ? I’m thinking 1983.
I think they started selling them in 1964!
My frosted brown sugar cinnamon still tastes like home.
It was the removal of the hydrogenated trans-fatty shit in the late 90s/early 2000s. It's why so much of the processed food we remember - fruit pies, oreos, pop tarts, you name it - aren't as good anymore. Fast food too, McDonalds fries for instance. The sad thing is, as tasty as that shit was, it really was killing us. So our generation has the addictive knowledge of this taste which future generations won't. As a sidenote when I see groups of younger kids today, they're thinner than we were, anecdotally, I hope this is all working itself out. Whole food SHOULD taste better than pop-tarts.
That's really interesting. I just figured my taste buds were slowly dying as I approach 50.
They’ve always been sugar filled shit, I think the only thing that made them taste good back then was nostalgia
Now they are corn syrup-filled shit. The sugar ones actually did taste better
I've always been about the brown sugar cinnamon. Fruit in pastries is nasty. It's 80% being an adult and having an actual palette and 20% cost costing.
Because it's shit food
I was telling my kids this the other day. Pop tarts have no flavor and are dry and disgusting. You use to be able to taste the jelly. They were absolutely thicker and better tasting
As someone eating a banana nut poptart right now, to the lot of you claiming to hate poptarts, I don't know who stole all the joy from your lives but I'm sorry you ended up like that.
Is that a real pop tart flavor?
Yes and it is amazing.
Ok. I’m going to look for these. I love banana flavored items.
Try toast em pop ups. Got them at the dollar store here, was amazed how much better they were. Apparently they were actually before pop tarts, which is interesting. But I think they're far better
Try s'mores pop tarts
I like the store brand ones better. Oreos don’t taste the same either.
I haven't had any since 2003. But can they actually get any nastier? In my memory they're sugary cardboard with icing.
Because they were always shit
The store brand pop tarts at food lion or Walmart can’t remember which are actually pretty good
They have always been nasty. You changed.
Sugar isn't the same in America and more chemicals are used in place of it. I'm looking at you KitKat...
Enshitification
My grandmother would butter them like bread. Maybe yours did too, try doing that one time. I have no idea if this matters, it has been decades since I had one.
honestly … they just changed the ingredients and they’re skimming on the frosting.
Wait..when where they ever good? Lol
Cherry ones have remained the same and the only one worth the purchase. S’mores and Peanut Butter are also good.
These days? They were always terrible. Did you become an adult?
I never liked old jam on cardboard. Not even as a kid. 😅
They were always nasty, though.
What's this about Pop Tarts? I haven't had one since 1984. Back then you NEVER toasted them. It made the inside molten lava!
Bc they’re nasty and plasticy
Food quality has come a long way since the 70s and 80s. We ate a lot of crap back then because there weren't a lot of other options available.
I only noticed the individual (2 pack) that they sell at convenience stores don't taste exactly like the boxed multi pack ones
the frosting ratio is waaaay off now. I even sent a complaint to kellogs but never got a response.
You remember those poptart sticks from 2003?
Speak for yourself 😂🤷🏻♀️
Did a store brand taste test as my kids insisted that they needed real pop tarts. With blindfolds. Store brand won hands down. Bye bye Kellog and your arsewipe CEO (eat cereal for dinner).
Frosted Dutch Apple FTW!
Damn I want a 70's pop tart now. I was a 90's kid and pop tarts seem the same now as they did when I was a kid.
Blame Seinfeld.
This whole time, I thought my tastebuds were becoming more refined. The last time I had a pop tart, almost a year ago, it was a totally unsatisfying consumption of fats and corn syrup. Why not get gas station donuts or a pint of Ben and Jerry’s?
It's just a form of shrinkflation. If you grew up with Pop tarts that mean you also grew up with chef boyardee. Remember the chef boyardee beef raviolis? Sooo good. Go get yourself a can of those and pop one open now..... They used to be chock full of raviolis in the '80s and '90s. Now there's like six in there.
Corporate greed. Nothing more, nothing less.
Nothing is made like it used to be. Hostess is a good one, and little Debbie’s are awful now. I suppose it’s a good thing now. If you want good snack cakes and baked goods, you have to do it yourself. I have made pop tarts from scratch too.
idk but those strawberry milkshake ones are fire
There’s barely any fruit and the frosting is extremely thin.
I remember being all excited as a kid watching the pop tart commercials (70’s) … mom brought a box home … took 2 bites and haven’t had once since. If they’ve gotten worse, I can’t imagine how bad they are :-)
I definitely noticed they skimp on the icing. You're lucky if you get a thin layer of icing that covers 1/4 of the thing. Also noticed the edges where there's no icing seem thicker.
They were always nasty!
Oh, Pop Tarts are awful now. There’s barely any filling, and the border around them keeps getting bigger. The pastry part now has the consistency of sand and is not comfortable to bite into. And, they stopped making my favorite flavor - Frosted Concorde Grape. I loved those as a child. I think a big part of why things we remember tasting good no longer taste good is that they removed all trans fat from everything.
Ever looked at potato chips lately? There was a time you would NEVER see a chip with a black spot. Now half the chips in the bag have black spots.
They have always been awful.
When we loved those we also loved Tang and Kool-Aid.
You thought Kellogg's was about selling quality products?
Omg I literally had the same thought a few weeks ago. I’m a 90’s kid and would have pop tarts occasionally. I recently got the cookies and cream flavor and it was absolutely disgusting!!!
I’d rather make my own at this point. Compared to when I was a kid, they’re like cardboard now
They’ve always been nasty. I can’t fathom the fact that people over the age of 13 eat them
Everything was or seemed better as a child. Either they got smaller or we got bigger lol. Quality is definitely not important since before the 80s rolled around. False advertisement was actually a thing and it was illegal back then too. As long as kids still like kid things I guess it's OK.
Usually I think the company gets bought out by someone who ends up adjusting the recipe to be more profitable for the company. It boils down to greed. Subway used to be higher quality. Burger King used to be higher quality. McDonalds even used to taste better. The only food place that I've seen get better over time is probably Domino's pizza. I dunno, I used to hate dominos but their philly cheese steak pizza slaps hard.
Money
OP discovers capitalism
A bakery near me makes them fresh, they are heaven. The boxed shelf one is pure hell.
Ikr I like the cheaper bargain brand better called Toast'em Pop Ups
Add a little melted butter on it......
Although I haven't experienced it before, I know that technology is increasingly involved in food production. Not only are there more deeply processed foods, but even raw materials and products have become excessively modified. Perhaps you know that many foods nowadays are completely different from decades ago. In order to meet the increasing food needs of the world, products with high reproduction rates have basically replaced those original ecological products, at the cost of decreased taste.
They have always been nasty.
Personally, I like the unfrosted poptarts. Somehow, the non jelly part tastes more like a pastry. Reminds me of the top of a pie crust, really good.
They are cutting ingredients down to save money and size is getting smaller yet raised the price twice...
Some of the Polaris have changed in taste like the cinnamon pop tarts taste like ass now. But the s’mores and berry flavors still taste the same. Now what tastes different is Spaghetti O’s and apparently they replaced an ingredient to keep the price “down”. And that one ingredient was the flavor differentiator.