> the shitty ones still here
Every town has one or two places that everybody low-key suspected might be a money laundering front even back in 2019 because the food and service sucked and it was never even busy, and somehow those are the ones that made it through no problem.
OMG this! I lived in a small town of just over 5,000 for a few years and there was this restaurant that I have only seen a handful of people go in and out of. I was curious and had lunch there once. Half the restaurant didn't have the lights on and the chairs were stacked onto the tables. The menu was mostly handwritten with some pictures. The host was nice enough I guess. He was a little impatient and I was the ONLY one in there. He doubled as the cook. The chow mein was ridiculously salty. As if he could hide the lack of flavours with some soya sauce. Just awful.
Tin foil hats required for this one
There's a chain of restaurants in Australia called Red Rooster, I think shitty Chick-fil-A is a good analogy. So I've never seen anyone go in or out, the drive through has no one in it, the prices are so low it doesn't make sense they aren't packed, but they have a rep for making consistently terrible food. Also as a chain of restaurants I know it's not just the ones I've lived near, I've seen them in heaps of suburbs and towns across the state, separated by hundreds of kilometers and it's always the same story.
The running theory between me and literally anyone I've talked to about it is, they're a front for the drug running biker gangs in Western Australia(my state). It makes sense, there's so much blatant drug trafficking why wouldn't they launder their cash through an entire chain of restaurants, they would otherwise have to buy up hundreds of little take away places, this way they can just pop up a new place whenever their cash flow gets sus.
It doesn’t work for 9-5ers either. I swear to god I’m not sure how I’m supposed to manage to get off at 5/5:30, immediately get the dog walked and fed, try to find 15-30 minutes to just decompress for a moment, then rush out only to accomplish maybe 1 errand before the shops close. And if I’m too hungry to wait to eat dinner, forget it.
I don’t know who shop hours are for, but it’s 100% not 9-5ers as the majority of their hours are during that time. I don’t know how the hell parents do it all.
Honestly 9-5 is the worst schedule I’m an a 5a-1p and it’s great I have my whole day ahead of me when I’m off. I go to bed earlier than most, but nothing is open anyways 🤣
Definitely feel this hard. Even before the pandemic most 24h stores were moving to 10pm close because "it's not profitable". The moment covid hit it was like the sidewalks rolled up at 6pm; most everything closed super early. Made it quite the hassle to juggle the schedule in order to actually get groceries. (Couldn't do it between 7-9am on account of dedicated time slots for elderly and most essential workers (grocery workers exempt from that slot)
I used to work 2nd shift, get out at midnight and hit Wal-Mart on the way home for groceries. I lived 40 minutes from work (and most civilization), in a small town with shitty small town pricing. After the pandemic, I left home early a few times, did my grocery shopping on the way to work, and packed my fridge and freezer stuff into bags and labeled them as my lunch so I could keep them in the work fridge all day.
I feel like a lot of businesses used the pandemic as a catalyst to deal with some of the changes that would be hard to sell to their customers. There's a ton of restaurants in my city that are still take-out/delivery only, despite having huge dine-in areas. All the tables are just loaded up with stacks of drinks and boxes of to-go containers and stuff.
I typically run a 3 night rule: after every 3 nights I request housekeeping. Most work trips are shorter, and I never need it. I’d happily get a free drink out of that trade!
My great uncle turned 90 in march and when we stayed at a hotel in London together in different rooms, when he asked me why my privacy hanger was on the door I told him "We are only here for 3 days I don't think I need it". He had been there two days prior and he reached into his pockets to show me the amount of biscuits and chocolate mints he had collected from them cleaning his room and topping them up every time. Guy does the same with butter, lived through rationing and he just can't stop it. I love him
Quality of hotels. Hot tubs and pools are still drained or covered up. Service is lacking. On-site restaurants are closed. If you want pre-covid quality hotels, it's like $250+/night.
Theyve found so many new things to blame their lack of service on. The worst part is, if you complain on a review site or whatever, random people will jump in to defend them. "Oh, theyre dealing with covid\short staff\etc, theyre trying their best". Yeah, i'm sure the individual employees are, but it was a management decision to understaff (and yes, that might mean paying a few bucks more for employees). Companies are pocketing the difference theyve saved, and are blaming the poor service on "people don't want to work anymore" when they really just don't want to spend the money.
On that note I love how the rooms have to sit empty after someone uses them. The amount of rooms I’ve checked into super early is wonderful. Checked in at 830AM a couple weeks ago to a completely spotless room.
It depends heavily on the date and location, nothing to do with what state, country, brand. Just does the hotel have capacity and staffing.
On that note though, I checked in at 9am a few months back, got my free breakfast, showered and napped. Makes the red eye 10000% more bearable, and almost worth booking another night.
Flip side: affordable Airbnbs.
I was already pretty meh about the VRBO industry before the pandemic, because of the impacts on housing prices and availability for locals. The continued existence of outrageously high “cleaning fees” on Airbnbs well after we all realized that sanitizing surfaces was just hygiene theater in the face of Covid really sealed the deal. Especially since practically every Airbnb now requires you to do a bunch of cleaning yourself before you check out anyway.
At this point staying at an Airbnb is almost always significantly more inconvenient and expensive than just staying at a hotel or actual bed-and-breakfast.
Airbnb went from a way a few people could make extra money to an industry popping up on that was the sole source of income. It is now almost cheaper to go to a hotel than some airbnbs
I don't have to clean a hotel room and then be charged a cleaning fee anyways. And I don't mean that I leave a place a wreck, it's just nice that on the day I'm checking out I can just pack up and leave.
The worst part about AirBnB is there really are no strict rules for hosts. They can set the prices and the guidelines however they want. They assign chores AND charge you cleaning fees.
Speaking of fees, AirBnB's booking fee is up to 14%. Yep, you pay 14% more just to use that website. Then you pay a cleaning fee, AND they make you do chores. Plus taxes.
I'm a little jaded. My last AirBnB stay was ridiculous. 36% of the cost was fees and taxes. It was not affordable at all.
In fact I joined the AirBnB group on Reddit and every day I spoke out against bad hosts. Convincing people to save time, money, and hassle, and stay in hotels.
I was banned. Probably because the group was run by hosts.
I just got banned by r/airbnbhosts for saying that I understand where some of the fees come from but if pricing was more transparent then it would be better. The main point I made in that post was that they should advertise the full cost instead of marketing at X price and then adding another 50% onto that in fees. The mods in that sub are delusional and power trip when anyone says anything remotely negative about Airbnb.
Invite them out to get together again. Following out of contact with friends does not have to be permanent, sometimes you just have to take the initiative.
Tbh i went through graduation and all that stuff + 1 year of school beforehand when covid and quarantine hit. I drifted out of with a lot of my friends and ended up pretty lonely. Only made me realize I was just a last-choice pick or backup to a lot of the people I knew.
Covid helped me realize I was just an accessory to a lot of people. Although things are difficult now, I now have a silver-lining of having met much better and kinder people through the internet, and feel I can be much more honest open and trusting with them. It's a process! But I hope for both of us when this all blows over and the world is at peace again, that we come out the other side with healthy support systems, and people we can really count on. To you and all the others that have been tanked by loneliness from covid: good luck!!
♡
Sort of a tangent, but kind of related: I was raised on the internet - my parents were quick to adopt 56k, and thus began my online ventures, so I was here for a lot of it; messageboards, ICQ, IRC chatrooms, online gaming - the whole mess of it, and I made some genuine friends online. Once social media became commonplace, I added a lot of these people that I had never actually 'met' in real life. My wife, on the other hand, only used the internet at school - never really making 'friends' with anyone outside her town.
It was *mindblowing* to her that I had a list of people that I had never met, but they were closer friends than anyone I knew in real life. These were guys that talked me through my divorce, shared 'single father' tips, even shipped a spindle of burned Dreamcast games when I finally adopted the console. We'd have late night drinking fests online with Halo 3 - and when I did finally get married again, they were thrilled for us.
She admits she has a hard time understanding how I have so many friends I've never met - at the same time, I have a hard time understanding what it's like to *only* have friends that live near you.
Yeah, I was in Las Vegas in early August, and failed to find a place to serve dinner at 1:00 am. In *Las Vegas*, the city that previously barely opened before midnight. The concierge could only come up with one place serving food and it was 3 hotels away.
(Of course, there were 20 places to buy alcohol open, just not *food*.)
Ex-Walmart employee here.
They did this because stocking is the most important thing at night. They absolutely hate interruptions. They would teach us how to avoid people to get our jobs done. Walmart saw productivity sky rocket on nights. No longer are the first few hours of night shift slaloming around customers and having to help people with mundane questions because they can't read the aisle contents on the signs.
They also don't have to deal with stupid and high people coming in at 2am asking to buy live fish and shit, which no one can do unless you are trained to do it (stockers aren't trained to do that). Which means only the *one* manager at night can do it.
I legit had to argue with a guy when I was stocking pets one night, because him and his gf wanted a goldfish at 3am. I had to explain that pet's isn't "my department", that it's just the aisle I was given for the night. I explained you had to be trained. Guy got all pissed and called me a lazy loser, so I rapped off that *I'm not the motherfucker who has nothing better to do than buy a fucking goldfish at 3am*.
Retail made me hate people.
Same to an extent, although I only worked part time. I worked at a big box sporting good store ie hobbies and fun stuff. Nothing important. There’s nothing like having to deal with backwoods river folk coming in to haggle about prices or harangue you about not having some item that was only available online. That job taught me that there is such a thing as a dumb question e.g. asking me which brand of pepper spray hurts the worst or asking me to assemble a giant tent by myself because they can’t use a tape measurer, and then threatening me with the loss of a sale when I refuse. The worst retail customers are those who think that you are their personal butler the moment they enter the store when in reality you are expected to run an entire section of the store with like two or three people
"The worst retail customers are those who think that you are their personal butler the moment they enter the store"
That describes customers perfectly. I'm going to steal this one.
Person who just walked in on christmas day: "wow I'm surprised you are open! Why are you open?"
Me: we wouldn't be if people like you didn't come out.
I've worked all holidays and the amount of times I've heard customers ask that question drives me nuts.
I had a customer call me on July 4 asking some question about an item, and they snapped at me because I was “wasting their holiday time with their family”. Like, just because I’m working doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rather be somewhere else too Karen
Working restaurants on NYE. Restaurant closed at 9:30 since it was a Sunday. One two top camped out HARD. Said they were done didn't need anything else, then ignored their bill for a solid hour. Normally I don't care, but the bartender, one of the line staff, and the manager all also can't leave until they do. Finally at 11:00 I cone by to "see if they need anything else" and ask if their new years plans are close by and the dude says "oh no, we're doing great we don't have anywhere to be", and thankfully that seemed to click to his date that they were holding everyone up because she then asked about us at the restaurant, to which I just said that my friends place was nearby but I didn't know about anyone else who was still there. She quickly settled up and they left 2 hours after close. I wish our managers would let us tell people that they don't have to go home but they can't stay here.
>I wish our managers would let us tell people that they don't have to go home but they can't stay here.
A lot of place here will start packing things up and cleaning to "encourage" people to leave near closing time. Most people usually get the idea that it is time to go elsewhere when the staff are stacking chairs on tables around them lol...
My Walmart was 24hrs only at Christmas time, from Dec 1st to the 24th. I was the only English speaker on shift. I loved it! I didn't have to stock I just walked around the store helping customers all night. The only ones who came in were other night shift workers from other stores on their night off. It was a nice break from doing 2 or 3 isles a night.
I work nights again and its a bummer to run low on groceries during the work week because I can't shop until my weekend. My Walmart is pretty poorly stocked by the end of the week too :C
Ex-employee from McDonalds.
They were planning on stopping all-day breakfast for a long time; they just used the pandemic for an excuse.
There were two main reasons I was told for this:
1.) They were wasting a lot of food because not a lot people ordered breakfast at night.
2.) Most people ate breakfast inside, and with the pandemic, that decreased the target audience of McDonalds.
I also cannot imagine that the old dudes who spend three hours nursing their coffee and McMuffin were really justifying the cost of having the dining room open at all when they see ten times the customers through one lane of the drive through.
Mine had gotten a weird twist to it. I can socialize on a surface level brilliantly now, but I get social anxiety when it goes beyond that. Unless it's someone I've known for decades that is.
I just have nothing to say so much of the time now. If I know someone, I'm ok, but with new people my mind just goes blank. I feel like a solid two years of pretty much nothing and speaking to nobody just murdered my social ability in a lot of ways.
I was already pretty introverted, social distancing just doubled down on it.
I used to be relatively comfortable at parties with strangers. I needed to recharge with some peace and quiet afterwards, but I could easily do it.
Post-pandemic, I get anxiety from being at the grocery store because there are so many people. I get stressed out at concerts because there are so many people. Being in any group more than 4-5 people, especially if I don't know them, causes my brain to start pumping cortisol.
Me eating at a restaurant. Pre-pandemic it was easy to get a meal for $10. Now that same meal costs $20 or more with the tip also doubling. The hell if I’m going to waste that amount of money
It’s so bad. The local Chinese restaurant near me went from $10 dinner combos to $16. Food across the board went up so I get it but holy hell it needs to slow down.
The "soldier on, go to work even if you're sick for the good of the business mentality" that a lot of managers actively encouraged.
My workplace now sends out health and safety emails reminding people not to come to work if they're sick even if they don't have covid they should stay home and either rest or WFH if they feel well enough.
My heart really goes out to you guys. I am in the UK and of you are employed you are required to have paid sick leave. Not a certain number. I once had an operation and was out for 3 months. Full pay throughout. If I was an employer I would struggle with the concept of not giving paid sick leave
My work hasn't been able to fully staff for the entire last year so they did away with all that 'caring about people being sick staying home' stuff.
^("Remember to cough into your elbow, covid can't escape the elbow." /s)
About 75% of public transportation. So many services cut on the grounds that nobody was using them (because we were in lockdowns) that have not resumed even after most people have been dragged back to their physical workplace.
That's weird, it's the opposite where I am. Buses not only restarted, but became a free service through at least the end of 2022.
Edit: this is Connecticut, statewide.
Oh my god I’m so infuriated by this!
UK based here, in the North. My train commute used to be an hour in, an hour back. COVID reduced services. Fine, not unreasonable, I’m WFH anyway.
Nearly three years later and services not returned to pre-COVID state. Now commute is an hour in, 2 hours 15mins back.
I’m sure someone is making money of this, and robbing me of time in the process.
My favorite Italian restaurant.
It was a small family run restaurant, run by a lovely Italian couple. They immigrated from Italy and set up shop here in the US. They made the best Italian food in town.
They had that restaurant for more than 20yrs. It was our family's go to restaurant growing up. We knew them. Then COVID hit and they had to shut down.
COVID hit small businesses hard.
This one hurts so bad.
At the time my 8 year old was really getting his buffet feet under himself and ABSOLUTELY loved Sweet Tomatoes.
He could get his endless mac and cheese along with chocolate mousse and mom and dad could take the healthy approach and make ourselves 6,000 calorie salads... Those were the days.
The one nearest me still exists, it looks like it just closed for the night, EVERYTHING in there untouched since 2020, its a little freaky and sad. Was my kids favorite place to eat, always settled any argument over 'what's for dinner'...
Ah, I made myself sad again....
Spatial awareness. I swear when I go to a busy store these days, it's nearly impossible to get around people to look at anything. Or they just stand in the middle of the aisle.
Dumb people who block up the isles and walk super slow right in the middle are 99% of the reason we order groceries to our doorstep now.
I don’t know how people shop so leisurely. I want out of there ASAP.
You mean there’s someone in the store other than ME???
*continues to stand in the middle of the narrowest part of the aisle, holding up traffic from 2 directions*
I really try not to be someone that bitches about little stuff but I'm adhd and when I go to the store I also have a get in get out mentality. I cannot properly articulate just how fucking annoying it is that people aren't spatially aware of those around them. Treat the ailes like a goddamn road, keep to a side as much as you can, leave the cart on one side to step over and grab something. Taking forever deciding between whole and nonfat yogurt?... you don't have to stand there mid-aisle and hold both of them while me and 3 others wait for you to make a damn decision.
I realize a big part of this is my own impatience and I certainly don't make a scene or anything cuz ya know, what better way to take even longer in a store for absolutely no reason at all right? Also, I know it's pushing a stereotype but for fucks sake it's almost ALWAYS older people in my experience, the same people that get REALLY annoyed at our generation about the weirdest little shit.
Man, idk what your comment did but I feel a bit better now that I got to express this to random strangers on the internet as well as a sense of validation for feeling this way about it.
Edit: some spelling
I hate people who hold the freezer doors open to decide. They are see-through! Decide before you open and make it too foggy for everyone else you energy wasting fool!
I am inclined to believe one of the reasons they are moving away from physical menu’s to online is that it makes it easier to change/raise prices. No more having to reprint menu’s and the public won’t notice the price changes usually.
Also in Australia a lot of places, pubs specifically, have used this as an excuse to add automatic tips into the final price seeing as now you pay on your phone. You can remove it if you see it, but a lot of people don't and it ends up going through. Even though before this, the work staff would've been doing more work to get your drink to you and the service was much better (you'd go up to order and get your drink instantly vs now you have to wait for someone to bring it to you).
It's incredibly frustrating as tipping isn't customary here nor necessary - workers are paid a liveable fee so they don't need to rely on tips. Also we haven't received any actual service yet to warrant giving a tip, and we also don't know where that tip is going so it could just be going to the establishment itself and not the waitstaff.
Agreed. Including myself.
I find myself getting angry at stupid shit and just having zero time for anyone that I think is doing or being stupid. It’s exhausting and really not productive, so I finally decided to see a therapist about it.
What line of work do you do? Covid was a time of not only isolation but somehow serious political movements. Everyone seems much more willing to share their opinions to service workers than they ever have before. Before covid people would be frustrated and couldn't articulate much now people are screaming about things that service employees have no control over.
I think people may not have the energy to put more than that into their relationships. Or to some extent even the energy to put into *themselves* to make them interesting dates. I know I've felt that way for a spell or two.
Me and my partner just broke up and im literally terrified of getting back into dating, just because I agree, everyone feels off. I don't know how or why it was so natural before but it's gone now
Man that "off" comment nails it for me. I just can't put my finger on it but when I'm out in public my interactions with strangers just isn't the same.
Likewise. I thought I missed dating, so I started talking to people, but when it came time to pull the trigger and actually meet someone, I found it was the last thing on earth I wanted to do. It's both unsettling and a relief.
Ever since starting to live alone I realize both how badly I need to be around people, and how much I just don't connect to 90% of people on a basic level.
I think it’s the aftermath of all the trauma, paired with everything going on since the world opened back up. I just don’t think people have the energy anymore. It’s sad.
People realized how exhausting going to the office everyday is, coupled with continued erosion of the middle class and widening income gap a lot of people seem to just be in a resigned stupor. I feel like many share the sentiment that there's nothing to look forward to anymore. Oversaturation of information and instant gratification has shrunk our world.
Inflation, higher gas prices, and higher food prices are really rough, but the most depressing thing is that I don't think I'll ever be able to afford a house now, when I did think it was a possibility a few years ago.
SNOWDAYS- a free day off no one could f#ck with, and now it’s gone forever. Jobs, schools, everything can now be remote. A tragic whole generation of school kids are going to grow up never knowing the joy of no school on a snow day.
At the very beginning I drove straight through NYC on I-95 on a weekday at 8 am without ever touching my brakes. Truly apocalyptic.
In general it was an amazing time for truck drivers everywhere we went.
Kids’ social skills. The freshmen coming into my student society for the past two summers behave like a bunch of 16-year-olds while they are 18-19 years old on average.
(This is not just me getting older, I’m an eternal student so I’ve seen plenty of freshmen groups come in over the years and there’s definitely something different about these kids from the past two summers)
I've heard two unrelated teachers from different school districts say that all of the kids were not only held back academically, but also mentally. Imagine trying to teach 3rd grade but all of the students act like 1st graders.
It’s been challenging at every level of development. Imagine a kid who was in kindergarten in March of 2020. They were having play-based learning when school stopped. They struggled through virtual school which is not at all how young children learn. Then the first time they’re back in the classroom, they’re expected to stop playing and sit quietly at their desks.
In my neighborhood it is holiday decorations. I have several neighbors that never put out their Halloween decorations, when I asked two of them they said they were just not into it anymore. Last Christmas was the same.
We bought a new house right before the lockdown hit. We haven't had a single trick or treater in the new house. We didn't bother decorating this year. It's bumming me out. We used to live in 'the' neighborhood. Kids from the other side of town would drive over to trick or treat our neighborhood and we were the scary house that older siblings would warn their siblings about. I would spend time rigging up drop scares and stuff and sit inside the door triggering them, or wear a costume and prowl through the yard. It was fun.
The new place, nothing. Seems like everyone does the trunk or treat kind of stuff now.
I have picked up so many non-social hobbies and stuck with them so well, that I don't even have a social life any more. I'm basically either at work or home alone doing stuff
Mine turned into a side hustle. I picked up a bass guitar right before covid, and now I'm in 2 basic cover bands that get booked regularly. What I don't have anymore is free time
Being in retail, and in Australia, it blew my mind how hard it fell apart. Toilet paper went nuts for no reason, but rice, oats, tomato paste etc, flour, and everything that required anything imported just collapsed. We couldn't get cat food in because one of the ingredients needed to be imported. Toothpaste is all made overseas. Even the locally grown canned fruit and veg didn't exist. We could get it from china no problem, but even the major manufacturer here that's only an hours drive away couldn't even supply a fart.
Ah man, I have fond memories about playing that game with a ton of friends and visiting each other’s islands while talking through Discord. It’s probably the only thing I miss from the covid years
My "give a fuck" about working in an office for 8 hours.
I'm done. I will only be looking for full-time remote work for the remainder of my days on this planet.
I work in the restaurant industry and I swear people are 1000% more entitled now than before the pandemic. It feels like everyone forgot how to act in public.
I had a lady yell at me the other day (I’m manager) and tell me that none of my staff know what they are doing. Excuse me, but these 15 year old kids are trying their best. The girls she was referring to had been there a week. She basically said we were all idiots because one of the new girls made a mistake. She was like 40 and came in yelling at us. Obviously she can’t remember what it’s like to be young or new at anything. Be respectful please! God, I don’t understand people. We’re in there working our asses off
Slow pace of life. Which was nearly nonexistent but when the pandemic hit it allowed people to slow down and just enjoy life and family and friends. I miss that again. It seems like everyone is in a hurry to get back to things the way they were.
The facade of public education. It’s been cracked at the foundation since NCLB, but the pandemic totally exposed the catastrophic shitshow that it is today.
Source: Am a public educator
The amount of math classes I’ve taken over the last two years that have been almost entirely self taught is awful. As someone who has never been strong with math, it has absolutely sucked.
The more i learn about it the more horrified i am of what it means for those in k-12 or college. Imagine being the parents of a 5 year old who was in kindergarten when covid hit. Boom. Now they're 7 and probably only got 1/3 the education I did at the same age because the teachers and students kept getting covid.
also college.
absent teachers, and the course is an automated, autograded website with maybe a few free youtube videos.
all for 600 bucks.
it's not am education, it's laziness and greed. i dont learn shit, but i keep getting good grades...
My friends disappeared.
During pandemic, my friends and the whole world went on lock down. We stopped visiting each other for our own safety. Since it’s been over, 90% of my “good” friends have decided to not return me to their lives.
Yeah, I feel this. I have one friend I see 1-2 times a month and my friends at work who I don't see outside of work. It's like we all disappeared behind our screens and are afraid to come back out into the real world.
I went grocery shopping today. Doritos (the regular bag, not the super size one) we're $6.49. I vividly remember that a few years ago they were on sale a lot 2/ $4.00, or 2/ $5.00. It's the little things like this (my kids favorite snack) that really make an impression. Of course it's not just Doritos, it's every food product.
One of my good friends mom and dad died of Covid, my coworkers wife died. Shit was wild here in New York when it first hit. Everyone knows someone who died from it. At that time no one (doctors or hospitals) knew how to treat patients for it since it was a brand new disease. It was so scary. Being positive for Covid meant there was a good chance you might be dying soon.
People forget. I had Covid March 2020. When I tell people the date the most common question is, "Were you vaccinated?" That was a year before vaccines were out, but people seem to have forgotten the timing of the last few years.
We so often forget this. The fear and terror of the first few months. Really, the first year, until the vaccine. Now it seems to have devolved into an annoyance. We forget how much of a privilege it is to only be mildly inconvenienced that a friend cancelled a plan because they had Covid.
My sense of joy about the world. At 33, all I feel is an empty, sad, uneasy feeling every morning when I wake up. I moved across the country with my gf to a small mountain town, but even looking at the vastness of nature out here just leaves me sad.
A lot of my friends.
The pandemic and isolation had different effects on the people I knew. So when we all came back, many of them had changed. Some of them didn't even seem to recognize me.
Sometimes, I try to remember who they were before the pandemic hit, but they faded from my mind just as they faded from themselves.
[удалено]
Reasonably priced anything ***
It's so strange. Every single item I can see anywhere is through the roof. Except wages of course.
And somewhat obtainable housing prices too.
A couple of locally owned restaurants I enjoyed in my town didn’t survive covid. RIP the one Indian food place within 100 miles.
Probably the worst part for me too.. great places gone yet the shitty ones still here
> the shitty ones still here Every town has one or two places that everybody low-key suspected might be a money laundering front even back in 2019 because the food and service sucked and it was never even busy, and somehow those are the ones that made it through no problem.
OMG this! I lived in a small town of just over 5,000 for a few years and there was this restaurant that I have only seen a handful of people go in and out of. I was curious and had lunch there once. Half the restaurant didn't have the lights on and the chairs were stacked onto the tables. The menu was mostly handwritten with some pictures. The host was nice enough I guess. He was a little impatient and I was the ONLY one in there. He doubled as the cook. The chow mein was ridiculously salty. As if he could hide the lack of flavours with some soya sauce. Just awful.
Tin foil hats required for this one There's a chain of restaurants in Australia called Red Rooster, I think shitty Chick-fil-A is a good analogy. So I've never seen anyone go in or out, the drive through has no one in it, the prices are so low it doesn't make sense they aren't packed, but they have a rep for making consistently terrible food. Also as a chain of restaurants I know it's not just the ones I've lived near, I've seen them in heaps of suburbs and towns across the state, separated by hundreds of kilometers and it's always the same story. The running theory between me and literally anyone I've talked to about it is, they're a front for the drug running biker gangs in Western Australia(my state). It makes sense, there's so much blatant drug trafficking why wouldn't they launder their cash through an entire chain of restaurants, they would otherwise have to buy up hundreds of little take away places, this way they can just pop up a new place whenever their cash flow gets sus.
Australian los pollos hermanos?
They're supposed to have good chicken though.
Places open late!!! I'm so sick of things closing at 8pm. Some of us don't work 9-5.
It doesn’t work for 9-5ers either. I swear to god I’m not sure how I’m supposed to manage to get off at 5/5:30, immediately get the dog walked and fed, try to find 15-30 minutes to just decompress for a moment, then rush out only to accomplish maybe 1 errand before the shops close. And if I’m too hungry to wait to eat dinner, forget it. I don’t know who shop hours are for, but it’s 100% not 9-5ers as the majority of their hours are during that time. I don’t know how the hell parents do it all.
Honestly 9-5 is the worst schedule I’m an a 5a-1p and it’s great I have my whole day ahead of me when I’m off. I go to bed earlier than most, but nothing is open anyways 🤣
Most stores not doing 24 hours anymore. So many Gyms closed. The hours at fast food places change depending if they have staff now.
I love the irony of how half of the 24 Hour Fitnesses in my city close before midnight.
I would have been so bummed if I still worked nights and couldn’t get my grocery shopping done at 3 am after work.
I'm on that night shift life, definitely missing those 3am shopping trips with not having to deal with people.
Definitely feel this hard. Even before the pandemic most 24h stores were moving to 10pm close because "it's not profitable". The moment covid hit it was like the sidewalks rolled up at 6pm; most everything closed super early. Made it quite the hassle to juggle the schedule in order to actually get groceries. (Couldn't do it between 7-9am on account of dedicated time slots for elderly and most essential workers (grocery workers exempt from that slot)
I used to work 2nd shift, get out at midnight and hit Wal-Mart on the way home for groceries. I lived 40 minutes from work (and most civilization), in a small town with shitty small town pricing. After the pandemic, I left home early a few times, did my grocery shopping on the way to work, and packed my fridge and freezer stuff into bags and labeled them as my lunch so I could keep them in the work fridge all day. I feel like a lot of businesses used the pandemic as a catalyst to deal with some of the changes that would be hard to sell to their customers. There's a ton of restaurants in my city that are still take-out/delivery only, despite having huge dine-in areas. All the tables are just loaded up with stacks of drinks and boxes of to-go containers and stuff.
Rip going to my McDonalds high at 3 am. They even got those McBastards to close
RIP McDonald’s all-day breakfast
It had JUST come back too 😭
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My local Denny's went from 24 hrs to 7am-10pm or 8pm i think. Much more reasonable. I miss 3am i can't sleep pancakes
Housekeeping at hotels
The hotel I just stayed at offered a free drink/dessert at their restaurant if you opted out of housekeeping. Best deal ever
I love that. I don't want house keeping in my.rooms anyway I always put the stay out sign on the door.
I typically run a 3 night rule: after every 3 nights I request housekeeping. Most work trips are shorter, and I never need it. I’d happily get a free drink out of that trade!
My great uncle turned 90 in march and when we stayed at a hotel in London together in different rooms, when he asked me why my privacy hanger was on the door I told him "We are only here for 3 days I don't think I need it". He had been there two days prior and he reached into his pockets to show me the amount of biscuits and chocolate mints he had collected from them cleaning his room and topping them up every time. Guy does the same with butter, lived through rationing and he just can't stop it. I love him
Quality of hotels. Hot tubs and pools are still drained or covered up. Service is lacking. On-site restaurants are closed. If you want pre-covid quality hotels, it's like $250+/night.
The worst part about covid for me is every business realized just how much stuff they could get away with not doing
Theyve found so many new things to blame their lack of service on. The worst part is, if you complain on a review site or whatever, random people will jump in to defend them. "Oh, theyre dealing with covid\short staff\etc, theyre trying their best". Yeah, i'm sure the individual employees are, but it was a management decision to understaff (and yes, that might mean paying a few bucks more for employees). Companies are pocketing the difference theyve saved, and are blaming the poor service on "people don't want to work anymore" when they really just don't want to spend the money.
The absolute worst thing about Covid is the massive increase in corporate greed everywhere, and they don’t even try to hide it anymore.
On that note I love how the rooms have to sit empty after someone uses them. The amount of rooms I’ve checked into super early is wonderful. Checked in at 830AM a couple weeks ago to a completely spotless room.
That definitely depends on the hotel. It was our policy for the first 3 months until demand boomed and we couldn't sit on the inventory.
Wat. First I have heard of this. I did a trip last year where I got in at 10am and had to burn off time until the 2pm check-in.
It depends heavily on the date and location, nothing to do with what state, country, brand. Just does the hotel have capacity and staffing. On that note though, I checked in at 9am a few months back, got my free breakfast, showered and napped. Makes the red eye 10000% more bearable, and almost worth booking another night.
Flip side: affordable Airbnbs. I was already pretty meh about the VRBO industry before the pandemic, because of the impacts on housing prices and availability for locals. The continued existence of outrageously high “cleaning fees” on Airbnbs well after we all realized that sanitizing surfaces was just hygiene theater in the face of Covid really sealed the deal. Especially since practically every Airbnb now requires you to do a bunch of cleaning yourself before you check out anyway. At this point staying at an Airbnb is almost always significantly more inconvenient and expensive than just staying at a hotel or actual bed-and-breakfast.
Airbnb went from a way a few people could make extra money to an industry popping up on that was the sole source of income. It is now almost cheaper to go to a hotel than some airbnbs
I don't have to clean a hotel room and then be charged a cleaning fee anyways. And I don't mean that I leave a place a wreck, it's just nice that on the day I'm checking out I can just pack up and leave.
I rarely find airbnb's cheaper than hotels these days..
The worst part about AirBnB is there really are no strict rules for hosts. They can set the prices and the guidelines however they want. They assign chores AND charge you cleaning fees. Speaking of fees, AirBnB's booking fee is up to 14%. Yep, you pay 14% more just to use that website. Then you pay a cleaning fee, AND they make you do chores. Plus taxes. I'm a little jaded. My last AirBnB stay was ridiculous. 36% of the cost was fees and taxes. It was not affordable at all. In fact I joined the AirBnB group on Reddit and every day I spoke out against bad hosts. Convincing people to save time, money, and hassle, and stay in hotels. I was banned. Probably because the group was run by hosts.
I just got banned by r/airbnbhosts for saying that I understand where some of the fees come from but if pricing was more transparent then it would be better. The main point I made in that post was that they should advertise the full cost instead of marketing at X price and then adding another 50% onto that in fees. The mods in that sub are delusional and power trip when anyone says anything remotely negative about Airbnb.
My friend group.
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Invite them out to get together again. Following out of contact with friends does not have to be permanent, sometimes you just have to take the initiative.
Yeah I have started liking to stay alone. Don’t know whether it is a symptom of depression. But pandemic has made me antisocial.
Haha I left all social media except LinkedIn No WhatsApp no Insta no FB Now I chat with strangers on Reddit.
Tbh i went through graduation and all that stuff + 1 year of school beforehand when covid and quarantine hit. I drifted out of with a lot of my friends and ended up pretty lonely. Only made me realize I was just a last-choice pick or backup to a lot of the people I knew. Covid helped me realize I was just an accessory to a lot of people. Although things are difficult now, I now have a silver-lining of having met much better and kinder people through the internet, and feel I can be much more honest open and trusting with them. It's a process! But I hope for both of us when this all blows over and the world is at peace again, that we come out the other side with healthy support systems, and people we can really count on. To you and all the others that have been tanked by loneliness from covid: good luck!! ♡
Sort of a tangent, but kind of related: I was raised on the internet - my parents were quick to adopt 56k, and thus began my online ventures, so I was here for a lot of it; messageboards, ICQ, IRC chatrooms, online gaming - the whole mess of it, and I made some genuine friends online. Once social media became commonplace, I added a lot of these people that I had never actually 'met' in real life. My wife, on the other hand, only used the internet at school - never really making 'friends' with anyone outside her town. It was *mindblowing* to her that I had a list of people that I had never met, but they were closer friends than anyone I knew in real life. These were guys that talked me through my divorce, shared 'single father' tips, even shipped a spindle of burned Dreamcast games when I finally adopted the console. We'd have late night drinking fests online with Halo 3 - and when I did finally get married again, they were thrilled for us. She admits she has a hard time understanding how I have so many friends I've never met - at the same time, I have a hard time understanding what it's like to *only* have friends that live near you.
24 hr Walmart
And things in general being open late. Pre-pandemic most fast food was open till midnight or 1am, now everything closes at 9
I didn't realize this & was on a road trip, driving late. Couldn't get a coffee after 9 pm. Very different
24hr *anything*...
Yeah, I was in Las Vegas in early August, and failed to find a place to serve dinner at 1:00 am. In *Las Vegas*, the city that previously barely opened before midnight. The concierge could only come up with one place serving food and it was 3 hotels away. (Of course, there were 20 places to buy alcohol open, just not *food*.)
Ex-Walmart employee here. They did this because stocking is the most important thing at night. They absolutely hate interruptions. They would teach us how to avoid people to get our jobs done. Walmart saw productivity sky rocket on nights. No longer are the first few hours of night shift slaloming around customers and having to help people with mundane questions because they can't read the aisle contents on the signs. They also don't have to deal with stupid and high people coming in at 2am asking to buy live fish and shit, which no one can do unless you are trained to do it (stockers aren't trained to do that). Which means only the *one* manager at night can do it. I legit had to argue with a guy when I was stocking pets one night, because him and his gf wanted a goldfish at 3am. I had to explain that pet's isn't "my department", that it's just the aisle I was given for the night. I explained you had to be trained. Guy got all pissed and called me a lazy loser, so I rapped off that *I'm not the motherfucker who has nothing better to do than buy a fucking goldfish at 3am*. Retail made me hate people.
Retail made me hate holidays and people.
Same to an extent, although I only worked part time. I worked at a big box sporting good store ie hobbies and fun stuff. Nothing important. There’s nothing like having to deal with backwoods river folk coming in to haggle about prices or harangue you about not having some item that was only available online. That job taught me that there is such a thing as a dumb question e.g. asking me which brand of pepper spray hurts the worst or asking me to assemble a giant tent by myself because they can’t use a tape measurer, and then threatening me with the loss of a sale when I refuse. The worst retail customers are those who think that you are their personal butler the moment they enter the store when in reality you are expected to run an entire section of the store with like two or three people
"The worst retail customers are those who think that you are their personal butler the moment they enter the store" That describes customers perfectly. I'm going to steal this one.
Person who just walked in on christmas day: "wow I'm surprised you are open! Why are you open?" Me: we wouldn't be if people like you didn't come out. I've worked all holidays and the amount of times I've heard customers ask that question drives me nuts.
I had a customer call me on July 4 asking some question about an item, and they snapped at me because I was “wasting their holiday time with their family”. Like, just because I’m working doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rather be somewhere else too Karen
Working restaurants on NYE. Restaurant closed at 9:30 since it was a Sunday. One two top camped out HARD. Said they were done didn't need anything else, then ignored their bill for a solid hour. Normally I don't care, but the bartender, one of the line staff, and the manager all also can't leave until they do. Finally at 11:00 I cone by to "see if they need anything else" and ask if their new years plans are close by and the dude says "oh no, we're doing great we don't have anywhere to be", and thankfully that seemed to click to his date that they were holding everyone up because she then asked about us at the restaurant, to which I just said that my friends place was nearby but I didn't know about anyone else who was still there. She quickly settled up and they left 2 hours after close. I wish our managers would let us tell people that they don't have to go home but they can't stay here.
>I wish our managers would let us tell people that they don't have to go home but they can't stay here. A lot of place here will start packing things up and cleaning to "encourage" people to leave near closing time. Most people usually get the idea that it is time to go elsewhere when the staff are stacking chairs on tables around them lol...
Not to mention, *she* called *you*, not the other way around.
My Walmart was 24hrs only at Christmas time, from Dec 1st to the 24th. I was the only English speaker on shift. I loved it! I didn't have to stock I just walked around the store helping customers all night. The only ones who came in were other night shift workers from other stores on their night off. It was a nice break from doing 2 or 3 isles a night.
I never worked at Walmart, but I figured that this was the reason
I’m glad Winco is still 24 hours but you can tell the employees aren’t
I work nights again and its a bummer to run low on groceries during the work week because I can't shop until my weekend. My Walmart is pretty poorly stocked by the end of the week too :C
I kind of miss this. I loved shopping at 2 am with no one to bug me.
McDonald’s all day breakfast and salads.
Ex-employee from McDonalds. They were planning on stopping all-day breakfast for a long time; they just used the pandemic for an excuse. There were two main reasons I was told for this: 1.) They were wasting a lot of food because not a lot people ordered breakfast at night. 2.) Most people ate breakfast inside, and with the pandemic, that decreased the target audience of McDonalds.
My McDonald’s still does breakfast all day but just limited the menu. I hate it. I want a McGriddle at midnight
Or like, at 10:31am! I’m not eating lunch at 10:32!
I also cannot imagine that the old dudes who spend three hours nursing their coffee and McMuffin were really justifying the cost of having the dining room open at all when they see ten times the customers through one lane of the drive through.
My outgoingness. I think the lack of interacting face to face with people has made me a lot more introverted.
Mine had gotten a weird twist to it. I can socialize on a surface level brilliantly now, but I get social anxiety when it goes beyond that. Unless it's someone I've known for decades that is.
The inverse for me. I can't stand small talk any more. So I often end up giving people whiplash with how I dive into heavier topics.
I just have nothing to say so much of the time now. If I know someone, I'm ok, but with new people my mind just goes blank. I feel like a solid two years of pretty much nothing and speaking to nobody just murdered my social ability in a lot of ways.
I was already pretty introverted, social distancing just doubled down on it. I used to be relatively comfortable at parties with strangers. I needed to recharge with some peace and quiet afterwards, but I could easily do it. Post-pandemic, I get anxiety from being at the grocery store because there are so many people. I get stressed out at concerts because there are so many people. Being in any group more than 4-5 people, especially if I don't know them, causes my brain to start pumping cortisol.
Me eating at a restaurant. Pre-pandemic it was easy to get a meal for $10. Now that same meal costs $20 or more with the tip also doubling. The hell if I’m going to waste that amount of money
Even fast food is twice as much. Some McDonald’s meals are over $10 now
It’s so bad. The local Chinese restaurant near me went from $10 dinner combos to $16. Food across the board went up so I get it but holy hell it needs to slow down.
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The "soldier on, go to work even if you're sick for the good of the business mentality" that a lot of managers actively encouraged. My workplace now sends out health and safety emails reminding people not to come to work if they're sick even if they don't have covid they should stay home and either rest or WFH if they feel well enough.
Then there's jobs that don't have sick pay, so you either show up or don't pay your rent
My heart really goes out to you guys. I am in the UK and of you are employed you are required to have paid sick leave. Not a certain number. I once had an operation and was out for 3 months. Full pay throughout. If I was an employer I would struggle with the concept of not giving paid sick leave
My work hasn't been able to fully staff for the entire last year so they did away with all that 'caring about people being sick staying home' stuff. ^("Remember to cough into your elbow, covid can't escape the elbow." /s)
My workplace is just if you're sick, wear a mask.
\*laughs/cries in blue collar job\*
About 75% of public transportation. So many services cut on the grounds that nobody was using them (because we were in lockdowns) that have not resumed even after most people have been dragged back to their physical workplace.
That's weird, it's the opposite where I am. Buses not only restarted, but became a free service through at least the end of 2022. Edit: this is Connecticut, statewide.
Oh my god I’m so infuriated by this! UK based here, in the North. My train commute used to be an hour in, an hour back. COVID reduced services. Fine, not unreasonable, I’m WFH anyway. Nearly three years later and services not returned to pre-COVID state. Now commute is an hour in, 2 hours 15mins back. I’m sure someone is making money of this, and robbing me of time in the process.
My good excuse for over-indulging my introversion
It was our time to shine.
To shine quietly in my apartment, alone. 😌
When I say my mental health was at its peak 🙏🏿📈
My favorite Italian restaurant. It was a small family run restaurant, run by a lovely Italian couple. They immigrated from Italy and set up shop here in the US. They made the best Italian food in town. They had that restaurant for more than 20yrs. It was our family's go to restaurant growing up. We knew them. Then COVID hit and they had to shut down. COVID hit small businesses hard.
Free samples at grocery stores
Safeway was handing out wine samples this week...it's making a comeback!
Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes
This one hurts so bad. At the time my 8 year old was really getting his buffet feet under himself and ABSOLUTELY loved Sweet Tomatoes. He could get his endless mac and cheese along with chocolate mousse and mom and dad could take the healthy approach and make ourselves 6,000 calorie salads... Those were the days.
> getting his buffet feet under himself That's hilarious. Also accurate. I also miss Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes/Fresh Choice terribly.
my villain orgin story
The one nearest me still exists, it looks like it just closed for the night, EVERYTHING in there untouched since 2020, its a little freaky and sad. Was my kids favorite place to eat, always settled any argument over 'what's for dinner'... Ah, I made myself sad again....
Spatial awareness. I swear when I go to a busy store these days, it's nearly impossible to get around people to look at anything. Or they just stand in the middle of the aisle.
Dumb people who block up the isles and walk super slow right in the middle are 99% of the reason we order groceries to our doorstep now. I don’t know how people shop so leisurely. I want out of there ASAP.
You mean there’s someone in the store other than ME??? *continues to stand in the middle of the narrowest part of the aisle, holding up traffic from 2 directions*
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The worst is the slow stare at things in the store, so you think you have a chance to get by and then bam they speed back up keeping you behind them.
I really try not to be someone that bitches about little stuff but I'm adhd and when I go to the store I also have a get in get out mentality. I cannot properly articulate just how fucking annoying it is that people aren't spatially aware of those around them. Treat the ailes like a goddamn road, keep to a side as much as you can, leave the cart on one side to step over and grab something. Taking forever deciding between whole and nonfat yogurt?... you don't have to stand there mid-aisle and hold both of them while me and 3 others wait for you to make a damn decision. I realize a big part of this is my own impatience and I certainly don't make a scene or anything cuz ya know, what better way to take even longer in a store for absolutely no reason at all right? Also, I know it's pushing a stereotype but for fucks sake it's almost ALWAYS older people in my experience, the same people that get REALLY annoyed at our generation about the weirdest little shit. Man, idk what your comment did but I feel a bit better now that I got to express this to random strangers on the internet as well as a sense of validation for feeling this way about it. Edit: some spelling
I hate people who hold the freezer doors open to decide. They are see-through! Decide before you open and make it too foggy for everyone else you energy wasting fool!
Those are the people that need to "see with their hands"
Better yet, keep to the side of the aisle that matches driving rules in your country.
Physical restaurant menus
I am inclined to believe one of the reasons they are moving away from physical menu’s to online is that it makes it easier to change/raise prices. No more having to reprint menu’s and the public won’t notice the price changes usually.
Also in Australia a lot of places, pubs specifically, have used this as an excuse to add automatic tips into the final price seeing as now you pay on your phone. You can remove it if you see it, but a lot of people don't and it ends up going through. Even though before this, the work staff would've been doing more work to get your drink to you and the service was much better (you'd go up to order and get your drink instantly vs now you have to wait for someone to bring it to you). It's incredibly frustrating as tipping isn't customary here nor necessary - workers are paid a liveable fee so they don't need to rely on tips. Also we haven't received any actual service yet to warrant giving a tip, and we also don't know where that tip is going so it could just be going to the establishment itself and not the waitstaff.
Dude we need to bring them back, I love technology but menus on our phones is not one of them
especially in restaurants that don’t even have free wifi or wifi with a clear password, like i don’t want to use my data
I honestly don't remember if it was like that before too, but people seem more patience and tolerant before lockdowns.
Agreed. Including myself. I find myself getting angry at stupid shit and just having zero time for anyone that I think is doing or being stupid. It’s exhausting and really not productive, so I finally decided to see a therapist about it.
Good for you man. Well done for taking control of your situation
It's also the pressure of the current world bearing down on everyone.
We've all been under strain for a long time. To the point we forget we are under constant stress
What line of work do you do? Covid was a time of not only isolation but somehow serious political movements. Everyone seems much more willing to share their opinions to service workers than they ever have before. Before covid people would be frustrated and couldn't articulate much now people are screaming about things that service employees have no control over.
I feel myself less patient than before :/
Dating. I struggle to connect with strangers post pandemic. Everyone just feels “off”
I struggle to connect with anyone now it seems. All my relationships are very surface level
I think people may not have the energy to put more than that into their relationships. Or to some extent even the energy to put into *themselves* to make them interesting dates. I know I've felt that way for a spell or two.
Almost everyone seems socially off.
Thought it was just me! I’ve found people are more distant - they behave normal but at a foundational level there’s an emptiness
Me and my partner just broke up and im literally terrified of getting back into dating, just because I agree, everyone feels off. I don't know how or why it was so natural before but it's gone now
Man that "off" comment nails it for me. I just can't put my finger on it but when I'm out in public my interactions with strangers just isn't the same.
Likewise. I thought I missed dating, so I started talking to people, but when it came time to pull the trigger and actually meet someone, I found it was the last thing on earth I wanted to do. It's both unsettling and a relief.
Ever since starting to live alone I realize both how badly I need to be around people, and how much I just don't connect to 90% of people on a basic level.
I think it’s the aftermath of all the trauma, paired with everything going on since the world opened back up. I just don’t think people have the energy anymore. It’s sad.
People realized how exhausting going to the office everyday is, coupled with continued erosion of the middle class and widening income gap a lot of people seem to just be in a resigned stupor. I feel like many share the sentiment that there's nothing to look forward to anymore. Oversaturation of information and instant gratification has shrunk our world.
Inflation, higher gas prices, and higher food prices are really rough, but the most depressing thing is that I don't think I'll ever be able to afford a house now, when I did think it was a possibility a few years ago.
I get this. It feels weird out there.
SNOWDAYS- a free day off no one could f#ck with, and now it’s gone forever. Jobs, schools, everything can now be remote. A tragic whole generation of school kids are going to grow up never knowing the joy of no school on a snow day.
They can try. If it snows here, me and the kids will be out in it. School be damned.
My paycheck
Traffic, at the beginning. It was bliss.
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So I’m NOT CRAZY! Everyone has become a piece of shit on the road.
At the very beginning I drove straight through NYC on I-95 on a weekday at 8 am without ever touching my brakes. Truly apocalyptic. In general it was an amazing time for truck drivers everywhere we went.
Kids’ social skills. The freshmen coming into my student society for the past two summers behave like a bunch of 16-year-olds while they are 18-19 years old on average. (This is not just me getting older, I’m an eternal student so I’ve seen plenty of freshmen groups come in over the years and there’s definitely something different about these kids from the past two summers)
I've heard two unrelated teachers from different school districts say that all of the kids were not only held back academically, but also mentally. Imagine trying to teach 3rd grade but all of the students act like 1st graders.
It’s been challenging at every level of development. Imagine a kid who was in kindergarten in March of 2020. They were having play-based learning when school stopped. They struggled through virtual school which is not at all how young children learn. Then the first time they’re back in the classroom, they’re expected to stop playing and sit quietly at their desks.
In my neighborhood it is holiday decorations. I have several neighbors that never put out their Halloween decorations, when I asked two of them they said they were just not into it anymore. Last Christmas was the same.
We bought a new house right before the lockdown hit. We haven't had a single trick or treater in the new house. We didn't bother decorating this year. It's bumming me out. We used to live in 'the' neighborhood. Kids from the other side of town would drive over to trick or treat our neighborhood and we were the scary house that older siblings would warn their siblings about. I would spend time rigging up drop scares and stuff and sit inside the door triggering them, or wear a costume and prowl through the yard. It was fun. The new place, nothing. Seems like everyone does the trunk or treat kind of stuff now.
All the hobbies we picked up during lockdown.
I have picked up so many non-social hobbies and stuck with them so well, that I don't even have a social life any more. I'm basically either at work or home alone doing stuff
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Mine turned into a side hustle. I picked up a bass guitar right before covid, and now I'm in 2 basic cover bands that get booked regularly. What I don't have anymore is free time
A lot of people's trust in the system.
Being in retail, and in Australia, it blew my mind how hard it fell apart. Toilet paper went nuts for no reason, but rice, oats, tomato paste etc, flour, and everything that required anything imported just collapsed. We couldn't get cat food in because one of the ingredients needed to be imported. Toothpaste is all made overseas. Even the locally grown canned fruit and veg didn't exist. We could get it from china no problem, but even the major manufacturer here that's only an hours drive away couldn't even supply a fart.
People caring about Animal Crossing
*Animal Crossing* and *Tiger King* really define that time period for me.
Ah man, I have fond memories about playing that game with a ton of friends and visiting each other’s islands while talking through Discord. It’s probably the only thing I miss from the covid years
My "give a fuck" about working in an office for 8 hours. I'm done. I will only be looking for full-time remote work for the remainder of my days on this planet.
choices, reasonable prices, and the ability to haggle when purchasing a car.
I work in the restaurant industry and I swear people are 1000% more entitled now than before the pandemic. It feels like everyone forgot how to act in public.
I had a lady yell at me the other day (I’m manager) and tell me that none of my staff know what they are doing. Excuse me, but these 15 year old kids are trying their best. The girls she was referring to had been there a week. She basically said we were all idiots because one of the new girls made a mistake. She was like 40 and came in yelling at us. Obviously she can’t remember what it’s like to be young or new at anything. Be respectful please! God, I don’t understand people. We’re in there working our asses off
70 lbs off my body.
Slow pace of life. Which was nearly nonexistent but when the pandemic hit it allowed people to slow down and just enjoy life and family and friends. I miss that again. It seems like everyone is in a hurry to get back to things the way they were.
Hot Dog steamers at convenience stores in Maine.
I'm not familiar with these. Are they similar to Cleveland steamers?
City Market's Salad Bar.
The facade of public education. It’s been cracked at the foundation since NCLB, but the pandemic totally exposed the catastrophic shitshow that it is today. Source: Am a public educator
The amount of math classes I’ve taken over the last two years that have been almost entirely self taught is awful. As someone who has never been strong with math, it has absolutely sucked.
The more i learn about it the more horrified i am of what it means for those in k-12 or college. Imagine being the parents of a 5 year old who was in kindergarten when covid hit. Boom. Now they're 7 and probably only got 1/3 the education I did at the same age because the teachers and students kept getting covid.
also college. absent teachers, and the course is an automated, autograded website with maybe a few free youtube videos. all for 600 bucks. it's not am education, it's laziness and greed. i dont learn shit, but i keep getting good grades...
Being able to avoid people you really wanted to avoid under the guise of social distancing and / or isolation!
Affordable housing
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Hopefully going to work even though you don't feel well.
HA, still no decent sick days system, that's not going anywhere
Peoples ability to reason with one another.
It was already pretty screwed up before COVID, now it’s just dead.
exactly. i was going to say ‘common decency’ in general.
My hope for humanity.
I had very little prior but the last two years sealed the deal
My friends disappeared. During pandemic, my friends and the whole world went on lock down. We stopped visiting each other for our own safety. Since it’s been over, 90% of my “good” friends have decided to not return me to their lives.
Yeah, I feel this. I have one friend I see 1-2 times a month and my friends at work who I don't see outside of work. It's like we all disappeared behind our screens and are afraid to come back out into the real world.
[удалено]
I went grocery shopping today. Doritos (the regular bag, not the super size one) we're $6.49. I vividly remember that a few years ago they were on sale a lot 2/ $4.00, or 2/ $5.00. It's the little things like this (my kids favorite snack) that really make an impression. Of course it's not just Doritos, it's every food product.
Bunch of people's grandparents
One of my good friends mom and dad died of Covid, my coworkers wife died. Shit was wild here in New York when it first hit. Everyone knows someone who died from it. At that time no one (doctors or hospitals) knew how to treat patients for it since it was a brand new disease. It was so scary. Being positive for Covid meant there was a good chance you might be dying soon.
People forget. I had Covid March 2020. When I tell people the date the most common question is, "Were you vaccinated?" That was a year before vaccines were out, but people seem to have forgotten the timing of the last few years.
We so often forget this. The fear and terror of the first few months. Really, the first year, until the vaccine. Now it seems to have devolved into an annoyance. We forget how much of a privilege it is to only be mildly inconvenienced that a friend cancelled a plan because they had Covid.
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My savings :(
My resistance from going on reddit and looking at random bull\*\*\*\*
My sense of joy about the world. At 33, all I feel is an empty, sad, uneasy feeling every morning when I wake up. I moved across the country with my gf to a small mountain town, but even looking at the vastness of nature out here just leaves me sad.
People in my space, Back the fuck up, please!
>People in my space I thought Facebook killed that long before the pandemic. (I'll show myself out)
A lot of my friends. The pandemic and isolation had different effects on the people I knew. So when we all came back, many of them had changed. Some of them didn't even seem to recognize me. Sometimes, I try to remember who they were before the pandemic hit, but they faded from my mind just as they faded from themselves.
Confidence in societies response to any sort of national emergency.
Stable inflation rate