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Buzz Feed
20 hours ago
- Business
- Buzz Feed
21 Everyday Items That Became Total Rip-Offs in 2025
If you're feeling like you get less for your money these days, you're very much not alone. Recently, people on Reddit called out things that used to be "worth it" that have gotten worse and worse over time so that now they're total rip-offs, and I agreed with so many of them. Here are some of the top comments: "Fast food. It's only marginally cheaper than going to a restaurant." —UDPviper"Fast food used to be a cheap option when you didn't feel like lives have gotten so much busier that cooking at home has become a luxury for many because of the time food chains have caught on to this, and you now pay for a convenience meal, instead of a cheap meal."—TheColJohnRambo "Netflix." "A trip to Vegas used to be great value for money. Everything was cheap. Rooms were dirt cheap, and buffets were like $7.99 a person. And cocktails were free if you were gambling. And resort fees didn't exist. Now, Vegas is just a giant rip-off. Nothing there is cheap anymore. What a shame." "Going to the movie theater. You can easily have a huge flat-screen TV and surround sound system at home for less than $500, and most movies are available on streaming within a month of release. I took my daughter to watch Lilo and Stitch in the theater last month, and two tickets plus refreshments were about $60! And three weeks later, that movie is already on Disney+." —Kingsnake417 "TicketMaster. When it started, it was cool; for a small fee, you could buy concert tickets from outlets instead of at the box office. Then suddenly, you had to pay the fee even when you went to the box office! Now it's just a fee (not small) that you have to pay regardless, and for that fee you get… nothing." "Pharmaceutical companies that advertise on TV, like you can just ask doctors for a prescription, when in fact, insurance companies have to approve it, especially when one dose can cost tens of thousands of dollars." "Any home appliance: vacuums, fridges, blenders, etc. Everything is made to break now, so you have to repurchase and spend more money." —Designer_Position_79 "The inflated cost of online courses without real content. It used to be a new way of learning, now it is often a marketing scam." "Airbnb. It's now getting more expensive than booking a hotel room with breakfast." "Diamonds. It used to be relatively hard to find them, but now we can just make them. Totally worthless." —Hiro_Trevelyan "Bitcoin." "Food trucks. It used to be great food at (relatively) cheap prices, but it has completely flipped on its head. It is now mediocre food at exorbitant prices." "Hot Cheetos and other chips. Used to be able to get a large bag for $2.29. Now they are around 6-7 bucks for a smaller bag and fewer chips." —ToshDaBoss "Health insurance. It was really beneficial for the insurer, but now it's nothing but a scam. Just giving you a false sense of security." "VIP tickets at music festivals. You used to get an open bar, food, and the best view. I just went to a festival on an 'Ultra VIP' ticket, which was extra expensive. No free drinks, no food, and the viewing platform was overcrowded. It's like that with everything. As soon as a big corporation has a hand in it, everything turns to shit. Things not only get more expensive, but the service/products become shittier by the day." "Dating sites. Man, do they suck." —goishen "Selling on eBay. The fees are nuts versus 10 years ago." "Doing rideshare gigs." "Airline tickets. You used to get meals, checked bags, decent legroom, and actual service. Now you pay double for half of that, and they'll still try to upsell you on a window seat. Feels like getting scammed at 35,000 feet." —VanshikaWrites "Store memberships. You get an insignificant discount for trading your information and habits to brokers. Your privacy is worth more than a few dollars." And finally, "The school photo industry. Back before digital cameras, when it took effort to take amazing photos and then get them developed, it might make sense to splash out on a nice photo of your student once a year or at graduation. Now? Incredibly expensive prices for a printout or digital copy of a photo, often no better than can be taken on your phone. Sure, the school photo is nice, but $80 for a copy? Hard pass." Is there anything you would add? Tell me all about it in the comments or via the anonymous form below:
Buzz Feed
5 days ago
- General
- Buzz Feed
Restaurant Staff Share Strangest Customer Requests
One should always have respect for the service industry, but maybe even more so after reading these stories. In r/AskReddit, someone asked, "What's the weirdest thing a customer has ever confidently asked for in a restaurant like it was totally normal?" The responses rolled in, and there were more than a few interesting concoctions and even wilder requests. Here's what people had to say: "Buddy of mine worked at Red Lobster. Customer ordered 'salmon steak.' Customer was very upset that he was served fish." —hymie0 "At a Tex-Mex restaurant, someone asked for cheese nachos without the chips. Yes, they received a plate of shredded cheese microwaved onto a plate. Yes, they used the free appetizer chips to eat that cheese." "I went to London with my Mom. She asked for ranch at EVERY RESTAURANT, EVERY DAY, just in case the answer would change. After the first few tries, it became clear ranch wasn't a thing in London, but some servers had heard of it and said it was on their bucket list to try." —TicketNo23 "I was working at a TCBY, and this fancy older gentleman — he was Italian with gold chains, a deep tan, an open shirt, and an equally fancy lady with him — asked to buy a 'painting' we had hanging on the wall. This wasn't a special painting. It was probably what they send to all TCBY stores when they open. I asked my manager, and she haggled a bit, and in the end, he got it. They got their froyo, pulled the painting off the wall, and in the most outrageous Italian accent, he said, while walking out the door, 'When I see something I like, I BUY IT!' I still quote that guy all the time." "I worked at a McDonald's next door to an Arby's. At least once a month, someone would pull into the drive-thru and try to order a roast beef sandwich, or even better, come inside and stare at the menu before asking, 'Where are your roast beef sandwiches?'" "I was at a café in Paris, France, and two American dudes were at a table next to me. One guy ordered a French toast, and I knew what was coming. The girl gave him a weird look and went back to the kitchen. She came back with toast. He was bewildered at first, then got mad. I was dying laughing." —UDPviper"My father is Italian, where they like to drink cold coffee (espresso with ice cubes). In Germany, in many regions, 'cold coffee' is a drink that's a mix of Fanta and Cola."—LutschiPutschi "I had a customer when I worked in a pub order a drink that was half Guinness, half Coca-Cola. Apparently, it was a thing where she was from in Germany." "As a flight attendant, tomato and orange no ice. I poured them into separate cups, and got the nastiest look as if I was serving them with my fingers sticking into the rims. I was wrong. He wanted airplane-temperature, warm, canned orange juice mixed with tomato juice, no ice. My bad." —ReasonableGatekeep"As a mile-high tomato drinker, stuff tastes different on airplanes. Tomato juice on the ground is pretty gross, but on a plane, it's refreshing. Tonic water is pretty good on a plane, too."—pinkmeanie"Hi! My time to shine. I have a PhD in aircraft cabin design. So, at high noise levels, combined with low pressure, your taste buds for 'umami' are heightened. Tomato juice tastes the best on an aircraft due to this fact."—GaeloneForYouSir "Jäegermeister with milk. I tried it afterwards. It surprisingly works." "I once had an older guy order a New York strip, medium rare. It came out perfectly medium rare. He cut into it and gasped, 'It's bloody!' I restated that he ordered medium rare. 'I know what I ordered, but I don't want no damn blood in it!' He wanted it well done. But in his mind, that was medium rare. I had it recooked to well done, and he loved it. I still wonder what he thought well done was. Burnt?" —TheKaptinKirk "She only ate food that was white." "I had a lady ask to make her eggs 'shipwrecked.' When I questioned what that meant, she didn't really have an answer. She settled on something else, but I still have no idea what she actually wanted. I can only imagine the cussing I would have gotten from the cooks for putting that order through. I'm Canadian, maybe it's just not a Canadian thing? Or not part of my neck of the woods, anyway." "When I was a little kid, I ordered popcorn chicken and cried when I didn't, in fact, get popcorn." "I once worked at a stand that sold burgers and hot dogs. This one guy wanted peanut butter and jelly on his hot dog, in addition to slaw, chili, onions, mustard, and ketchup. We happened to have some there, so I got it for him. He said it was the best thing ever." —waitingforsandwiches "The bones off of other people's plates to make soup." "As someone who worked in sushi restaurants for the better part of a decade, you will never believe the number of people who get mad when you serve them raw fish. At the sushi restaurant." "Vegan mussels." " dirty. I was in the service bar and walked out to the table to absolutely make sure the server heard the order properly. The guy had four of them. And it's even more vile than it sounds." —Affectionate_Elk_272 "A customer brought in a small cooler of fish he'd caught recently, and wanted us to cook it for him." And finally, "A straw for their New England clam chowder." —fierysunrise Any wild requests you've seen or heard from diners? (Or, do you have any of your own?) Let us know in the comments!
