Certain items have lost their value over time due to technological advancements, environmental concerns, and changing consumer preferences. Knowing what these items are can help you save money and make better choices when shopping. Here are 19 products that are no longer worth buying.
Cable TV
“Streaming has surpassed cable as America’s most-watched viewing platform,” says NBC. People opt for streaming services over cable TV, as they offer more flexibility and content for less money. With cable TV, you can be locked into a contract, and their bundles often mean you pay for channels you don’t watch.
Landlines
Smartphones have long overtaken landline phones in popularity, as they provide many more features beyond simply making and receiving phone calls. Mobile phone plans can also be cheaper than maintaining a landline, so why would you stick to an outdated landline?
Traditional Watches
Despite traditional watches being a stylish fashion accessory and often being a symbol of wealth, the trends are changing, and they are declining in popularity. Smartwatches are taking over, offering multiple functions, such as health tracking and notifications, on top of telling the time.
CDs and DVDs
You probably have a stack of DVDs or CDs gathering dust somewhere in your home. Streaming and digital downloads are much more convenient, as they don’t take up physical space like your CDs and DVDs. Producing and disposing of CDs and DVDs also negatively impacts the environment.
Desktop Computers
Forbes said the desktop “is on its deathbed” a decade ago, so by now, desktop computers should be a distant memory! The large, unportable desktop was replaced by laptops and tablets a long time ago due to their versatility and portability.
Textbooks
Textbooks are no longer worth your money, as they have started to be phased out in an effort to help the environment. Paperless alternatives like e-books and online resources are the new way to learn, being better for the environment and often cheaper.
Fax Machines
The mighty fax machine belongs in a museum! This item fell out of favor a long time ago, being replaced by email and digital document services. Fax machines were also notorious for breaking down and being difficult to maintain, so good riddance!
Digital Cameras
We probably take more pictures these days than we ever have before, but we’re no longer using digital cameras to do so! The camera quality on smartphones has gotten so good that it’s beginning to make digital cameras unnecessary.
Manual Tools
Manual tools require a lot of physical effort and time, so when power tools became available, everybody quickly dropped their manual tools in favor of these. Power tools use less manpower and allow us to save time and physical effort.
Incandescent Lights
LED bulbs are the popular alternative to incandescent lights now, as they have a longer lifespan, are much more efficient, and are, therefore, much cheaper. “Incandescent light bulbs are very inefficient in their use of electricity, and they are gradually being phased out for environmental reasons,” The Spruce informs us.
Gift Cards
Gift cards can be sweet gifts, but many people would rather just receive money! Gift cards can also be pretty limited, with restrictions on where you can spend them. There’s also the issue of gift card funds being left unused or partially used, making you miss out on the money!
Single-Use Batteries
The demand for single-use batteries is quickly dwindling, and they may not be worth your money anymore. Devices with built-in rechargeable batteries are taking the world by storm, as they’re more cost-effective and less harmful to the environment than single-use batteries.
Printers
At one point, almost everyone had a printer in their home. However, digital documents and cloud storage have removed the need for physical copies to be printed. The cost of using a printer also racks up with printer ink, paper, and maintenance expenses.
Alarm Clocks
As much as we all hate being woken up by an alarm, an alarm clock used to be an essential item. But now that our smartphones have everything we need, including an alarm, there’s no point in having a separate device for waking up.
Address Books
Gone are the days when you wrote down everyone’s address in a book that you ended up losing anyway! Along with everything else, our phones are now the home of our contacts and addresses. It’s so much easier to update and more efficient and secure!
Checkbooks
According to The Washington Post, “most Americans (57 percent in 2020 and 2021) have not written a check in the past month, and even those who write them do so rarely.” Digital payment methods like online banking and mobile payment apps are the way forward.
Paper Maps
There’s no need to squint at paper maps to read tiny place names or turn the massive paper map around in your hands so it’s facing the right way anymore. GPS and digital maps are far more convenient, even providing real-time traffic updates or route changes as you go.
VCRs and VHS Tapes
VCRs and VHS tapes are so outdated that some people wouldn’t even know they existed! These artifacts can even be difficult to find now since DVDs, Blu-rays, and eventually streaming took over. They’re definitely no longer worth spending your money on.
Encyclopedias
Who remembers the episode of Friends where Joey can only afford to buy one Volume of the Encyclopedia? I’m not sure encyclopedias were ever worth your money, given how expensive they could be, but they’re definitely not worth it now! The internet has everything you need to know.
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