For years I assumed I was just getting old, and that everything only felt worse because my standards had hardened like a forgotten cracker. Then my new car offered me a monthly plan for heated seats it already had, and I realized it wasn’t me. Companies making things worse is less a vibe than a strategy, rolled out one smaller roll, one new subscription, one missing feature at a time. I’ve kept the receipts, figuratively, since paper ones probably cost extra now.
Three dollars of battery, ninety-six dollars of vibes.
Dad has time for one cheeseburger and zero QR codes.
Point at a picture and hope.
Your pans were an inside job.
Download the app to wash your socks.
Chapter 12, brought to you by our sponsor.
Asking the hard questions, getting no good answers.
Finders keepers is a felony now, apparently.
Pay us to skip the thing we used to skip for free.
Breakups are hard, especially with your printer.
Wash your hands and watch this ad.
Collect them all, forever, at full price.
Peak tentacle technology.
Not a doctor, but that brain looks bored.
Your memories, now available monthly.
Same price, fewer squares, more fear.
You bought it. You just don't own it.
Eggs priced by the weather. Cool.
Sorry, the door is updating.
Thin sponge summer, every summer.
Somebody unplugged the fun.
Chicken strips, some assembly required.
It was never ours, was it?
Same castle, different mortgage.
Fridge sold separately, apparently.
Twenty registers, one cashier.
My dishwasher app wants to talk football.
Serving suggestion, emphasis on suggestion.
Whole fruit got demoted to fruit.
This bandage needs a bandage.
Companies making things worse
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The part that gets me isn’t even the price, it’s the rental agreement hiding inside everything I thought I bought. A DVR that wants extra money to skip ads it used to skip for free, a console deleting movies people paid for, a printer that sulks when you cancel. Subscription fatigue used to mean too many streaming apps, and now my appliances have opinions about my billing cycle. I miss when a toaster just wanted bread.
The shrinkflation examples are quieter, which somehow makes them worse. Nobody announces that the sponge got thinner or that the bag of chicken strips is now mostly crumbs, they just hope you’re too tired to notice, and usually I am. I once bought the same ice cream cone twice in one week, convinced I’d imagined the first one looking sad. I hadn’t. The second one was sadder.
Then there’s the advertising, which has crawled into places that used to feel sacred, like library books and the three feet of wall above a bathroom sink. Corporate greed memes keep circling the same punchline because it keeps happening: every quiet surface is a billboard waiting for a sponsor. I am one QR code menu away from cooking at home forever, which, honestly, might be what they want.
I think this stuff spreads because it finally gives people proof of a feeling. You always suspected the toilet paper roll looked smaller, you just never had a side by side photo to hold up in court. Every one of these posts is somebody laying the receipts on the table, and the comment section turns into a support group for people who aren’t crazy, just paying attention.
There’s something oddly comforting in all the grumbling, too. None of us can personally fix battery pricing or bring back the old jungle themed play area, but we can all agree, loudly and together, that it used to be better and that we noticed. That’s not nothing. Collective eye rolling might be the last thing nobody has figured out how to charge us for, at least until next quarter.
The box got smaller. The price got bigger. The receipts got posted.
If you’ve still got some steam to let out, our shrinkflation examples will have you weighing your groceries, the worst business decisions roundup proves this has been going on for ages, and our bad ads gallery shows corporate oversight at its most relaxed. There’s also a set of companies trying to be cool, if you’d like to cringe on top of being annoyed. No subscription required. For now.
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Alex Thompson has been chronicling internet culture and meme phenomena for nearly seven years. Starting at CollegeHumor and later becoming lead meme editor at Mashable, Alex has covered everything from vintage internet memes like Rickrolling to recent viral events such as Corn Kid and Grimace Shake. With a keen eye for what connects and entertains digital audiences, Alex writes with humor, relatability, and deep knowledge of online culture. At Thunder Dungeon, Alex is the go-to source for meme analysis, viral breakdowns, and internet nostalgia.
Inflation alone says that Disney ticket should be about $30.
Some can be added as I’m sure more value exists in the park today, but the actual increase is robbery.