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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Heather Timmons

Not your imagination: from backpacks to food, consumer goods are getting worse

Shoppers walk along a retail corridor.
Wary consumers have noticed a trend in the ‘enshittification’ of products and services. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

When Keyana Sapp, 31, went shopping for a new backpack, the brands he remembered as a kid were just not the same.

He researched the companies, from North Face to JanSport and Eastpak, and soon realized they were all owned by the VF Corporation after a wave of acquisitions in the 2000s. After a Reddit post he made about his discovery picked up traction, he started looking at other types of consumer goods – cookware, shoes, tools, clothing.

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