things you just can't go into a store and buy anymore (abe simpson crotchety old man thread)

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i've been looking in several stores for an empty plastic bottle with a spray nozzle (to water the leaves on my plants). i didn't want to buy a supersoaker, and i didn't want to buy a bottle of cleaning liquid and rinse it out. i just wanted to pay like a dollar or two dollars for a medium-sized empty spray bottle. but i broke down and spent $7 on an "o2-cool squeeze breeze water misting fan." $7 isn't going to put me on welfare, but IT'S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING.

this thread isn't about stuff you can buy over the internet; it's for seemingly regular/everyday items you just can't find in your area, even in all-purpose stores like target.

― intensity in tent cities (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:45 (nineteen years ago)

where are you? i would have no problem finding such a thing.

― otto midnight (otto midnight), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

los angeles

― intensity in tent cities (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

They banned those in Los Angeles because schoolkids were filling them with spray-on tan.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:50 (nineteen years ago)

it's for crap like this that i'm forever thankful for the hardware store on western ave. just south of the empty bottle. it's an entire store filled with things you can't imagine anyone would ever buy until you find yourself needing, i don't know, a metric ratchet set, a machete, a can of sterno, and a hula hoop.

― otto midnight (otto midnight), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:50 (nineteen years ago)

hmmm maybe go to a different megalomart with a nursery in it for better odds, odd you didn't find it nonetheless - target's kinda skimpy anyhow on those fronts. maybe just get a water pistol for multitasking advantage.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

machetes ain't as common as they used to be

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

stereo Hi8 cameras.
I broke mine and need another to dupes all my tapes, but they only seem to come in mono now.

― Total Fucking Darkness (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

machetes ain't as common as they used to be

yes, and the opportunity to use one in the middle of chicago is shrinking every day. but i'm still glad i know where to get one just in case.

― otto midnight (otto midnight), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

roses in little tubes ;)

― lord pooperton (ex machina), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:57 (nineteen years ago)

Don't you have a Dollar store nearby?

― LeRooLeRoo (Seb), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 20:42 (nineteen years ago)

i looked in the sav-on (discount drugstore), which is close enough.

― intensity in tent cities (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

I was looking all over the place for a spray bottle like that. No luck at target, grocery, drugstores, bedbathbeyond&things. I was in the restaurant supply/weird bulk grocery place though, and they had ONE left.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

Smart and Final might have those bottles, but you may have to buy three at a time or something. I have three (red, green, and blue tops) that I bought somewhere.

x-post

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 20:58 (nineteen years ago)

ask a barber

― lord pooperton (ex machina), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

where in LA are you JBR?

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

machetes ain't as common as they used to be

we've got a pretty serious one in our apartment. my friend's ex was a weirdo.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:15 (nineteen years ago)

WebTV

― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:18 (nineteen years ago)

webtv you so can buy

― lord pooperton (ex machina), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:18 (nineteen years ago)

most big hardware stores have these

― eatadick.com (Carey), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:19 (nineteen years ago)

spray bottle

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:20 (nineteen years ago)

webtv you so can buy

really? thats amazing.

― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

So I can get the internet...on my television.

― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

you can even control the intensity, intensity.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

"MSNTV"

― lord pooperton (ex machina), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

codpieces

― Binjominia (Brilhante), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:23 (nineteen years ago)

Sony MiniDisc players, dammit (even the actual Sony Store told me they dont sell MD players anymore. Damn you iPod).

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 01:49 (nineteen years ago)

i think i saw a machete at mallwart for seven dollars. great way to lose an ear.

― kephm (kephm), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 02:33 (nineteen years ago)

Sudafed with pseudoephedrine. Sudafed PE is for shit. I mean you can still purchase it, but with plenty of hassle, so you can't "just go into a store" to procure it. Scoring real pseudoephedrine is like scoring the meth that authorities are trying to stop--it feels illicit and purchasing it makes you feel like you really got away with something.

Last time I successfully purchased* the real thing I had to go to the pharmacy counter, ask for it, proceed to a part of the counter where I could see the products, but it was glassed in, so the pharmacist and I had to yell to hear one another ("DO YOU HAVE THE 96-PACK?! THE NINETY SIX PACK!!!!"). Once hollered negotiations were through I had to produce my driver's license and fill out a form with my name and address and signature.

*successfully purchased-- there have been unsuccessful attempts. There was the one time that the clerk handed me the PE shit; the time the pharmacy itself was closed, and no employee including the manager was allowed to sell the product; and the time I was at a convenience store where all they had was PE.

― dissonance in the divine accord (unclejessjess), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 04:35 (nineteen years ago)

I myself had a problem finding a spray bottle in NYC until I got one at a florist.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 05:26 (nineteen years ago)

Those thingies you put on the turntable for playing those 7" singles with big holes in them.

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 06:01 (nineteen years ago)

DIDI 7

― ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ (chaki), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 06:03 (nineteen years ago)

Cinnamon-flavoured chewing gum

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 06:16 (nineteen years ago)

"Real pseudoephedrine" chortle.

Last time I was home I had an insufferable sinus cold and no access to Sudafed, which I use as sparingly as possible so it works when I do need it. My mum and sister ran around to try to get me some with no joy whatsoever so the cold lasted FOREVER.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 06:30 (nineteen years ago)

I found empty spray bottles int he $1 trial size/travel size section in Target, next to the mini shampoos.

I had found ones previously at dollar stores.

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

Sudafed is crap now. Phenylephedrine just isn't the same as pseudoephedrine. It doesn't work. They've stopped selling Triogesic tablets as well...

Hang on --- you can still get Sudafed PE from places??? Where!?

― Andrew Munro (andyboyo), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 13:50 (nineteen years ago)

Sudafed PE is the fake phenyl stuff, I thought. I have to go back to the pharmacy counter anyway to get my allergy crap so I just cheerily ask for their largest box of generic sudafed possible so that I don't have to keep coming back. Kind of lame to show your driver's license just to get the stuff, though.

I wish I could get cola with cane sugar without tracking down Coke imported from Mexico.

― mike h. (mike h.), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 14:05 (nineteen years ago)

from this thread: sony

Sony implemented a lowpass on MP3 playback, which could make MP3 sound dull in comparison to ATRAC. Some users say that this was done in hopes of fooling listeners that ATRAC is superior to MP3 to trap their music in ATRAC format.

― lord pooperton (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 14:12 (nineteen years ago)

JBR - ive seen those at dollar tree but, if LA doesnt have those, try a beauty supply store. hairdressers use them to spritz or something.

― sunny successor (katharine), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

Found I couldn't buy a portable CD player in a UK high street a month or so back.

You also get a lot of pressure to buy 'non-drowsy' cough medicines here, which I find useless if I actually want to stop coughing. You have to ask for pholcodein, and ignore the dirty looks.

― Soukesian (Soukesian), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

you guys are missing the part where i said I ALREADY BASICALLY FOUND ONE

― intensity in tent cities (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 16:36 (nineteen years ago)

Cinnamon-flavoured chewing gum?

This is all over the place!

― Damn, Atreyu! (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

VHS tapes of "classic films"

I actually gave a speech in my Speech class a couple years ago about the difficulty of trying to get a store to order a tape that WAS in print, but wasn't (and still isn't) otherwise available on DVD. ("We can order a DVD." "It isn't out. If it was, I wouldn't be talking to to you about ordering it. I'd have it already!") They wouldn't order it, so instead of keeping my money in the community, I went to Amazon.

― Chairman Doinel (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

i have this spray bottle - it's from japan.

http://stonelantern.com/images/watering/T-81301.jpg

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 17:50 (nineteen years ago)

[i]I wish I could get cola with cane sugar without tracking down Coke imported from Mexico.[/i]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001BVO9Y/qid=1150314543/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/002-4453380-9882455?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=3584901&s=gourmet-food&v=glance

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 18:49 (nineteen years ago)

sorry...temporarilly forgot how to do quotes....

The "need ID for Sudafed" thing just started in Vermont, which is friggin' stupid as NOBODY here does meth. But, you know, it's the true solution to ending the meth epidemic--because god knows that nobody uses cocaine after they took it out of Coca Cola or opiates after they took them out of cough syrup & Bayer....

On a related note, it kills me that you can't get codeine OTC. The AC&Cs (acetominophen, caffeine & codeine) they have in Montreal are the world's best hangover helpers.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 18:55 (nineteen years ago)

Jarritos and Ting are made with sugar

― Total Fucking Darkness (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 18:56 (nineteen years ago)

Next time, try the 99 cent store. They have TONS of stuff in there, spray bottles included.

― luna (luna.c), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

I know meth abuse is a big problem in Oregon, but I'm still fucking crotchety about this upcoming law requiring a prescription for pseudoephedrine medicines. Nearly everyone I know here 1) lacks health insurance, and 2) suffers from allergy-related sinus trouble. Myself included - up until last week I was living off of old meds I bought the last time I was in California, but this week I ran out and bought the new phenyl stuff. It did precisely nothing.

Hopefully there will be an uprising in the streets soon.

― reddening (reddening), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

All this talk of codiene and sudefed being impossible toget in the US is hella scaring me off coming to visit :(

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:32 (nineteen years ago)

JBR - SORRY

reddening - yeah, fuck this prescription shit. im still trying to deal with no over the counter codiene. what the fuck?? and i thought the dealie was if pseuoephedrine was in liquid form (liqicap?) you cant make meth from it? why dont they just do that? they work faster anyways. or is it really about the $$$$?

― sunny successor (katharine), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

i bet trayce is a mersy girl. i was too once. that stuff ROCKS.

― sunny successor (katharine), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:34 (nineteen years ago)

i call them 'golden sunshines'. YOU KNOW WHY

― sunny successor (katharine), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:35 (nineteen years ago)

mersy daystrength, kat! Terrible, really.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

no night??

― sunny successor (katharine), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

You don't need codeine FFS! and Claritin works amazing

― lord pooperton (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

This might be a good time to mention this: http://asthmahookworm.com/

― lord pooperton (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:47 (nineteen years ago)

awww! he's saying hello

http://asthmahookworm.com/assets/Ancyclostoma.jpg

― sunny successor (katharine), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 21:52 (nineteen years ago)

Laudnum, and various other powerful opiates.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 22:01 (nineteen years ago)

Nah Jon I know you dont need codiene for allergies! =) Claritin works a treat for me for hayfever and exczema.

Sunny I cant handle the night mersy! Half a tablet knocks me out for hours. Tho that makes it a handy sleeping pill I suppose.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 23:16 (nineteen years ago)

You must apply your drugs cutaneously with the proper spray bottle.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 15 June 2006 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

All this talk of codiene and sudefed being impossible toget in the US is hella scaring me off coming to visit :(

-- Trayce (spamspanke...), June 15th, 2006 8:32 AM. (later)

Um, you can only buy one packet at a time of stuff containing pseudoephedrine, and even then they put some hard questionin' on ya.

― S- (sgh), Thursday, 15 June 2006 00:47 (nineteen years ago)

I kindof like it when they ask me for my ID when I buy toilet bowl cleaner. Is that stuff used in meth production? I wonder if I bought Sudafed and toilet bowl cleaner if they would make me put one back. What happens if my toilet is dirty and I have a sinus problem?

― Rebekkah (burntbrat), Thursday, 15 June 2006 01:54 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

Plain white t-shirts in the multi-pack with normal tags. They're all screen-printed on the inside of the shirt now!

And those old-school three-ring binders with the canvas exteriors. I've tried everywhere.

― naus (Robert T), Wednesday, 12 July 2006 06:27 (nineteen years ago)

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