Top 50 Things from the 90s That Don't Exist Anymore

VOICE OVER: Rebecca Brayton
Time to rewind, because we're heading back to the 90s! Join us as we count down the most nostalgic items, brands, and hallmarks that didn't quite make it out of the decade. From Crystal Pepsi to Blockbuster, slap bracelets to pay phones — it's a radical trip down memory lane! Which of these do YOU miss most? Our countdown includes Video Rental Stores, the Discman, Netscape Navigator, AIM, Tamagotchis, Pogs, Floppy Disks, Toys R Us, MTV Music Videos, the Y2K Panic, LAN parties, Milli Vanilli, Butterfinger BBs, and so much more! What 90s trend deserves a comeback? Let us know in the comments below!

Top-50-Things-from-the-90s-That-Dont-Exist-Anymore


Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most nostalgic items, brands, and hallmarks that didn’t quite make it out of the 90s.


#50: Crystal Pepsi

Back when even soft drinks had to be stylish, Pepsi revitalized their brand with the introduction of a hip, clear drink. It was Pepsi… but crystal. Market research showed that buyers associated the see-through look with purity and health. So, Pepsi threw their entire marketing weight behind this fizzy beverage, and turned it into an overnight sensation. All the cool kids were drinking Crystal Pepsi! At least, for a while. Thanks to some stiff competition from Coca-Cola’s Tab Clear, Crystal Pepsi got knocked off of shelves in just two years. While it’s had few limited reruns since, for the most part, it remains a dead 90s fad.


#49: The Tamagotchi Craze

You can still go out and buy a Tamagotchi today, but we promise, it’s just not the same. The fervor around these toys still feels distinctly 90s. Before smartphones or apps or timers, all you had was this egg-shaped toy, and the hope you’d remember to feed it. If you didn’t… Well, time to start a new one. It’s hard to explain the sheer terror of knowing that if you made even a few tiny mistakes, it was game over. The toys have been streamlined a lot since their heyday in the 90s, but if you ask us, the high stakes were part of the charm!


#48: Candy Cigarettes

Nothing like taking a smoke break in between playground games, right? Okay, not literally. Although, we will have more on smoking later. No, we’re talking about the patented candy cigarettes that became literal contraband in schools. Since smoking as a whole was starting to get pushback in the 90s, it’s only natural people weren’t thrilled about selling these kiddie versions. Even if they were just candied dust. As a result, candy cigarettes were banned from several countries, and where they are sold, they aren’t usually allowed to be called cigarettes at all. Smoking on the playground was definitely left in the 90s, and that’s probably for the best.


#47: Slap Bracelets

Hey, another hot item on the playground! While certainly more socially acceptable than candy cigarettes, slap bracelets met a similar fate. They surged in popularity during the 90s, with your collection essentially becoming your social status in the classroom. This stuff was serious! Too serious, in fact. Slapping on the metallic bracelets was endless fun in moderation, but after several reported injuries, schools had to put their foot down. The fad was eventually outlawed from several districts. The rule has become significantly more lax in the decades since, but unfortunately, slap bracelets never did reclaim their spot in pop culture.


#46: The “Just Say No” Initiative

Before DARE, the government tried a more direct way to teach youth about substance abuse disorder. Enter Nancy Reagan, and a slogan that defined a failed operation: Just Say No. That’s exactly what most kids did, just not in the way Reagan wanted. Kids were bored with it, parents found it reductive, and a future study found that Reagan’s efforts did little to sway recreational use in either direction. It was a noble effort and all, but “Just Say No” is only remembered today for being a hamfisted disappointment. There’s a reason the 2000s switched to DARE, that’s all we’re saying.


#45: Skip-It

The cause of bruised ankles across the world, you either had a Skip-It, or wanted one. The gimmick was simple. You tied it around one foot and spun it around the other, hopping over until you couldn’t anymore. Did it hurt when you failed? Absolutely. But, boy was it an addictive game! Simple enough to play, but just skillful enough to flex on your friends, these things took over summer afternoons in the 90s. Whether it was overexposure or the aforementioned ankle pains, Skip-Its couldn’t keep its momentum going into the 21st century. But, it’s fondly remembered regardless.


#44: Wet Seal

Is there anything more quintessentially 90s than pulling up to the mall with your friends? It was the spot to be on weekends, mainly because they had stores like Wet Seal. If you don’t recognize the name, it was basically heaven for teenage girls. The clothes were trendy, fun, and brimming with personality. You could spend hours trying on all the styles and fits until you found one that worked. As it turns out, though, the teen audience is a hard one to keep satisfied. Forever 21 took bigger and bigger chunks of Wet Seal’s demographic until they were forced to shutter all their physical locations in 2017.


#43: Lawn Darts

Look, we at WatchMojo do not endorse giving children sharp darts, especially when they’re encouraged to throw them. With that being said, Lawn Darts were kind of iconic. The idea didn’t seem quite so dangerous in the 90s, when crazy backyard games were just part of a good summer break. However, the controversies soon began to pile up, and Lawn Darts were justifiably recalled and put on the freeze, indefinitely. It’s easy to look back and ask how a game like this ever came out in the first place. But, if you were there, you know Lawn Darts was something special.


#42: Personal Ads in the Paper

Before Craigslist or Ebay or Facebook Marketplace, how were people supposed to get rid of their junk? The old-fashioned way: personal ads. People would genuinely pay to put ads in the newspaper - yes, the physical newspaper - in the hopes of attracting buyers. Instead of posting a photo online, you had to leave your number in the news and hope it caught someone’s eye. It actually worked pretty well, if only because people knew that’s where you looked for the best deals. It’s definitely not as convenient as the sites of today, but it got the job done!


#41: Lax Airport Security

The days of walking your friends and family to the airport terminal and waving them off is long, long gone. Seeing people lackadaisically go through security in old movies is a major shock. But, back then, that was the norm. It wasn’t until the tragic events of 9/11 that airport security tightened up significantly, prohibiting entry to anyone without a ticket. Holding a sign for someone to see right as they got off the plane became a thing of the past. Though, given the circumstances, you can’t exactly blame them for the caution.


#40: The Rise & Fall of Milli Vanilli

There’s a cruel irony in the fact this pop duo’s career imploded shortly after they won a Grammy. Following a few interesting live performances, rumors circulated that the two didn’t actually sing their own albums. One lip syncing confession later, and one of the most promising bands of the decade was officially torpedo’d. Not only was Milli Vanilli stripped of their Grammy, but the scandal made them the punching bag of the industry for years. They’ve tried their hand at a few comebacks, and while modern stories paint them in a more sympathetic light, they’ve yet to capture the glory they had in the early 90s.


#39: Butterfly Clips

In a decade defined by funky colors and flamboyant accessories, it’s amazing there weren’t more products like Butterfly Clips. The bright pins held back a section of your hair, ensuring you could look fierce and unique at school! Plus, they were shaped like butterflies. What’s not to love? Which color you chose and where you wore the pin was a total fashion statement, particularly in the hierarchy of elementary school girls. Theoretically, there’s still some version of butterfly-shaped pins out there today, but it’s safe to say they don’t have the same stranglehold as they once did.


#38: Computer Games

Picture this. The dial-up internet is slow, there’s nothing on TV, and you’re staring at the computer, bored out of your mind. Your mouse wanders over to the “games” tab, and greatness awaits. Were these games particularly deep or great? No, not really. But, you weren’t a 90s kid unless you mindlessly tried your hand at solitaire on the family computer. That’s without even mentioning all the legendary CD games! “Rollercoaster Tycoon,” anyone? It’s no surprise these became obsolete as technology evolved, but we can’t help reminiscing about the simpler times.


#37: Watching a Movie in Class

Kids today will never relate to the absolute euphoria that swept over the classroom when the teacher rolled one of those bulky TV’s into the room. We didn’t have projectors or computers or personal laptops. All we had was a hulking screen that had to be wheeled and plugged in, and usually, it only had a VCR player. But, did we complain? Of course not! Seeing one of these meant it was movie time, and nothing tops a surprise like that. Plus, for the time, watching something on a portable screen was a novelty in of itself.


#36: Toys R Us

A staple of the toy market since the 60s, this store defined the peaks and valleys of games and action figures. But, the brand really found a second wind in 1996 with the introduction of their Concept 2000 stores, which updated the image to contemporary standards. For a while, Toys R Us were the hot ones on the block. Unfortunately, as we all know, the 2000s and 2010s weren’t kind to the toy business, with technology taking over the kids market. By 2017, the once-iconic store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and was later liquidated.


#35: Smoking Sections

Candy Cigarettes were a symptom of a much larger social push. You could hardly go anywhere without walking through a smoke cloud, and the very idea of smoking sections proves that. Particularly prevalent in restaurant chains, entire rooms would be cordoned off for those who enjoyed a good puff. It seemed peaceful enough; those who wanted to smoke had their place, and those who didn’t had theirs. However, as public sentiment towards smoking changed, these sections became smaller and smaller, before vanishing altogether. Smoking isn’t allowed in most restaurants at all any more, let alone given its own section.


#34: 90s Lingo

Every generation has their own slang. And yet, we have to admit, there’s just something totally rad about how teens spoke in the 90s. Saying something uncool would leave you talking to the hand. You were either Da Bomb, or buggin’ out completely. If you didn’t dress fresh or phat, you were trippin’ as far as the social elite were concerned. Hey, don’t have a cow, that’s the 411 on what it was like! Okay, we’ll stop for real. The fact of the matter is, like all slang, teenspeak evolved and changed over the years, leaving these fly words in the past.


#33: Physical Maps

If you wanted to get directions somewhere thirty years ago, you had to bring a map. Like, a physical one. You usually folded it up and stuffed it in your glove box, and had to look through the tiny lines to hopefully find your way. The advent of GPS rendered physical maps obsolete, but they were the de facto form of directions for a long time. Still, the 90s was definitely the last hoorah for paper maps, with the 2000s slowly iterating on the concept with the likes of built-in GPS’ or MapQuest.


#32: Disposable Cameras

If you’re a trendy photographer, there’s a good chance you still use these throwaway lenses every now and then. We get it, it’s a whole aesthetic. But, while you can still officially find them today, the disposables today are made for just that - the aesthetic. They’re designed with that specific, sleek look in mind, which is a stark contrast to the real disposable cameras of the 90s. For one, they were your only option. There was no taking a dozen shots on your phone to check the lighting and then using one of your precious polaroids. If your eyes were closed, you were plain out of luck. You just can’t get that same experience today.


#31: Pay Phones

Do you ever look around and think, “there’s a coffee shop on every corner?” That used to be payphones, but worse. We really can’t overemphasize the fact they were everywhere. You couldn’t walk a block in the city without finding one, usually with a small line. Before smartphones were a thing, you either carried a blocky brick of a cellular device, or used some pocket change for a call. It was a no-brainer for most people, and was an incredibly successful business model for decades. Payphones understandably couldn’t keep up with landlines or smartphones, but all things considered, they had a good run.


#30: Call-In Information Numbers

What do you do when you’d like to know the weather forecast? Or check available job listings? Or even find out what movies are playing at your nearest theater? It’s all a quick tap away – or maybe several – on your phone. But did you know there was a time when people would call a number for that kind of thing? Back in the day, before the world wide web, people kept a list of service numbers and hotlines on hand for when they needed certain information, like when the next showing for a movie was or whether a store was having a sale.


#29: Malls as the Social Hub

Malls have unfortunately been on the decline for years thanks to the rise of online shopping. Along with dwindling in-person sales, their status as the default “hang-out place”, especially among teenagers, has fallen to the wayside too. For years, many teens would spend countless hours loitering at the mall with their friends. There was no need to do any actual shopping; the mall simply served as the nexus for social activity. Since the introduction of social media, adolescent crowds find themselves gathering in virtual locations instead of leaving the house for that once-so-popular food court.


#28: Printed Movie Listings

It’s a Sunday afternoon and you’re trying to come up with something to do. Flipping through channels on TV, you see a trailer for a new movie that looks pretty good. If it’s 2024, you open your phone and Google when and where it’s playing. But, if you’re back in the 1990s, finding the movie listings wasn’t as easy. Many Gen X kids will remember having to pick up a copy of the newspaper to find out when and where certain movies were playing. Usually buried in the local entertainment section, printed movie listings were the norm.


#27: UPN

Fun fact: Did you know that the television network “The CW” was actually the merging of two other networks: UPN and The WB? Paramount Pictures had been trying to get into the TV network business for decades with several failed attempts. They finally broke through and launched UPN in 1995 with the two-hour pilot episode of “Star Trek: Voyager” bringing in 21.3 million viewers. Over the next decade, the network showcased other hits like “WWE Smackdown”, Veronica Mars”, and “America’s Next Top Model”. After a decade of programming, UPN ceased operations as it merged with The WB in 2006, giving us The CW which initially held onto much of both networks’ original programming.


#26: Steve Urkel Doll

Whatever your opinion of him, Steve Urkel was a staple of ‘90s television. The breakout character of ABC’s “Family Matters”, Urkel was the annoying neighbor who always got in the middle of all of the Winslow family affairs. The character was so popular among audiences that he even inspired a doll sharing his likeness. Pull back his string and he’d utter one of a handful of his signature catchphrases. But, as time passed and the show went off the air, Urkel’s doll became yet one more piece of 1990s history.


#24: Rolodexes

Long before our pocket sized computers did everything for us, many people, especially in the business world, relied heavily on the rolodex. It was a spinning cylinder filled with cards. Each contained contact information for a single individual or business. People kept rolodexes because they were an easy way to sort and find any of their notable contacts. This was a time when cell phones were rather rare and their storage limited, so physical directories were the obvious choice. With the exponential advancement of smartphones, however, it’s clear why they didn’t survive the new age of technology.


#23: Pen Pals

Thanks to technology, we now live in a time where people can enjoy connections across the planet, without ever needing to leave home. Whether it’s through messaging, online games, or video calls, having friends that span country borders is quite common today, although not new. Before online methods of meeting people, you could become friends with a stranger across the globe by exchanging written letters with them. You’d have been Pen Pals. There were even entire organizations built around the idea of connecting people through the miracle of snail mail. This is one we’d like to petition to bring back; there is something touching and personable about connecting through handwritten letters.


#22: Adobe Flash

Here’s one many people are glad faded into oblivion. In the early days of the world wide web, online video, graphics, and even animation was extremely primitive. Along came Adobe Flash which changed all that. It gave birth to some of the first web-based games, and quickly became the standard for multimedia graphics. However, as time went on and technology evolved, the issues with Flash became more and more apparent. Security concerns, and poor support for mobile devices were among the biggest complaints. Newer and more stable platforms emerged, eventually pushing Flash out of the limelight and into the dustbin of history.


#21: MTV Music Videos

MTV. Music television. It was a channel dedicated to nothing more than music and the videos that went with them. During its heyday, MTV helped launch countless artists into the stratosphere. To have your band in regular rotation or appearing on “Total Request Live”, meant millions of new fans could hear your music. It transformed the entire industry by giving artists a new place to find fans. But, as time passed, MTV became more about its original programming and reality TV than music. Today, the channel still targets the younger demographics with its content, but has long since moved away from the likes of Madonna and Dire Straits.


#20: Dial-Up Internet

Internet access has come a long way in the decades since the ‘90s. These days, wireless internet, broadband, and LAN cables provide fast and easily accessible internet for billions. But, back in the day, the internet could only be accessed through phone lines. Dial-up modems took up an entire phone line at home. While a few remote or rural areas are still using dial-up modems today, the rest of us will never have to hear that awful dial-up screeching again - except in our nightmares and in nostalgic internet videos like this one.


#19: Butterfinger BBs

There are plenty of discontinued candy products from the ‘90s. One of the most beloved are Butterfinger BBs. These bite-sized balls of Butterfingers were easy to pop in your mouth and still maintained the full-sized candy bars’ unique texture and peanut buttery flavor. Plus, they were advertised by Bart Simpson! Unfortunately, despite the campaigns’ slogan warning that “nobody better lay a finger on [our] Butterfinger”, the BBs were discontinued in 2006. Although no official explanation has been released, some have theorized that the BBs’ chocolate coating, which melted easily, may have been responsible. While a similar smaller Butterfinger version was released, called Butterfinger Bites, they never attained the same popularity. Ay caramba…


#18: Encarta Encyclopedia

During the ‘90s, the internet was not the trusted source of information it is…well, can be…today. Online encyclopedias were still in their infancy. Before the rise of Wikipedia, there was another computer-based encyclopedia called Encarta. Launched in 1993 and originally packaged in DVD form, this annually updated program contained thousands of informative articles on a wide variety of topics. Not only did Encarta include text, there were also videos, pictures, and even trivia games. However, naturally, the rise of online encyclopedias ultimately led to Encarta’s downfall and Microsoft ceased its publishing in 2009.


#17: MiniDisc Players

During the ‘90s, audio formats were still very much a competition. One often forgotten contender is the MiniDisc. Published by Sony, these miniature discs were envisioned as the next big thing to replace cassette tapes. However, despite proving popular in Sony’s native Japan, MD players couldn’t find success at a global scale. Record labels didn’t take to the format quickly, leaving few albums available initially. Plus, blank MDs were twice as expensive as blank CDs. By the time MP3 players became available, MiniDiscs were on their way out - although niche markets kept them in circulation until 2013.


#16: Zima

The ‘90s saw a trend of clear drinks, and adult beverages were no exception. Coors got in on the trend and created Zima in 1994, a clear malt beverage intended as an alternative to beer. While the beer found more success among young women, Coors did their best to market it towards a male consumer base. In the end, most didn’t especially enjoy the taste, and the product began disappearing from shelves… at least in the west. Coors discontinued Zima in North America in 2008, but the beverage remained popular in Japan until 2021.


#15: Pogs

Playground games come and go. During the early ‘90s, the biggest one was easily milk caps or pogs. Players would stack cardboard disks with pictures printed on them - anything from cartoons to sports logos. Then, another larger disk, called a slammer, was used to knock down as many pogs as possible. Because each player would often keep the pogs won this way, it was viewed by many schools as a form of gambling, leading to widespread bans. When kids can’t play something at school, it tends to kill the popularity pretty quickly. While they’re technically still around, and there are variants on the game worldwide, pogs’ popularity is far from what it used to be.


#14: CRT Computer Monitors

Before and during the ‘90s, most screens were created using CRT, or Cathode-ray tube, technology. Naturally, computer screens were no exception. These big, bulky monitors sat on our desks and are how many of us first experienced computing. But, the last few decades have seen the rise of LCD, OLED, and plasma monitors, which are cheaper, less bulky, and generally have larger screens than CRT monitors. Some people, particularly computer gamers, still prefer CRTs, because they don’t have as much input lag and can display images in multiple resolutions more easily. In general, though, these guys have been mostly phased out.


#13: Gaming Magazines

Video games were still considered a niche industry in the ‘90s, so they weren’t mainstream enough to be covered extensively on TV or the still-newfangled internet. Enter: gaming magazines. If you were a ‘90s gamer, chances are you were subscribed to one or more gaming magazines. Electronic Gaming Monthly, Nintendo Power, Computer Gaming World, Tips and Tricks - these publications gave gamers detailed articles on upcoming games, walkthroughs, cheat codes, and reviews. Plus, they had a surprising level of reader interaction for major publications. Tragically, most gaming magazines ceased publication as the rise of internet journalism made the old monthly issue model obsolete. Why wait to read about it in a magazine when it’s already online?


#12: Floppy Disks

Removable computer storage in the ‘90s used to take the form of small, three-and-a-half-inch floppy disks - although the name is a bit misleading for those disks, which weren’t floppy at all. When you needed to save or move information between computers, floppy disks were everyone’s go-to. You just popped them into the fabled A: drive, and off you went. They were so widely used, that the ‘save’ icon in most programs is still the floppy disk to this day! But, as technology progressed, and storage capacity and needs expanded beyond a few hundred kilobytes, floppy disks are no longer in wide circulation. But, if you’re missing them, they’re still sometimes used for emergency booting in older systems, and in other industries like aeronautics.


#11: Appointment TV

Once upon a time, we scheduled our lives around what was on TV. This was because, if you didn’t see a show or a sporting event when it aired - you didn’t see it at all! Each time an episode aired, everyone was talking about it the next day. And, sure, sometimes you could tape a show and watch it later. But, sometimes, working VCRs was more art than science. Appointment television was the norm, and so networks did big ratings when a show hit it big. Of course, streaming platforms now make it easy to binge shows or watch them at your own pace. While some streaming series do release episodes weekly and the concept is making something of a comeback, appointment TV isn’t mainstream again quite yet.


#10: Y2K Panic

We all know that the human race and planet Earth are not going to be around forever. But with the new millennium on the horizon, many believed the year 2000 was going to initiate the collapse of society. In the 90s, several experts warned that because many computer systems represented years using only the last two digits, computers would mix up 1900 and 2000. This led some folks to buy up food and supplies to tide them through an imminent apocalypse. But as it turned out, the world stepped into the new millennium with minimal issues. While we’ve dealt with a few other “end of the world” fears afterwards like 2012, none quite reached the same level of paranoia.


#9: The Windows 95 3D Maze

Screensavers aren’t all that common anymore now that most of our devices have a “sleep” function to conserve power. In the 90’s, however, there was one screensaver you’d see in many homes - the Windows 95 3D Maze. Here, you’re basically watching your computer play a video game as it automatically takes left turns until finding the smiley face, thus resetting and generating a whole new maze. There was something really mesmerizing about it between the artificial intelligence and guessing where the face might end up. Honestly, why hasn’t Microsoft made a full-fledged game out of this?


#8: The Delia’s Catalog

If you weren’t sure what to wear for the Girls’ Night or the high school dance, you probably referred to this mail-in catalog of fashion. Founded in 1993, Delia’s was the go-to catalog for teens who wanted to wear the latest clothes and fashion trends. Unfortunately, Delia’s would be buried by competitors (in addition to being spun-off and acquired on a few occasions) as time went on. By the end of 2014, Delia’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and liquidated all of its stores. While it tried to bounce back as an online-only store in 2015, this venture was a complete failure. Now, you can only get their clothing through the Dolls Kill brand.


#7: Orbitz

Yes, it's the magical beady beverage that has featured on many a WatchMojo list in recent years. This obscure, noncarbonated drink was manufactured with a small variety of flavors to quench your thirst AND hunger. From Raspberry Citrus to Vanilla Orange, the beads and beverage made for a unique type of drink. Alas, Orbitz would live a seriously short life because of its terrible commercial performance. Given the presence of gellan gum and high sugar, one can hazard a guess at why folks weren’t picking these up off the shelves, especially when seeing the edible orbs inside.


#6: iMac G3

Apple’s Mac computers have come a long way. Today, design is all about improving battery life; making everything as thin as possible; and getting berated about updating iTunes even if we don’t use it. But in the late 90’s, a common Mac computer looked about as chunky as a CRT television set. The teal-colored Macs with their translucent Bondi Blue shells were especially a huge success for Apple, but looking back, these desktop computers were also incredibly hefty and awkwardly shaped. That’s because it wasn’t just a monitor - this was the computer itself. Just seeing pictures of these makes us glad schools are using laptops instead.


#5: P.B. Crisps

Yeah, we gotta squeeze in another food product in here, and this is another snack that’s popped up on our lists before. P.B. Crisps was a special kind of sweet treat from Planters, consisting of peanut-shaped cookies filled with peanut butter inside. And if you wanted an addition to peanut butter, you could buy bags of the cookies that were also filled with chocolate or strawberry. Sadly, these snacks were not around for long due to low demand and have become a relic of the mid-90’s. To this day, there are still a group of dedicated fans clamoring for the product’s return, even going so far as to make a website dedicated to the cause.


#4: AIM (AKA AOL Instant Messenger)

It’s been a hot minute since we heard anything remotely relevant to AOL. While AOL currently exists and was acquired by Verizon in 2015, AIM ceased operations in December 2017. We’re shocked, too! The service was introduced way back in 1997 and became the leading messaging service in North America for roughly a decade. But as tech giants like Google and Facebook started taking over, AIM lost all purpose. The two companies had better services and better security. Slowly but surely, AIM would begin shutting down features one by one, starting in 2007 before disappearing completely a decade later.


#3: Netscape Navigator

These days, we have dozens of web browsers vying for our attention, from Google Chrome to Mozilla Firefox to Safari to Duck Duck Go! We remember way back when the internet was a baby that there was only one browser to use - Netscape Navigator. This browser was created in 1994 and for a short time went uncontested in the industry. What happened to cause such decline? Well, Internet Explorer happened. Then, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, all of them. Netscape would receive its final update in 2007 before ceasing support and development the year after.


#2: Discman

Like Walkmans in the ‘80s, Discmans became a crucial part of our lives. There just wasn’t anything like going on a walk or exercising while jamming out to the newest music albums. Besides radios, this was pretty much the way to listen to music. Of course, as we find new ways to store data, we also kill off part of a medium. Nowadays, we can just open Spotify on our phones and jam to anything we desire without having to eject a CD and holster something chunky on our waist. Still, there is something tactile to be missed here.


#1: Video Rental Stores

Those who grew up in the 80s, 90s or 2000s fondly look back on video rental stores. While the very first such stores opened in the late 70s, it was in the 90s that bigger brands like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster boomed in demand. For some families, weekly trips to these stores would become a tradition as new movies made their way to the shelves and movie buffs sought out hidden gems. This industry would decline, however, as Netflix and streaming services became more and more prominent. Hollywood Video would go defunct in 2010, while Blockbuster enjoys a few thousand customers through its last and only store, located in Bend, Oregon.


What 90s trend deserves a comeback? Let us know in the comments below!


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90s nostalgia, things from the 90s, 90s trends, Crystal Pepsi, Blockbuster video, Discman, Tamagotchi, Pogs, slap bracelets, floppy disks, Netscape Navigator, AIM instant messenger, MTV music videos, Toys R Us, Y2K panic, gaming magazines, pay phones, disposable cameras, Milli Vanilli, LAN parties, Butterfinger BBs, CRT monitors, Adobe Flash, dial-up internet, Encarta encyclopedia, watchmojo, watch mojo, top list, nostalgia, 1990s,