‘It takes me back to the 80s’: the people stockpiling discontinued products

theguardian.com:

W hether you “liked it like that” or not, the soft drink Lilt is disappearing from the shelves. As its totally tropical taste gets a rebrand to become Fanta Pineapple and Grapefruit, readers tell us about the products they have stockpiled when they found out their favourites were being discontinued.

Bhee Bellew, 54, started to stockpile her favourite Eau de Gucci perfume when the fashion house stopped making it 15 years ago. Bellew had worn it regularly since her parents brought it back from a holiday in the Greek islands for her when she was 17.

For her the smell has the power to transport her back to her youth, or special moments in her life. She bought five bottles when it began disappearing from the shelves. Now down to her last bottle, she rarely wears it. Instead it serves a different purpose.

“It’s like time travelling. I spray it and it takes me straight back to the 1980s, getting ready to go out, and all that excitement of going out as a teenager, wondering if I was going to meet that special someone, and feeling quite excited about life.”

Bellew, who lives in Oxford and works in university administration, keeps the last bottle of the carnation-based scent in its original box to try to preserve it.

“I use it, not only to take me back to that time, but also to stand behind myself and see how far I’ve come; wanting to tell that 17-year-old, it’s all going to be OK, especially at that time where there’s that anxiety about not knowing what your future is going to be like.

“I want to keep it until my 80s and 90s, and be able to get it out and be transported to my teenage years.”

It was taste rather than smell that sprang Juliette Totterdell into action in 2021 when she discovered that Bournville was adding milk powder to