Things Poor People Loved Until The Rich Ruined Them For Everyone

Accommodations

"Living in warehouses in the industrial, rundown side of town."

"historic brick warehouse gets torn down"

"Coming soon: Lofts"

~ SpecialpOps

"Yes! They tore down all the real lofts to build condos they call lofts."

~ StrainAcceptable

"Living in arty neighborhoods."

~ hinterstoisser

"This is what I was looking for. Creative poor people have been investing in poor neighborhoods forever."

"They use their talent to make it a cool place they enjoy living in. The rich say 'Hey, I want to be cool, let's buy this'."

"And then they price the poor out of the haven they created and turn it into a stale, crowded, overpriced place."

~ TwiceBaked57

"Dude what I find so frustrating about this is that when they move in, the corporations move in with them."

"Next thing you know, the cute cafe you liked so much is an apple store; the good thrift shop down the street got eaten up by a new whole foods; and the entire neighborhood has lost its soul."

~ Hollz23

"One of my favorite record stores just got evicted because their landlord sold the building to a bank that wants to be in the arts district."

~ Imakereallyshittyart

"Which will lead it to no longer being an 'arts' district."

~ Quacker_please

"Quiet out of the way country cabins sitting by lakes."

"Now they are over priced Airbnbs."

~ amyaurora

"I'd even say Airbnbs themselves. They started as a potentially cheap alternative to hotels run by people who have extra space they aren't doing anything with."

"Now people build guest houses specifically for Airbnb and treat It like a full on rental."

~ Jarf_17

"Van life and tiny house living."

~ Cooper_brain

"I live in my sh*tty van after almost being evicted from my apartment."

"Every once in a while I'll meet a rich couple with $100,000 van conversions and they ask me 'what's your build like??'."

"I'm like, there's a mattress and not much else. Can be truly offensive at times."

~ Tangelo_12

Shopping

"Etsy."

~ tattooedroller

"There are SO many accounts for cheap mass produced crap that you could get on a bunch of other websites as well."

"No, I come to Etsy for homemade stuff and support artistic individuals."

~ Physical-Primary-256

"I no longer use Etsy because of how terrible the platform has become (for buyers as well as sellers)."

"If you still want to use Etsy, always do a reverse image search on the product you are considering, and also look on Aliexpress, Alibaba, Amazong, and Ebay to see if you can find the same item there."

"Most of the time you can. And for less money too."

"Etsy is still coasting on the 'handmade' reputation but most of the listings that I've seen in the past 5+ years are for cheap factory-made stuff."

~ almalauha

"Going to the farmers market."

~ M-Squared804

"I went to a farmer's market where only one vendor was selling fruits and vegetables. There were three boutique honey stands."

~ randompedestrian382

"That's what our markets are turning into as well. It's gone from local farmers and affordable produce to artisanal creations for the elite."

~ KeepOnRising19

"Ebay. It used to be so useful to get all kinds of cheap or unique things."

"Then more and more big commercial sellers joined the club and eventually ebay itself forgot about what and who made their platform a success in the first place."

~ onesmilematters

"It was a treasure trove. I remember just searching for random things I had as a kid. Imported music. Some nights I would just sort and see what was selling for a penny within the next 10mins or so."

"My sister and I were still in high school in '98 and we would just browse for HOURS as if we were walking around a store. But that rating was so important. We took great pride in that and showed the same respect to others."

"Now I am constantly upset and disappointed by the entire process."

~ idontwantanamern

"Thrift shopping."

"I'm not "✨ thrifting✨ I'm f'kin broke."

~ Elduroto

"Sometimes I feel like it's cheaper to buy clothes at Target or Walmart brand new than it is to buy from a thrift store."

~ Urchintexasyellow

"I blame the thrift stores for the shift. They literally pay nothing for their inventory, and pay barely over minimum wage in most places."

"Several times I’ve gone to thrift stores and seen items at or above what they cost brand new from the original retailer. Damn grift stores."

~ mrRabblerouser

Charities

"Food banks. My local food bank put out a news article basically saying that rich people need to stop using the food bank as a 'life hack' to lower their grocery bills."

~ ConfidantlyCorrect

"There were stories in the UK throughout the pandemic about it: those that needed it were having to walk to the Food Bank to get what they needed, but there was also people turning up in BMW's, Range Rovers. etc..."

~ Scotsgit73

"OMG. That's so evil. Some people really have no conscience."

~ BettyBoopWallflower

"I used to volunteer at a soup kitchen at a church, and it was kinda well known as having great food because the whole kitchen staff were actually a team of chefs from a nearby well known restaurant."

"They volunteered at the soup kitchen so they used it as like experience for some of their newer chefs etc...."

"Soon word got out that the food was good and you started seeing expensive cars pop up in the parking lot every now and then till they started coming more and more till one day like....80-100 rich people came and like basically ate so much that we ran out of food and had to let almost 50 homeless people go without food to starve that day."

"These rich people were literally coming to a SOUP KITCHEN for a free meal they don't need and literally preventing homeless people who, some of them this is their only meal in like 2 days, from getting food."

"AND WE TOLD THEM."

"We told them like we have a limited amount of food, we want to prioritize the homeless and those who don't have food security."

"Next week, the rich people would ignore us and bring even more of their friends."

"Plus it's not even like we got more donations once the rich people started coming either. F'k em."

~ ezodochi

Counterculture

"Counterculture-based festivals."

"Burning Man was on my bucket list until rich f'ks started showing up with bodyguards and started establishing private zones."

~ hgaben90

"Counterculture as a whole seems to be getting gentrified."

"In the Netherlands there are a lot of places you can go to that have a 'counterculture aesthetic', or more specifically 'squat aesthetic' but have exorbitant prices."

"Squatting used to be huge and multiple venues in the Netherlands (like Paradiso and Melkweg) have their humble beginnings as a squat. Ruigoord, a village close by Amsterdam that got squatted 50 years ago, also completely lost it's soul and is filled with yuppies."

"Counter culture is being gentrified, sanitised and sold back to people at exorbitant prices as something 'new, weird and hip'."

~ whazzar

Transportation

"Pickup trucks. They used to be much cheaper."

~ NCBadAsp

"They're luxury commuter vehicles for guys who think a $90,000 truck that will never see a dirt road is a smart move."

~ HauntedCemetery

Is there an affordable item you once loved that got expensive once it got popular?

Share it in the comments.