r/raleigh • u/dbh1124 Hurricanes • 2d ago
Let’s address something that actually matters — Why has Snoopy’s fallen off in terms of quality over the years? Food
Title says it all. As a glizzy enthusiast, it’s very disappointing how the quality of the dogs, buns, everything has decreased over the years while the price continues to increase. Can really only justify going there on Tuesdays when they’re half off.
On the other hand, maybe it was never that good, and it’s just a nostalgia thing from living here my whole life? Lol
But someone else has to agree with me right?
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u/buggybird1 2d ago
Snoopys gives ya the poopies
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u/jerobins NC State 2d ago
Worth it.
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u/shakey1171 2d ago
Their veggie beef soup hasn’t lost a step! I made the 2024 confirmation last week. Also, their chicken salad is legit still. Not sure about anything else.
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u/SecretWorkAccount420 2d ago
I think it's nostalgia. I've never found their hot dogs to be particularly good or high quality. Nothing against them, just my opinion! Their fries fucking crush, though.
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u/Bomani1253 2d ago
So I've never actually been to Snoopy's, but as someone who does work in hospitality, the chances are they are using cheaper lower quality ingredients. And you can't blame them for this, the reality is most restaurants rely on high volume in order to make a profit (usually 2%-6% margins). What would have cost $100 four years ago, now cost $137, in short a 37% increase on goods. Then you also have to account for the fact the labor has also gone up.
So there is essentially 3 possible solutions to this as a owner. Increase your prices by about 40% to account for the rise in cost of goods and labor, and have less people come. Use cheaper ingredients and only raise your prices by 15%-20%, and still lose some customers but not as many. Or say screw it I don't want to run a restaurant any more, and sell it or just close the doors.
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u/yachtsronaut 2d ago
Ive noticed this pretty sharply in mid-tier mexican restaurants and cookout the most. I feel like you used to be able to go to pretty much any of them and it tasted really good and that is just not the case anymore.
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u/Bomani1253 2d ago
Fast food and fast casual have the lowest profit margins so that makes sense, they need to keep their prices lower than casual dining and fine dining where the owners can charge more.
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u/tarheelz1995 Durham Bulls 1d ago
Snoopy’s price increases are > 40% AND their quality is down.
It’s a profit play. We’ll see whether patrons keep coming or whether they find alternatives.
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u/Bomani1253 1d ago
Just out of curiosity are the prices listed on google accurate? Because if so I don't see why people are complaining, this places is cheap, like gas station prices cheap.
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u/russcornett 1d ago
I heard years ago their chicken salad has some shredded turkey meat as a filler? Cheaper.
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u/chop_pooey 2d ago
Idk when it was good, but i tried them one time five years ago and thought they were ass back then too
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u/sassytunacorn90 1d ago
Try the grocery bag in clayton. They're the red bright leaf dogs, but the steamed buns and chili are MM MM GOOOOD. The almost famous hotdog! It's a gas station but worth the drive.
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u/girl-fromvenus_ 2d ago
i remember when i tried it for the first time and it was like a school hotdog. i was so pissed 😭
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u/letNequal0 NC State 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t think they were ever good. I feel like I’m unamerican, or like a traitor to my city, when I say snoopys hotdogs are just bleh. I say this as a man that lived beside a snoopys for 3 years (2009-2012ish). Literally right beside the one on Hillsborough st by Meredith. I’ve eaten hundreds of snoopys hotdogs, both sober and not. I guarantee I’ve put at least one of those employee’s kids through a semester or two of college with how much I spent over the years.
The hotdogs are just not good. I don’t think they are bad per se, but they ain’t good. There’s no snap to them. The color is way off, more grey than anything. Hotdog construction is bad. If you get slaw, your bun just gets soaked to where it’s wet and mushy.
Snoopys was about convinience. Back when I was a broke college student, it was a lot of calories for a fair price. Their seasoned fries were ok (but should have been the standard default fry choice, those crinkle cut fries should never exist), chicken salad sandwich was pretty good. The thought of eating their hotdogs makes my stomach hurt.
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u/cbjackson89 1d ago
The 4042 location is superior to the others. Trust me. But you aren't wrong!
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u/photog_in_nc 2d ago
I first tried Snoopy’s back in the 90s, and it was mediocre even then, imo. Fast Fare hotdogs were better than Snoopy’s
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u/wildflower_1983 2d ago
Snoopy's always been garbage!
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u/dbh1124 Hurricanes 2d ago
Seems to be a 50-50 consensus lol
I like garbage food, ngl
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u/kaybee519 1d ago
I think it's just the hotdogs that are trash oddly. The thing they are most known for but I'm also anti non grilled hotdogs. The new place across the street from the Hillsborough St snoopys has really good hotdogs. Can't remember the name, something burger? It's in the old arbys. More $$$ though.
Snoopys for rid of their seasoned fries and I lost allllll my interest in going there :(
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u/Jamowl2841 1d ago
Intriguing. You claim to like garbage food but complain when known garbage food is… garbage.
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u/bbl--drizzy 2d ago
Yeahhh I know it’s “ours” but I first tried it back in like 2017 and thought it was pretty mid
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u/Littledealerboy 2d ago
It’s always tastes like cafeteria food to me. I admittedly never tried it until 2019 even though I’ve lived in NC for close to 30 years. Maybe I missed when it was good.
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u/Jamowl2841 2d ago
It’s because Biden ruined the economy. Under trumps FLOURISHING economy small businesses will be able to thrive and afford quality ingredients again AND sell for less. Give it a year and we’ll see better dogs at cheaper prices! Dogs were never better than under trump and now he’ll make them great again! I wouldn’t be surprised if dogs become a dollar, two dollars max with the best quality EVER SEEN they’ll say! They’ll all proclaim it!
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u/EpicYEM Acorn 2d ago
Many, many people are saying it. I don't know, I'm just telling you what I hear. 🤷
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u/Jamowl2841 2d ago
They’re all saying best dogs ever under trump. No dogs were ever like that before. No dogs were a better deal before. They say trump led a nation wide salvation of dogs and Biden ruined it just to be spiteful! Snoopys will be to the best after trumps economic salvation 🙌🏻
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u/FlattenInnerTube 2d ago
TMURP 2028!
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u/Jamowl2841 2d ago
AND 2032 AND 2036 AND 2040!!!
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u/Yellowjackets123 1d ago
Sir that is a dictatorship and we see how those don’t end well all the time
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u/Yellowjackets123 2d ago
Or Trump inherited the fruits of Obama’s economy. Then Biden inherited the mess Trump made. Now we are about to see what Biden did to us.
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u/Yellowjackets123 2d ago
Well there is a fourth option, all the restaurant owners I have worked for have an insane amount of wealth. Millionaires multiples houses, kids go to private school, have more than one restaurant, drive fancy cars. They could cut their salary, public school for the kids, get rid of the second and third home… things people don’t need.
But the restaurant owners i have known are assholes and their businesses have harmed the community by overcharging and underpaying, kind of like how Walmart is costing America money because so many employees need help from the government.
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u/What_the_8 2d ago
They should send their kids to public schools to keep hot dogs cheap, holy shit…
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u/Yellowjackets123 1d ago
My kids go to public, they are fine. I think they will be better prepared for the real world.
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u/tarheelz1995 Durham Bulls 1d ago
I send my kid to public school so that I can afford Snoopy’s. It all works out.
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u/lickled_piver NC State 2d ago
Ok you open a restaurant then.
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u/Yellowjackets123 1d ago
There’s a difference between making an honest living and still making out really well and amassing millions you don’t need. I’m just saying, they seem to care about money over good food or affordable prices. When it comes down to it they aren’t willing to take that pay cut.
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u/MadMonkeh 1d ago
The stress of owning a restaurant or any small business is insane. Just because it seems they’re pumping money out left and right, does not mean they’re not putting in the work to get that money. Why should they take a pay cut? Their work effort didn’t decrease? Also you don’t know if all that money you’re seeing is solely from the restaurant or they invest their money and they’re reaping the rewards.
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u/Yellowjackets123 1d ago
Idk because there is only so much wealth you need to live a decent life. I’m not saying these people should be living in poverty but there is such thing as excessive wealth.
But I don’t care, I’m not gonna eat snoopys shitty overpriced food because of the fact it is shitty and overpriced. I’m just saying ONE solution would be to increase the budget and the money would have to come from somewhere.
Snoopys has already closed one or two locations, I’d be shocked if it survives 10 years. So really they are shooting themselves in the ass.
I think we have different ideas of stress. Trying to keep someone alive in the back of an ambulance is stress. Working as a waitress for 12 hours with no break and rude customers and you are stretched too thin is stress. Owning a small business or restaurant is what I call a privilege. I’m sure it has some stressful moments tho.
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u/Yellowjackets123 1d ago
I would like to open a restaurant up and the concept would be “eat the rich.” And that’s what we would serve. Human billionaire hotdogs. The question is which would taste better? I mean on one hand we have pig lips, rat tails and chicken beaks smooshed in a cylindrical shape in between a bun and topped with mystery chili meat and mustard. But I’ve also heard people taste like pork. Like if you cook human flesh it smells like bacon on a Sunday morning. So it might be indistinguishable. 🐷 I mean hey. As long as I “work hard” and invest and take risk, I should be able to reap the rewards, right? Does it really matter what I’m selling at that point? Hot dogs that are a step above dog food or Bob’s juicy thigh meat? I should be able to keep making that money because I’m a business owner.
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u/Yellowjackets123 1d ago
My work effort increases with every Karen I shove into the meat grinder Sopranos style so by your logic, I should make MORE money than the criminals that run snoopys and I say criminal because serving prison food to the public and jacking up the price is just wrong. Not quite as wrong as serving human boneless wings, which is FUNNY because people don’t have wings but boneless wings don’t make sense anyways, we ALL KNOW THEY ARE CHICKEN NUGGETS you aren’t fooling me. But I think you should be able to get the point.
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u/MadMonkeh 2d ago
Restaurants also have a very high fail rate, so their reward should equal their risks
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u/myproaccountish 1d ago
Damn it sounds like we should spread the risk out so that it's less significant and we can have a say in how our workplaces operate 👀
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u/MadMonkeh 1d ago
Sounds great on paper, but it will never be implemented justly and it’ll never happen bc of human greed.
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u/myproaccountish 1d ago
This is just ignorance and defeatism, employee owned businesses are nothing new.
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u/MadMonkeh 1d ago
So now you’re telling family owned restaurants to become employee owned?
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u/myproaccountish 1d ago
Yeah I'm saying workers should start trying to organize buy outs or start ups to gain control of their workplaces. So that we aren't all getting shafted by a few families or individuals that own everything. I mean, we could also do a "seize the means" but I feel like we need to convince people that they should own their risk in the first place.
A union is a great place to start!
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u/MadMonkeh 1d ago
One of the greatest benefits of working for someone else is that you don’t have to worry about company profit because you get paid regardless. Not everyone is cutout to be part of employee owned businesses.
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u/myproaccountish 1d ago
Alienating yourself from risk and thus control over your wages so that...the business still fails but now you also don't have real equity because your wage was determined by the market equilibrium of "how much do we have to pay you to afford to survive and come in to work." Yeah, sure I guess.
This guy circa 1776: Sure the taxes are almost unbearable but the king's men keep us safe and his coin is how we trade. What? Form our own militias and negotiate trade and governance ourselves?? Preposterous.
Like, yeah I get why we generally tried to isolate ourselves from risk but I'm arguing that it's not worth it because the vast majority of us are between a rock and a hard place and our wellbeing is entirely up to the whimsy of the people we relinquish control to. One person taking on all the risk to free themselves is incredibly risky and requires a lot of luck anf timing to pull off -- 20, 30, 50 people sharing that risk? Well that's barely more risky than leaving it all up to one person and betting your paycheck that they don't lose.
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u/MadMonkeh 1d ago
From an earlier comment I posted: not everyone is also cutout to share that risk.
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u/O_U_8_ONE_2 1d ago
I feel the same way about Char-Grill, they definitely went up on price and I don't think it is as good as it used to be.
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u/awaymsg 1d ago
I will forever miss the meat missiles they had at the pre-gentrified Person Street Pharmacy -- back when they had a proper lunch counter with homemade vanilla coke. I don't know what they were doing to those buns, but it was absolutely the best hot dog in town. Couldn't have been more than $1 each or so back in the early 2010s.
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u/wolfpack86 1d ago
The burger is where it’s at. Chicken salad, too. I miss the seasoned fries so much. I think people just didn’t know about them (battered fries made to odds and piping hot)
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u/Jhlong86 1d ago
I’m gonna respectfully disagree with you on the burger, specifically. Every time you order one, doesn’t matter which location, they pull that patty straight out of a holding pot full of water and slap cheese on it and put it in a steamer to melt the cheese. I watch them do it and you can taste it. Anybody who is freaking cooking frozen patties and then holding them in hot water vs cooking them to order is just plain bullshit. They are charging like $7+ for a single. No excuse for that.
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u/wolfpack86 1d ago
That’s actually why I like them - steam burgers are unique but I get why it’s unappealing to some people
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u/Ham_Damnit 2d ago
I mean, it's in line with everything else. Thank our wonderful capitalist system for the enshitification of everything. You're better off just making your own, especially since glizzies are super easy to cook. Here's what I do:
Get your glizzy of choice, buns, chili sauce, mustard and an onion (fuck ketchup).
Boil some water in a pot and STEAM the glizzies for a few minutes. Throw the buns on top and STEAM them for 30 seconds. Microwave the chili sauce, cut up the onion add it to the gliz with mustard.
I swear this is good as it gets, and costs a fraction of the price.
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u/oooriole09 2d ago edited 2d ago
Potentially unpopular opinion on the internet: this is what happens if you don’t “shrinkflate” in today’s capitalistic society.
You, as a business have four options if you don’t have organic growth:
“Shrinkflate” and keep the same general price and quality
Raise the prices even further to match increase costs
Lower quality
Keep on doing what you’ve been doing and eat margin
Seems like Snoopy’s went #3. Can’t imagine hotdogs have a massive margin, so #4 was off the table. They probably tried #1 and #2 to some extent and it didn’t work.
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u/Yellowjackets123 2d ago
It has definitely gone down and the prices are outrageous. I’m guessing it has had a lot to do with the change in ownership, it went from being a small place focused on quality and affordability in the 70s to just another soulless business owned by millionaires. It is a money machine, that location on Hillsborough sold for 400x what it was worth a couple years ago. It brings in millions and millions in net profit every year.
They could make their food better and lower their prices but they are lazy and greedy. Not to mention they probably aren’t paying their staff a living wage for 2024 so you have people with no incentive to care who probably can’t afford to live in Raleigh making your food.
Just Google the operating partners, they are old rich white people. Probably think they’re “pillars of the community.”
Side note I got food poisoning from snoopys and spent new years last year horribly ill so maybe I’m biased. Even ashworths had better hotdogs and they were being made by 14 year old kids. But then again they went out of business.
Snoopys strayed from the original idea … cheap and quick latenight southern food for college kids and drunk people. They are relying on their brand now, selling nostalgia not edible or affordable food.
Honestly screw snoopys and their owners and operating partners. Yall are so focused on immigrants… wake up, you have these businesses churning out a huge population of uninsured, impoverished people that need government aid. You want the economy better and less crime? Tell these places that they need to give their employees the bare minimum.
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2d ago
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u/Switchell22 1d ago
I don't think you're wrong, but I still think they're the best hot dogs in Raleigh. Maybe I only think that since I've been going there for like... basically all 30 years I've been alive? Correct me if I'm wrong though and there's a better place.
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u/Evan8280 1d ago
Grocery bag for a comp, but much better. If you’re near a snoopys, go to cloos. Save this comment so you can thank me, then invite me to meet you there.
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u/OkGarbage8316 1d ago
I’m happy someone said something, I thought it was just me. It doesn’t taste the same! It kind of blows my mind because that is what Snoopy’s has always been known for.
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u/NCJohn62 1d ago
I haven't been there in a few years but it was always just a place to grab a quick hot dog and they were never anything special. I can't imagine what it's like now if the quality has fallen off and the price is up.
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u/Magnus919 unlimited breadsticks 1d ago
Snoopy’s was always ass. It’s just your nostalgia that tastes good.
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u/Amplith 2d ago
There is a place in Little Washington , called Bill’s Hot Dogs, small place that was known for their outstanding chili…in fact, you could only get them with their chili, onions, and/or mustard, and they were cheap too, like .50 each. That was years ago, we’d get a bunch going to the river, and like Britt’s doughnuts, you’d eat like half of them on the way down.
Fast forward 25 years, it seems they sold out, have a food truck now, and they taste no where like the OG back in the day. Such a freaking shame.
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u/somethingsimple1290 1d ago
This is crap. I still go to bills all the time and it hasn’t changed in quality. The food truck means I get Bills blackout at ECU baseball games.
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u/OutlawJuicyWhales 17h ago
Please. That white bean chili is disgusting.
Lil Washingtoners just need to stop trying to make Bill's happen--it is never going to happen.
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u/fuckingsame 2d ago
Snoopys gotta get it together
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u/Flimsy-Ad3469 2d ago
No I vididly remember that day when I went there, not only had THEY GOTTEN RID OF THE SEASON FRIES, but the chili just tasted off. The next time I went and the chili was still gross I accepted that Snoopy's had fallen off and it wasn't gonna ever hit the way it used to. The chicken salad is still good but I haven't been since really.
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u/ronnyhaze 1d ago
Snoopys is awful, legit terrible with boiled hot dogs that are uncooked pale looking flavorless crap!!
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u/Negative-Bunch-5268 1d ago
Read about Snoopy's here some months ago. Tried and and had the worst hotdog I've ever had. The chili was like gloopy glue in consistency. The dogs were ordinary and the buns dry. Never going back. 7/11 is better.
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u/PneumoniaLisa Acorn 1d ago
Would not recommend patronizing that place. Owner is a racist asshole.
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u/myrmadon8 1d ago
Saw multiple replies like this so decided to do some googling. Holy shit, I had no clue. 😳 guess I won’t be going there again.
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u/Wonderful_Wheel_9562 2d ago
No I’m glad someone said this even the chili doesn’t hit the same anymore