25 Biggest Product Flops of the Last 10 Years

Buick, a division of General Motors, introduced the Cascada, a 200-horsepower convertible, in 2016. The Cascada featured a powered-retracting roof and LEDtaillights and headlights. The vehicle appealed to drivers living in sunny climates, but apparently not to many other consumers. Sales dropped every year from its launch in 2016.

Its fate was sealed in 2019 when Opel, which built the turbocharged vehicle, was sold to France’s PSA Group. The manufacturers announced plans to discontinue three car models, and the Cascada was one of them.

Samsung, which recently overtook Apple in the smartphone market, also had one of more recent product flops. The Note S7, a tablet phone that launched in August 2016, was initially well received. However, it had a serious flaw. A problem with the battery software resulted in the phones catching fire on several occasions, including once on a Southwest Airlines flight, which had to be evacuated. Soon, the Department of Transportation made it illegal to bring a Note 7 on a commercial flight. By October, after an extremely expensive recall, Samsung suspended production of the Note 7 worldwide. The company lost billions of dollars due to the debacle.

When Juicero launched in 2016, it was billed as the first at-home, cold-pressed juicing system. The Wi-Fi connected appliance came with a price tag of $699, and all users had to do for a glass of juice was put a prepackaged “product” into the machine and press.

The product generated a lot of buzz until a Bloomberg report exposed its uselessness, as users could just as easily squeeze the 99 cent juice packets into a cup with their hands — without the aid of the Juicero. The product had had its price reduced to $399 after a few months on the market. Months after Bloomerg’s expose, the Juicero was taken off the market and customers were offered refunds.

Kold was an ill-conceived at-home soda machine from Keurig, the company famous for its coffee machines that brew by the cup through single-use pods. Prohibitively expensive for many, the Kold sold for anywhere between $299 and $369, depending on the retailer and pods, which produced 8 ounces of soda and cost several dollars a piece. The idea, meant to extend Keurig’s market reach beyond coffee, came at an odd time, as Americans began drinking less soda.

Still, it was enough to catch the attention of executives at Coca-Cola, a company that invested $1 billion in the project. Keurig discontinued Kold in June 2016, less than a year after its debut. In addition to its high price, the noise the machine made, its massive size, and tendency to overheat all contributed to its demise.

Given the number of products McDonald’s has introduced over the years there are bound to be misfires, and McDonald’s Mozzarella Sticks was one of them. According to Mashed, the sticks were criticized on social media for lacking cheese. Photos allegedly showed the sticks with a hollowed-out center.

For one customer, disappointment turned to litigation and he sued the company. The suit sought class-action status claiming false advertising and breach of express warranty, among other allegations. The case was voluntarily dismissed in October 2016, without reward. Soon after, the mozzarella sticks vanished from the McDonald’s menu in North America, though they’ve occasionally appeared in Australia.