Perishing retailers

No fun getting older: you remember how good things used to be and how the sun always shone etc.  Illusory of course (I am told).  So, having used a well known brand of slimfit wellies for well over 40 years, I wonder whether they used to last 4-5 years as I seem to recall.  Is it just my imagination that recently that has reduced to 2-3 years and that the previous pair only lasted 21 months, with the current pair having lasted only 22 weeks before perishing to the point of leaking in both boots?

And used one not to take things back to a retailer if they were of unsatisfactory quality to have them replaced?  So why does at least one major retailer of this well known brand of slimfit wellies say he will not issue a refund until the (Far Eastern) manufacturer agrees that he has cut corners on quality control or rubber formulation: what's the manufacturer got to do wth my contract with the retailer?

I'm sure we will get a refund, because we know how to argue it; but what about those who are taken in by this sort of nonsense turned out by modern retailers who know better.  And what about the world's resources expended on making, shipping, distributing, returning, 'recycling'?  It won't end well.  And I know because I am a grumpy old man person with the wisdom of years.

P.S.  I know what the problem really was: the rubber life was shortened by being stuck for months in a baking hot container on the deck of a ship in the Suez Canal while the shipowner negotiated its release in return for compensation for damage to the canal.  Will the retailer and manufacturer work it out?