Here they still exist - they just make you pay if you want a new one. I (and seemingly most people) use them all the time still, but I guess more people reuse them more times now. I’m quite happy to pay 30p for one when the old ones get used up. I think they’re a bit sturdier than they used to be too - so less likely for the handles to snap when you’ve still got a mile to walk home.
I guess it mostly cut down on unwanted ones getting littered etc. Now they’re valuable, all the more reason to hoard them in a cupboard in the kitchen.
Where you are it sounds like they stopped existing - what do you put your food shopping in? Do you still have a thousand left that you previously hoarded?
Me “Hi, is that, umm… Phones, number four, uhhhh?”
Phones4u “Haha, yes, but It’s pronounced ‘Phones For You’”
Me “Oh, it’s it a wrong number? I’ve got it written down here, it’s a number four, not a word ‘for’ f-o-r, and it’s not the word ‘you’, but just a letter U on its own, which is pronounced ‘uh’”
Phones4u “yes, that’s how we write it”
Me “Why? Why didn’t you do it properly? It’s just like that argument with the 90s boyband Fiveive all over again.”
Etc etc