The other day I was at Safeway which is trying to go upscale after watching Whole Foods successfully take your whole paycheck. Lots of money there.
Consumers are willing to pay premiums that run 30% and more, especially for perishable items such as produce.
What frustrates me endlessly are the stickers on our fruit. The worst I came across you see in the photo to the left. Every apricot has a sticker that is almost as big as the fruit itself and if you look closely, some have two stickers.
Now let me count the reasons why this is bad:
- Unnecessary production cost: sticker, design, putting them on the fruit
- I have to peel them off: there is no grab an apple and bite into it. No, now you need to inspect your fruit, on the dark side of the peach there could be one hiding.
- No easy composting, need to take the sticker off, even if it is on an orange peel. Or if people are careless, it goes into the compost.
- Once I peel the sticker off, I have to walk to the garbage can to throw it out.
- Who knows how much glue is staying on the fruit.
The sad truth is, it works. I am convinced that there have been many tests and we consumers are ill-informed enough to fall for the shiny sticker.
I think it is an example of how free-market capitalism is not working for the benefit of the common folk, and needs to, dare I say, be regulated.
It is sad, so sad. There are even a bunch of Facebook Groups dedicated to get rid of them. I joined the one with the most members.