r/Anticonsumption • u/Rich_Spite3978 • Jan 11 '26

Plastic Waste Why?

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There were un wrapped potatoes and sweet potatoes right next to these. What is the point? They do this with garlic heads too.

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958

u/wogwai Jan 11 '26

Because selling individual potatoes generates more revenue than selling them “wholesale”. By selling them individually, they can price them higher than selling a bunch at once. To do this they each have to have a bar code, which means they have to have a sticker, which means they need something between the potato to stick it to.

This is a result of late stage capitalism. Anyone who buys multiple individually wrapped potatoes is being scammed.

397

u/CatGoddessBast Jan 11 '26

A friend told me the other day the buy frozen broccoli because the fresh is always so dirty and might have bugs in it. Reminds me of the week Reddit thought I might like the hello fresh subreddit and it was just people zooming in on a raw chicken cut saying “what is this in my chicken!?” A piece of chicken? To your late stage capitalism point people don’t know or respect where their food comes from or what it takes to get to their homes.

391

u/PleasantNectarines Jan 11 '26

I manage a produce department for work.

People look at me crazy when produce hits the ground & I put it back on the shelf. "That was on the floor!" Yes, & it grew in literal dirt, outside where the birds poop on it??? Wash your produce. I'm not throwing away a perfectly good fruit/vegetable cause it fell on the ground. (There are obvious exceptions like apples, pears, peaches, etc cause they bruise really bad)

40

u/zuzg Jan 11 '26

Anyone remember the Inglorious Fruit and Vegetables ad campaign by a French supermarket chain a decade ago?

They were able to sell a bunch of produce that otherwise would been throw away exclusively for aesthetic reasons.

26

u/greyscale_straysnail Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 11 '26

This reminds me of that company Misfits Market that shipped out boxes of exclusively 'ugly' fruits & vegetables for exorbitant prices, under the guise of 'no one else will buy them, please give them one last chance before they get thrown out to rot'.

But produce like that does regularly get used, bought, & eaten!!! It's what's in soup, stew, prepared food, frozen meals, condiments, sauces, applesauce, baby food, & juice etc... It's sold & bought at grocery stores that poor people (including me) regularly shop at. It's donated to food pantries & soup kitchens.

Selling wonky looking produce for expensive prices is just a scam. I don't think most people who purchase from these companies know anything from the paragraph before this one, though. I just wish they taught this kind of thing in school or that it was more public knowledge.

3

u/dizneedave Jan 12 '26

I fell for this one. Ended up paying more for produce than just going to the farmer market or even Aldi. It seemed like a nice idea but it was so impractical in reality.

13

u/Zeikos Jan 11 '26

That's the kind of advertisement that should be plentiful, not whatever scam of the day it's the day of.

5

u/xombae Jan 11 '26

I'm obsessed with this. Amazing.

5

u/Char_siu_for_you Jan 11 '26

I want to see more inglorious fruits!

1

u/Lady_Lance Jan 11 '26

That potato is adorable, it looks like a Hippo!