Do you shake your grapes?

cloudy on 07/04/2014 - 15:53

Ok, this made me a bit sad. This may be seen as trival, but bare with me.

I went to woolies, and got Thompsom seedless grapes, really yum, fresh, and at $1.70 it's probably not the cheapest, but its fine.

Today i noticed, more so than usual, people lifting the bunches, giving it a shake and picking off individual grapes they dont like the look of.
When i went to the grapes, ALL the grapes were consistantly lovely, yet there was around 2kg of loose grapes in the boxes.

It just makes me think, what a waste!

When my parents had a fruit store at the QVM, my grandparents would smack peoples hands for that.

Question for the crowd: Is there anything wrong with grabbing a bag and picking off the ugly ones, or shaking some bunches to ride ur bag of loose grapes?

personally, i think those people are selfish, and just adds to more wasted food in this world.

PS: i grabbed some of the loose grabs and bought them, ate them, and they taste great.

Food & Grocery

Comments

  • battler on 07/04/2014 - 15:57
    -2

    what is it today with First World Problems in the forums!

    • cloudy on 07/04/2014 - 16:41
      +4

      Sorry, is my anger at grape shakers the 1st world problem? or the people who pick and shake grape bunchers the 1st world problem?

      I feel like those who pick off perfectly fine grapes are creating 3rd world hunger problems. Isn't food wastage massive in 1st world countries?

    • itajac on 07/04/2014 - 18:23
      +8

      Trust me you don't want to hear about Third World countries problems,they're too depressing and in another language..,

      • cloudy on 07/04/2014 - 21:48

        I recently helped a friend fundraise, who is taking 6 months off to go to Africa on a mission to aid orphaned kids. You are right that the stories are not nice to hear, but doesn't mean we should ignore it.

        Although, to some, it's much easier to live in ignorance/or forget there are problems, and just waste goods.

        I'll live a happier life knowing I don't contribute my statistical share of waste.

  • Captain Howdy on 07/04/2014 - 15:58

    I do, to an extent. I'll usually just have a look at the bottom of the bag as that's where the majority of bad grapes go. Loose grapes don't bother me, but soggy split ones do. Nothing pedantic. At most I'll get those out. Not paying to get visibly off produce.

  • Eivad on 07/04/2014 - 16:14
    +2

    I've seen people do this with mangoes.

    They were selling by the box, and this elderly man was swapping smaller mangoes with larger ones from other boxes! Pretty outrageous, if you ask me.

    • QW3RTY on 07/04/2014 - 16:37

      The man just wants more mango for his money. More mango for the same price as less mango? Who isn't taking that deal?

      But at the same time, definitely a bit of a MangoBroden moment.

      • altomic on 07/04/2014 - 19:45
        +5

        he was posting that method on OzMangoBargain.

        he got over 200+ for the tip

        • red-hot on 07/04/2014 - 21:18

          You guys are hilarious!

    • Forfiet on 14/04/2014 - 20:01

      I do that with a box of eggs….. Why do I have to buy a dozen eggs if 6 or more a broken?(or any) If everyone else does this(I can't be the only one) You will end up with a few boxes with just broken eggs(maybe!?!) They can be easily chucked out…

    • anastasiastarz on 21/04/2014 - 04:54

      I've seen a guy do that with strawberries and blueberries.

  • 2jzzzz on 07/04/2014 - 16:17
    +7

    Sounds like a rap song title.

  • [Deactivated] on 07/04/2014 - 19:49
    +8

    I don't pick and choose if they're already bagged. I'll just grab a bag that looks nice (I have my own criteria for grape preference), and take out any bad ones when I get home.

    If they're not bagged, I'll pick the bunches I want but never shake them. Didn't even know people did that! I won't pick any imperfect ones off, but I will pluck off any rotten grapes from the bunch I'm buying - I'll then throw those rotten ones in the green waste bin (supermarkets always have them, usually near the iceberg lettuce). Purely because I don't want them going all gross and spreading their rotten goo all over my other grapes and possibly making the others go bad quicker.

    I've picked loose ones up and thrown them in my bag too. Nothing wrong with them, often they're perfectly fine but probably just got knocked off their stems during packaging and transport.

    I'm not a big fan of people who pick and choose to such a degree, but it doesn't really bother me that much because I hope there would be others out there like me (and you, OP) who have no problem with picking those loose ones so that they don't go to waste :)

    I find the entire fresh food industry very sad though. Watch some docos on the topic and you'll see just how irrational the standards are and how much waste there is as a result. It's sad to know that perfectly good fresh produce is discarded purely because they aren't aesthetically perfect by the 'standards' created by shoppers expectations.

    • cloudy on 07/04/2014 - 21:56

      I grew up in The market in a fruit store, and see lots of waste. 99% of the fruit I've eaten are 2nds, slightly bruised apple, weird shaped pear, loose grapes, etc. so I know they are perfectly fine produce, but often people don't buy them, even though they are half the price or less. Plus most of those 2nd class fruit are only the result of poor QA packaging by growers, 99% of 2nd class fruit never made it to the fruit retailer like a fruit shop.

      So definitely lots of waste, or maybe a lot of fruit juice lol

      I'm glad to hear there are others like you waterlogged turnip, makes me smile.

      • retiredfeline on 07/04/2014 - 23:05
        +1

        Yeah it's a bit sad people behave like you describe. Unless they have started rotting, the grapes that have detached easily from the stems are actually the sweetest ones. My sister, who knows what's what, once bought a bag of loose grapes from the fruito at a bargain price and they were heavenly.

        • [Deactivated] on 07/04/2014 - 23:19

          Another plus for the loose grapes: they're easier to wash and easier to eat lol. I'll throw all my loose ones in a bowl before eating the ones on stems (in case they go bad sooner), give them a few rinses under the tap, then scoff while perusing OzBargain.

          Stems are often obstacles to effective scoffing lol

  • Geewhizz on 15/04/2014 - 06:50

    I don't tend to take the whole bag. I just take what I need. It seems to me the bags are the supermarkets' way of making you buy more than you need, and it seems any that ARE less than decent are always hiding in the bottom of the bag.

    • retiredfeline on 15/04/2014 - 08:19

      You have to be careful if it's a fixed price per bag which is assumed to be 1 kg or whatever the offer is, or it's charged by bag weight. The former is less satisfactory as the bag has to be sealed to prevent people from moving fruit.

      • Geewhizz on 15/04/2014 - 14:21

        It's not, it's just a per kg price, with open bags sitting there. There's no weight marked on them.

        It possibly varies in other areas, but I expect if the price were per 1kg bag they'd have to be sealed. I'm quite open about doing it, have done so with staff standing beside me, and they've never said anything.

    • cloudy on 16/04/2014 - 09:33

      I have a feeling you are the tpye of person my grandma would smack back in the day. Truth is there is always gonig to be 'nice' bunches and not as nice bunches of grapes in every farm, every box, every bag. All is natural, and should be consumed. If its not you, its probably someone else.

      pick a bag you like, there are always bags of different sizes, dont go picking within bags.

      • Geewhizz on 19/04/2014 - 13:56
        +1

        But why? I don't actually pick through the bags, just take what I want off the top of one bag. If I don't need a kg of grapes, why should I buy it just because they've been popped into OPEN bags for convenience (ever heard of suggestive selling?)

  • devilbabies on 11/05/2014 - 09:52

    break truss tomatoes off the truss and they'll usually put them through as normal cheaper tomatoes.

    break up garlic and buy only what you need

    i break the stems of broccoli too

    picking/shaking off bad grapes is no different from swapping out broken eggs

  • [Deactivated] on 12/05/2014 - 19:06

    ..bare with me.

    No thanks! I don't get naked with strangers;) Its 'bear' with me.

  • [Deactivated] on 09/08/2014 - 20:54

    I was at Claremont Quarters Coles today and was surprised to see two ladies picking all the grapes off the stem. I guess this saves the weight of buying the stem!

  • whodidthat on 09/08/2014 - 21:23

    Depends who I'm with

  • [Deactivated] on 09/08/2014 - 23:34
    +1

    Why wouldn't you grab the bunches that are good and leave the rest? Usually someone has already broken off pieces and decided to put them back into the bag… These pieces have already dried up as they are no longer on the vine. I always re-bag the proper grapes in another normal supermarket bag. Sometimes the loose parts are inside the good bunch and aren't even physically attached, so a gentle shake is what you are seeing people do.

    I can only guess who gains from people buying the loose grapes but it is most likely the supermarket itself.

    Same with the people that don't check their eggs. Once you take the box home, you can't really bring it back. Just take a look at the bottom of each egg. Sometimes the soggy boxes are taken away but the empty shell is placed back into a normal container for some odd reason… I guess someone is doing it, otherwise it wouldn't be there.

    Again the supermarket is the only one that can gain from this… Why would some ordinary customer put an empty shell into a box!

  • cindy1981 on 10/08/2014 - 10:10
    +1

    do you shake your grapes..

    only when im doing the macarena ¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪
    ¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪¸¸.•¨•♫♪
    When I dance they call me macarena
    and the boys they say that I´m buena
    they all want me, they can´t have me
    So they all come and dance beside me

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