Selling sad produce

In grocery stores, fresh produce such as bananas and tomatoes often goes to waste if it's become a "loose single." Shoppers think it's damaged or imperfect.

German researchers have come up with a way to address this problem: make shoppers think the produce is feeling sad because it hasn't been bought.

This is achieved simply by displaying an anthropomorphized picture of sad produce above the singles.

The produce has to be sad. Happy fruits and vegetables don't motivate shoppers.

Also, making produce sad works better than offering a price discount, because shoppers often assume discounted food must be bad.

More info: Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of 'Single' Imperfect Food

via Book of Joe

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Comments

Here you buy tomatoes singly or in a bunch. I like picking up each tomato as you can feel for firmness.

Posted by F.U.D. in Stockholm on 12/12/24 at 11:22 AM

Without reading the article, I'm guessing those are cherry tomatoes, which are usually sold in pint baskets in the USA. Larger tomatoes are sold individually, although in recent years, they've come up with "stem tomatoes," a bunch of tomatoes attached to a stem. Apparently, people think these are somehow better. As for me, if I didn't grow them myself, I don't bother with fresh tomatoes. Commercial tomatoes are grown for their shipping qualities and keeping qualities, not for flavor.

Posted by ges on 12/14/24 at 06:08 PM