Do you think that for example fruit or vegetables don’t get refreshed or rotate in shops. Or even a bottle on shelves expiration but as you say its best to return when you see it gone off. Retailers have no choice except to allow a return policy.
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Excellent question @bronwastaken and great responses. I did know to some degree that a lot of produce is stored for periods of time but not the finer detail. Whenever I have purchased unacceptable fruit or vegies I usually don’t bother taking them back but this has now prompted me to take it back for a replacement or refund more often. The main problem I have is seeing people squeezing fruit to see if it is ripe.
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The more who do will hopefully result in better customer service.
That is not the buyer’s problem.
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I am really lucky to have a fantastic local fruit shop. The owner is very particular about the fruit and vegetables he buys and I have not had any issues. I also try to only buy fruit and vegetables when they are in season.
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It isn’t the store’s problem. Those who squeeze should be made to buy what they squeeze. No different to customers paying for display items they break/drop
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I am wondering what fruit other than avocados requires squeezing and who does it destructively, it is quite possible to test them and do no harm.
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Avocados shouldn’t be squeezed in store, but bought and allowed to ripen at home. If every customer looking at buying them squeezed a few in store, it almost guarantees that the flesh will be bruised when they ripen.
I have seen citrus, bananas, rockmelon/water melons and tomatoes (could be others but can’t remember off the top of my head) squeezed in the palm by various customers over the years…don’t know why…possibly to only bruise them for other customers.
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Counterpoint question using avos as the example, admittedly not applicable to all f&v.
As a practical matter how else can one select an avo for use 2~3 days hence? For today’s lunch? Colour is not dependable and how that goes varies from Haas to Shepherd.
It is easy to point at people who use whatever technique they know to buy well, it is better to educate ‘us’ on the alternatives. Some shoppers are more into tactile feel than others (Step 3).
Eltham town might be unusual for buying ‘prepinched’ f&v; We have only very seldomly encountered that where it put us off; same at Colesworth and the f&v shops. When we get a bad one we have never been knocked back on a return.
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I have read that avocados are ripe when the neck feels soft when gentle pressure is applied.
This method has never failed me.
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The sensory difference between gentle pressure and squeezing varies among individuals. eg
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A rather confused article. I accept that often avocados are unripe on the shelf and need to be ripened but assuming that squeezing causes damage how does taking them home avoid it? Perhaps the intent was don’t squeeze until it is yours, or perhaps the real message was something different.
Elsewhere we have:
“When they’re selecting an avocado, people squeeze them too hard.”
Ms Franceschi suggested people should instead press gently on the stem end to see if there was any give.
“It’s about how much you squeeze them and how forcefully you squeeze them; just be gentle,” she said.
Which was my point, you can test them without damage.
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If you don’t squeeze in the store, then they definitely won’t be bruised when bought. It also prevents the avocado being squeezed at various pressures in different ways (fingers, thumbs, palms etc) and those who know how to check if an avocado is ripe, will get a perfect one.
Some avocado varieties can be checked for ripening other ways…change in skin colour or the seed rattles when ripe (such as reed avocados).
You can, but how many squeeze properly and lightly?
BTW…just went to our local Woollies and saw a lady squeezing and apple. I asked her politely why she squeezes apples and she said “to check there are no bruises”. I didn’t say, but here squeezing is giving other customers the bruises she is hoping to avoid.
If one is squeezing to find one is soft to use in a few days, imagine how much squeezing this poor avocado has been subject to before you bought it making it soft…or being squeezed when soft. A recipe for bruising.
But what about the other people who squeezed it before you bought it?
That is the foundation to the problem of problem. No-one should squeeze product in store, especially when squeezing is known to bruise.
So careful squeezers must refrain because of the poor behaviour of rough squeezers, ah the problems of a many-faceted liberal democracy, our goals are limited by the least competent not the most.
How do you know you are a careful squeezer or the level of squeezing won’t damage the product?
If the product is ripe, even a careful squeeze could cause bruising where the same bruising may not occur to a unripe one.
It is a bit like a handshake…often those with strong handshakes don’t realise they are strong until others advise it is the case. Unfortunately fruits can’t tell us that we have squeezed too hard and only the customer who purchases will potentially know that it has been the case.
You got back to the premise.
eg, some of the rough ones are oblivious to how hard they are actually squeezing, poking, or prodding, and some don’t care and are not likely to change just because, but might with ongoing educational ‘opportunities’ they would have a difficult time ignoring.
Pointing at a problem is easy. Fixing it not always so much. Especially when day-to-day human is involved.
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There are many solutions to this problem. All those out of work COVID marshals could be retrained to be squeeze inspectors. Plastic pressure sensors could be disguised as avocados and administer a warning electric shock to the clumsy. The fruit could be put in rigid plastic boxes to keep impassioned squeezers at bay. Where there is a will there is a way.
Should I move that to the topic(s) on excessive or just plastic packaging? 
After the SFO earthquake 20-30 years back a restaurant lost most of an extensive and expensive scotch whisky cellar as well as the beaut bar itself.
When it was rebuilt each bottle of whisky was kept in a single bottle enclosed display with a ‘seat belt’. I can imagine avos in that mental image.
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Reminds me of seeing a tourist (I presume) go up to a short coconut tree which was bearing fruit in tropical coastal Australia, squeeze the coconut and then loudly declare to their companion that it was still hard and needed to stay on the tree a bit longer.
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