05 Aug 2004 | SH said...

How is thick padding pratical when you're trying to keep things moving? How about instead cashiers are trained to NOT THROW FRUIT? Or better yet, use the auto-teller so no one's molesting your fruit but you.

05 Aug 2004 | SH said...

Uhm. *SO* much of that comment didn't come out right. I didn't mean "molesting your fruit" that way...

05 Aug 2004 | JF said...

Slippery coating on the pads. Totally doable. Like the nylon material they put on gym mats. That would work.

05 Aug 2004 | SH said...

But wouldn't they have to polish it up every shift? Like a bowling alley? Wouldn't vinyl or something work better than a gym mat?

05 Aug 2004 | Peter Davidson said...

I think a better solution would be to employ some sort of air cushioned bags to put the fruit in. Something like the inflated air filled packing material that Amazon and others are using now. The added benefit would be protection from the canned foods the bagger tossed in the shopping bag with the fruit.

05 Aug 2004 | JF said...

I think a better solution would be to employ some sort of air cushioned bags to put the fruit in. Something like the inflated air filled packing material that Amazon and others are using now. The added benefit would be protection from the canned foods the bagger tossed in the shopping bag with the fruit.

Think about the consumer. Who wants all that grocery bag space taken up by air? This could easily lead to 5 bags to carry instead of 3.

05 Aug 2004 | but that's just me said...

Plus padded bags would likely cost more for the stores to use, increasing food prices.

05 Aug 2004 | Jonny Roader said...

"Think about the consumer. Who wants all that grocery bag space taken up by air? This could easily lead to 5 bags to carry instead of 3."

Sod the consumer, the amount of packaging on food these days is wastage at its worst!

05 Aug 2004 | Benjy said...

Few things aggravate me more than when I've spent time picking out nice, non-bruised produce and carefully protected it on my journey through the store only to have the checkout person throw it down the counter and/or drop it into a bag with a thud. Jason, I think you're on to something...

05 Aug 2004 | Fernando Dunn II said...

Peter: Do you mind if I pattent that idea. I'll give you 30%.

05 Aug 2004 | Marten Veldthuis said...

Interesting, the supermarket we go to has a soft cushion at the end of the slightly downslope conveyor belt. And if you put your apples in those plastic bags which are available at the vegetable dept., they don't even roll downwards. One thing that doesn't help against is soda-bottles rolling down against your fruit though...

05 Aug 2004 | Anil said...

What's fascinating to me is that it's an almost uniquely western trait to even think about unbruised fruit. A bruise on nearly any common fruit doesn't affect taste at all (in fact, I remember reading a biologist saying years ago that apples with bruises or spots tested indentically in blind taste tests) but is a purely aesthetic consideration.

Now, I'm all for eating good-looking food, but if something has no practical effect on the presumable purpose in buying fruit, why do we (and I'm just as guilty of shielding my produce purchases) all care so much?

05 Aug 2004 | F2 said...

thank god for self checkout....

05 Aug 2004 | Arne Gleason said...

Bruised fruit will no longer be a problem once they all have their genomes bioengineered. They will grow their own easy-open, tamper-evident, pest-resistant, freshness-preserving, bullet-proof, designer-colored transport shells.

05 Aug 2004 | but that's just me said...

Well, yes, there it is! Use the self checkout. Brilliant, F2! Glad I thought of it...just kidding.

06 Aug 2004 | Chris from Scottsdale said...

For some reason I never even considered this. I always just pick out the best fruit I can find, and put it into a bag, and don't give it a second thought. Odd.

06 Aug 2004 | Josh said...

Here's another question for the checkout lanes. Why do we always get the cashiers in training in the express lane. Huh? Huh?

It's a conspiracy, innit? It's to force us to buy ten products just to avoid the express lane! Grass-roots movement time!

Ahem...dignity restored.

06 Aug 2004 | jupiter said...

Please excuse for being offtopic, but that's just to good:

Please excuse for being offtopic, but that's just to good:

http://a.parsons.edu/~jk/thesis/archives/video.html

06 Aug 2004 | Arne Gleason said...

"Why do we always get the cashiers in training in the express lane

Though annoying if youre just thinking about your own convenience, in the bigger frame it seems a reasonably sound practice. Fewer items per transaction allow the trainee to experience a full cycle in a short amount of time (translating to more learning over the given period). The potential magnitude of error is reduced as its easier for both parties to spot and resolve mistakes with 8 items than with 100.

Also consider, if with eight items you are waiting 5 minutes instead of half-a-minute, the unlucky sole stuck with a full cart and a trainee is going to end up waiting an hour (likely to end in disaster before finishing).

Full simulation training (where the experience would be indistinguishable from the real thing) would eliminate exposing customers to trainee-checkout experiences; but what supermarket is going to do that?

06 Aug 2004 | but that's just me said...

Jeez, Arne...you're like Laslow from "Real Genius."

06 Aug 2004 | Jeremy said...

Here's a thought: bag your fruit (as others have suggested), then put your fruit on the conveyor last. The likelihood of it getting smooshed (technical term) by hard and/or heavy objects is considerably lower.

"Twenty points higher than me, and thinks a big man like that can wear his clothes..."

06 Aug 2004 | miss representation said...

Padding=maintenance.

Hard surfaces are most durable, easiest to clean, last longer. Any padding would be somewhat porous. Changes in temperature and impact would lead to wearing and cracking. So imagine the relatively harmless impact of a bruise versus watching your fruit land softly in a cracked, stained vinyl pad that looks like a couch left under a bridge somewhere.

06 Aug 2004 | monkeyinabox said...

As someone who WAS a checkout person (or grocery cashier as I prefer to call it), I always treated people's produce with care. There's a chance when you are expected to ring up thousands of dollars of groceries per hour, that speed is of the essence. That doesn't mean I was harsh with delicate items, it just means there's a tradeoff of how much time you can spend treating somrthing special. It's not like it's going to ship half-way around the world.

For the baggers, you know the 16-year old kids, who just want a job so they have money for gas and Britney Spears CDs, are the ones, who I've seen put eggs in a bag and then set a Watermellon on top. There's something as common sense that isn't so common these days. Maybe that's why I'm not longer doing that line of work.

06 Aug 2004 | but that's just me said...

Nice, Jeremy...thank you.

Yes, we must find a solution to smooshed fruit. It's a moral imperative. ;-)

06 Aug 2004 | Helpar said...

What about little, tiny airbags? If anything, it would be entertaining to see your fruit go off like popcorn on the checkout stand.

"Your mother puts smooshed fruit in your underwear, how do you sit?"

06 Aug 2004 | but that's just me said...

I think a very lo-tech, novel solution would be to politely ask the checkout person...oh, sorry...the PC term is apparently grocery cashier...to politely ask the grocery cashier to treat your fruit with gentle kindness.

"Well, what about that time I found you naked with that bowl of smooshed fruit?"

06 Aug 2004 | Helpar said...

You did not.

06 Aug 2004 | jarjaw said...

Jeez, Arne...you're like Laslow from "Real Genius."

Hahaha - best thing I read all week.

06 Aug 2004 | sloan said...

I think flat counters helps. Trader Joe's has flat counters and I never see fruit getting slammed because there is no ramp to speed up the fruit as it heads for the wall.

06 Aug 2004 | but that's just me said...

I did, Helpar...but it was hot and I was hungry!

06 Aug 2004 | bgramer said...

Why not just use the self-checkout lane yourself? I use it at the local Jewel store. Problem solved.
-BG

06 Aug 2004 | Brad Hurley said...

I did, Helpar...but it was hot and I was hungry!

This requires photographic proof.

06 Aug 2004 | but that's just me said...

Mr. Hurley, I am shocked and awed! I was simply quoting a movie. I am not that kind of girl. ;-)

07 Aug 2004 | DaveMo said...

If I had a nickle
Or better yet a dime
For every hour I have spent
In "express" lanes over time

I would be a rich man
With wealth beyond compare
Instead of stuck here reading
The Enquirer over there

Ten items I have less than
In my pocket change exact
For some hot dogs and Doritos
A TV Guide and one six pack

Yet here it is I languish
Standing patiently in line
Behind a woman who's forgotten
Some item from isle nine

Not that the time is wasted
My education is enhanced
I know who J'Lo's dating
And a kid raised by giant ants

And when at last I check out
And settled my account
I've spent so much time in line there
I just got the senior discount!

07 Aug 2004 | Stefan Seiz said...

Unless you could finally buy an apple (or pear...) in an average us supermarket which actually tastes like an apple , i couldn't care less about bruises. Most fruits look really terrific - more like paintings of fruits - which rarely have bruises too, they're huge and colorful but they simply don't taste.
A *real* apple however tastes and most always comes with bruises anyway. Something which younger generations might not even know anymore ;-)