Text 14916, 86 rader
Skriven 2011-08-20 07:31:04 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE DRUM
Ärende: Qwibbles
================
ML> Marketing isn't just about the one-time purchase. If you
ML> sell snaggle-toothed corn, the word will get round just as
ML> sure as if you posted pictures of them in your ads.
 
DD> You give the 'Murrican consumer much more credit vis-a-vis 
DD> aesthetics than I do. If there are not substantially fewer 
DD> kernels per ear, no matter the neatness, or lack thereof, 
DD> in which they are placed on the cob -- most people
DD> won't shiv a git.

You're wrong, and a tour through any supermarket's fruit aisle
will show you why.

I stopped buying most fruit - stone fruit, especially - at supermarkets
in the late 1980's when it became impossible to find actual edible fruit
there.

The Washington State Red Delicious apple is a perfect
example of this.  Growers have concentrated so strongly on developing a
gorgeous, smooth dark red skin and firm shippable fruit that today the
Delicious variety of apple found in stores could be the model for a 
toddler's picture-book illustration of "apple." But the fruit itself is
hard, very wet, and has almost no flavor.  One of the web's best info
sites about apples, Orange Pippins (http://www.orangepippin.com) even 
admits this in their article about the variety:

    "Unfortunately the visual appeal is not matched by the flavor. 
     Red Delicious has a sweet but very mild flavor, somewhat 
     reminscent of slightly over-ripe melon. The flesh is juicy 
     and has a light crispness.  The skin can be quite tough.  
     Overall Red Delicious can be quite a refreshing apple to eat, 
     but its chief characteristic is that it has almost no flavor 
     at all.

     Some enthusiasts also believe that in the development of 
     more highly coloured variants, the good flavor of the 
     original Delicious has been bred out."
 
                -- (http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/red-delicious)

This type of fruit breeding isn't limited to apples, though. Fifteen
years ago, strawberries were highly seasonal in New England. 
Strawberries are a fairly fragile fruit that bruises and spoils 
easily, and the season is pretty short (shorter some years than others
thanks to our capricious weather.) But now, "better" varieties have
been developed by growers such as Driscoll, and we can get their
strawberries almost year 'round here.  And those Driscoll berries are
SO PERFECT looking: Optimal strawberry coloring, perfect leafy cap,
dead-symmetrical seed placement, and so on. But they're hard and watery
tasting because they've been bred for shippability and good looks.
The fact is that those good looks sell so well that even during 
strawberry season here, when we have fields bursting with ripe, juicy,
flavorful, totally awesome and incredible berries WHICH DON'T LOOK
PERFECT, the supermarkets here are running specials on Driscoll berries
and not even selling the native stuff!

I could go on and on - Georgia peaches that look like you told the 
Star Trek replicator, "Computer, give me a peach." Perfect shape, 
perfectly colored skin flocked with perfect fuzz - hard as a damn rock
with no flavor or juiciness.

That's why I rarely if ever buy fruit from the supermarket - Maryanne
and I go to the orchards and farms that are still operating around here
and buy our stuff directly from the local growers who still put some
value in actual, tree-ripened, fresh-picked fruit.

Vegetables are hardly any better. The markdown bins at Stop & Shop 
are always filled with various vegetables that have tiny - seriously
TINY - defects which have rendered them "unsellable" at full price
to the idiot shoppers who won't buy anything less than PERFECT
produce.  

No, Dave, YOU are the one not giving the American consumer enough 
credit...for the way they are willing to swallow marketing and
advertising lies, and how they are willing to buy fruit and veg
that looks awesome but tastes like shit because, hey it looks 
awesome!
 

---
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