There is a recent controversy over Whole Foods that pushed the buttons for many of us who object to over packaging and unnecessary used of plastics. The United States continues to generate more garbage than any other nation and does not have the type of laws as in Germany where countries must internalize the costs of such packaging (giving them an economic incentive to reduce excess material). Now her twitter account Nathalie Gordon in London found a humorous but effective way to same Whole Foods into dropping a product of pre-pealed oranges sealed in little plastic boxes.
The Sumo tangerines were on sale for $5.99 per pound and the label proclaimed “Made right here.”
Gordon saw an image from a person who spotted the product in a California Whole Foods on Twitter where the person wrote “Are people really that lazy nowadays?” Gordon has her own twitter account that describes her as “Creative at @sunshineagency- too busy watering my own grass to notice if yours is greener. Will work for bacon. #thisdoesntmeanyes & #taxifabric co-founder.”
Gordon wrote “If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn’t need to waste so much plastic on them.” The humorous tweet has been retweeted and liked over 60,000 times.
Whole Foods has made a fast retreat after receiving complaints but insisted that “this was a simple case where a handful of stores experimented with a seasonal product spotlight that wasn’t fully thought through. We’re glad some customers pointed it out so we could take a closer look.”
Brilliant Nathalie.
These reportedly were selling for $5.99 per pound (regularly $6.99).
Squeeky: thanks for that song about not quitting your dads😀. I would recommend moving to France. Every Frenchman is a French teacher. No better way to learn…If I were single and 20 years younger…..
@isaacb
Everything is better in Paris, so I hear. Because they use REAL butter, and you can get real food that somebody prepares with love and pride. If their darn language wasn’t sooo hard, I might move there. I just swear I would fit right in! Even their music is fantastic. Like this song, which in French is about never quitting your fathers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkCuUpcJpxQ
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@Gary T, bettykath, and Sierra Rose:
Oh! Uh. . . that was a play on words, because I never mis-spell stuff. Because I am PERFECT!
Uh, ok, sooo I screwed up. Nobody’s perfect!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
The German law cited by Prof. Turley hasn’t reduced the garbage per person in Germany at all. It is the same as before the law was passed. The difference is that we pay about 2 cents more per packaged product. For this we get free yellow plastic bags to keep our “recycling” rubbish in until it is picked up and driven to the power plant, where it is burned to make electricity.
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter, I think you mean homophones.
It does seem like a senseless way to increase the price of a tangerine and create more waste. There is an island of floating plastic in the Pacific where the currents conjoin, from all the trash that eventually finds its way into the sea.
Peeling a tangerine is so much easier than opening most packaging.
homophobe is slang for a person who is homophobic, i.e. biases against homosexuals. perhaps you meant homophone?
I remember back in the 70’s when McDonalds opened a place on the Champs Elysees. After a short time, after the wrappers started showing up on the sidewalk, the city made McDonalds responsible for their trash regardless of who dropped it. There were, at any given moment, McDonalds’ employees policing the sidewalk for several hundred yards in either direction. There are plenty of trash buckets on the sidewalks. This is the essence of what must be done. The source of the problem must be addressed.
By the way, a hamburger at McDonalds in Paris is vastly better than here in the US. And, you can get a beer to go with it.
Squeaky:
JT is notorious for his bad spelling and grammar. Even in these days of spellcheckers.
But we all love him anyway.
It’s not a problem for me – I hire illegals to peel my organic tangerines.
@bams
Not as silly as FOMENT, the free oxygen movement which takes lids off jars, and fully sprays out aerosol cans so as not to bury oxygen.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
You would think that someone, hailing from a city, like London–which is currently infested with people, from around the world, intent on victimizing the local inhabitants and instituting Sharia law in the land–would have something more substantial to fret about other than a peeled orange in a plastic container. Yeah. You would think. It’s fantastic to know that people have their priorities in line.
I wonder what she does when she sees the cut up watermelon, pineapple and kiwi in plastic containers? She probably pees on herself.
Somebody had to have their hands on that orange. Yuk. I will peel my own. And I will peel out on Whole Foods.
@JT:
Plus you have “pealed” in the first paragraph, and “same” instead of “shame.”
Feel free to erase these two comments.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@JT
Uh, you have “pealed” instead of “peeled” in your title. Spell check missed it because both are valid words. That happens with homophobes, which are words that sound the same.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I understand someone planning to eat these in a car on way to work. Overpackaging seems the problem. How about offering “peeling” as a service to customers”?
Wasteful, however, I can see the appeel . . . bada boom 🙂
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Whole Foods? Isn’t that one of the chain stores listed as preparing for bankruptcy? Sebastopol California had/has one. I checked out the high prices and wasn’t impressed at the quality of produce but….when I was offered a free sample (which mis use of free ticked me off to begin with) of Natural Cheetos I broke into laughter and asked. Where would one find a Cheeto Bush?
Yes and…for arthritic hands, peeling can be difficult but so can opening some packaging. What’s a best for the environment, older buyers, buyers without hands or use thereof?