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Supermarket triggers. Leave The Bananas Alone!!

237 replies

TrippingOverMyAssets · 21/11/2025 07:48

This really triggers me and drives me absolutely mad. I can’t stand people excessively touching and handling fruit they have no intention of buying. Every time I am in the supermarket and I go to buy some bananas, I always just pick up the first bunch that look almost ripe, are a nice colour and look undamaged, then put them in my basket and walk away. Even if one is a little damaged I just eat that one first. Job done.

But time and time again the display is being body blocked by one person and their trolley while a queue builds up behind them, usually by someone of a certain age demographic removing every single bunch from the stand and inspecting them individually, prodding and poking them then putting them back.

Are you buying them or making love to them? Stop prodding and poking them all ffs! Other people have to buy those and they don’t want your hands all over them squeezing them and poking them.

No other supermarket fruit goes through this undignified ritual of prodding and poking then being put back on the shelf. It’s so unhygienic and rude. Just leave the bananas alone if you don’t want them! Other people have to buy those after you’ve finished messing about with them!

OP posts:
crackofdoom · 21/11/2025 10:07

Certified avocado fondler here.

PistachioTiramisu · 21/11/2025 10:05

What is it with a 'certain age demographic' or 'an older man'? You are showing your prejudice here, OP, and it's not nice.

You would never cope with the markets in France and Spain, where it is quite normal to pick up fruit and vegetables, feel them, smell them, etc. before deciding which one to buy. No self-respecting French person would ever buy a melon without smelling it to gauge for ripeness.

Pushmepullu · 21/11/2025 10:04

The other thing I hate is when people use the trolley self scan. Put their shopping through but don’t pack it. They then pay and spend ages putting it in the bags they bought with them. That is not time efficient and can result in bags not being packed well!

Kreepture · 21/11/2025 10:01

Kreepture · 21/11/2025 09:53

you'd hate my mom. She's an Onion Squeezer.. she's also known for fondling the caulifower.

I just read bits of the thread out to her.. she also admitted to feeling up the Tomatoes and Oranges.

PrincessFairyWren · 21/11/2025 10:01

I hate excessive grape tasters. Yuck.

Diddyball · 21/11/2025 10:01

This reply has been deleted

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TrippingOverMyAssets · 21/11/2025 09:55

Ever get the feeling some people argue against something just for the sake of it or that because they personally haven’t witnessed something that it doesn’t happen? 😂

OP posts:
Sartre · 21/11/2025 09:54

But it’s surely to make sure none of them are bruised? I can understand it personally having fallen foul to buying a full price bag of fruit with one rotten item inside of it.

Kreepture · 21/11/2025 09:53

you'd hate my mom. She's an Onion Squeezer.. she's also known for fondling the caulifower.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 21/11/2025 09:53

I wonder if it has occured to the OP that this may have nothing to do with age - but simply be that the Loughton area encourages fruit molesters?

HelenaWaiting · 21/11/2025 09:52

TrippingOverMyAssets · 21/11/2025 07:58

Well from the poll it looks like most of you like buying fruit that someone else has messed about with and damaged. Yeah, sure you do…

I voted YABU because you said "hence why" in a previous post. Sorry, but it's a pet hate.

Pushmepullu · 21/11/2025 09:51

Screamingabdabz · 21/11/2025 07:52

I don’t mind people turning over a few bunches to check whether they meet their requirements but it’s when they decide they don’t and just throw them down roughly. Same with bargain stuff, just rifle through and then just sling them back into the fridge with no care.

This is my biggest bug bear. It’s like saying if I don’t want it no one else should have it. I have told people off for doing this but as DH has pointed out where we shop has become infamous, think people clearing the drinks aisle by sweeping the drinks onto the floor, and the Huntingdon knife man obtained the knife from the local Asda. Now I just stare!

Excelnotexcellent · 21/11/2025 09:48

IAmABananaProdder · 21/11/2025 09:47

We’ve been through so much trauma, just let us have our perfect bananas dammit!!

Living through like 50th once in lifetime shitshow we deserve good bananas!

ClairDeLaLune · 21/11/2025 09:48

TrippingOverMyAssets · 21/11/2025 07:58

Well from the poll it looks like most of you like buying fruit that someone else has messed about with and damaged. Yeah, sure you do…

FFS OP life isn’t just black or white you know, there are shades in between. Who was that thick as shit US president who said if you’re not with us you’re against us? Dubya probably.

Anyway I voted YABU because I think your post is hyperbole. People generally really don’t do this. And if they have a little feel of a banana and put it back I really don’t care. It’s not unhygienic unless you’re going to eat a banana without peeling it. And the banana stand is quite wide so people don’t queue there, that’s nonsense. And I bet you’re implying it’s old people that do this. Fuck off with your “certain age demographic”. Ageist!

YABU OP. Suck it up!

Happyjoe · 21/11/2025 09:47

Strawberrydelight78 · 21/11/2025 09:28

The people that remove the stalks off avocados so they can see what colour the avocado is. Remove the stalks is what causes them to go that horrible grey colour. I buy the unripe with stalks and ripen at home.

I never knew any of that with the stalks! Every day is a school day as they say :-)

IAmABananaProdder · 21/11/2025 09:47

Yeoldlondoncheese · 21/11/2025 09:36

I reckon it’s them millennials

We’ve been through so much trauma, just let us have our perfect bananas dammit!!

Despicable Me Banana GIF
Happyjoe · 21/11/2025 09:46

Snowonground · 21/11/2025 09:23

My mum will always test the grapes by eating one. She was scarred by a terrible incident in the 70s where she bought a sour bunch of grapes. She never got over it.

My late FIL did the same with grapes, and with piccolo cherry tomatoes. But he also snaffled a tube of fixident, sigh, one of the most stolen items apparently. I think he started not to care when he reached 90.

Happyjoe · 21/11/2025 09:41

Sorry OP, I check banana's. And if they're ok, I don't take the bottom ones on the bunch because it's the bottom ones that tend to be bruised. Bananas are my absolute fav, even since little, so I want nice!

I sniff tomatoes too. No smell = no flavour it seems.

When lived in London I tried using our local greengrocer, to support local not supermarkets. I saw lovely fruit and veg shop when moved in but it turned out customers were not allowed to chose their own products. The chap was taking the older stuff for me instead of the lovely looking stuff on display. So I asked him not to bother, explained why and didn't go back of course. I understand why he wants to get rid of older stuff, but perhaps he needed to stop buying so much stock that he couldn't shift it before it went off!

Coffeeishot · 21/11/2025 09:38

Co op Bannana queue 😂

eqpi4t2hbsnktd · 21/11/2025 09:37

CrustyBread1977 · 21/11/2025 07:52

For me it’s the people who go “What are we having for dinner tonight?” - FFS discuss that beforehand and know what you’re going in for! Don’t stand in the middle of the damn aisle debating it!

I do this loads... sorry.

halfandhalfchipsandrice · 21/11/2025 09:37

I can't stand to see the police "disrespecting" food in the supermarkets. Looking at it then throwing it down. Whether it's fruit, ready meals, cheese...whatever. Why can't they be gentle.

Yeoldlondoncheese · 21/11/2025 09:36

LaMarschallin · 21/11/2025 08:01

usually by someone of a certain age demographic

Darn those banana-prodding teenagers!

I reckon it’s them millennials

FlyingUnicornWings · 21/11/2025 09:35

Snowonground · 21/11/2025 09:23

My mum will always test the grapes by eating one. She was scarred by a terrible incident in the 70s where she bought a sour bunch of grapes. She never got over it.

I wish I had the balls to do this with my plums. They’ve been so sour recently.

TrippingOverMyAssets · 21/11/2025 09:34

SecondSpare · 21/11/2025 09:24

I have been going to supermarkets for decades, and have bought bananas many times, but I've never seen anyone loitering near the bananas long enough for a queue to start forming.

I can give you the names of two different supermarkets in the Loughton area if you’d like a trial run.

OP posts:
TrippingOverMyAssets · 21/11/2025 09:31

Last night was a good example of how unnecessary this is. Popped into the Co Op on the way home because I needed just a couple of bananas for this morning and an older man was stood in front of the banana stand oblivious to the woman already waiting behind him waiting to get to the shelf.

I then joined behind her and we both watched as the man ran his hand all the way along all the remaining loose bananas on the top shelf rolling them all in his hand one at a time and then putting them back, while actually looking down at the bagged ones on the middle shelf. He wasn’t even looking at the ones he was touching. Then he picked a bagged bunch from the middle shelf and put them in his basket.

So why the needless ritual of prodding and poking all the others? This is what I’m talking about. People mindlessly poking them about when they don’t even intend to buy them. I just wanted to pull my hair out and shout LEAVE TTHE BANANAS ALONE!!

Thats two different supermarkets in two different places. Same tired old banana ritual. And yes, like it or not it really is usually a certain age group who seem to do this more than others. I mean what do they think they are going to look like when they come out of the other end anyway?

OP posts: