Supermarket triggers. Leave The Bananas Alone!!

[TrippingOverMyAssets]

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!

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!

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

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?

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

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.

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? 😂

I hate excessive grape tasters. Yuck.

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

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!

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.

Certified avocado fondler here.

We had one of those old-fashioned greengrocers around 15 years ago. I could have swallowed (arf) the fact that his prices were double the supermarket prices IF his quality had been twice as high, but he was notorious for slipping a couple of dodgy pieces of fruit into the bottom of those nice triangular brown paper bags. He had to be watched like a hawk and given precise instructions about which ones to take. So I was doing the work of choosing, which I would have had in the supermarket, while paying top whack for it. I know NAGALT, but it was galling.

Wonder if the OPs supermarket sells grips as well as bananas. If so then they could do with getting one next time they're in.

Oh OP, I actually agree with you re the bananas but you could have easily talked about this without resorting to ageism.

It's the incompetent trolley drivers blocking the way that piss me off.

If you must stop for minutes at a time in the aisles. PARK YOUR TROLLEY TO THE SIDE AWAY FROM OTHER TROLLEYS!

Fecking morons!

No, not in this case.

Why don't you just say "Excuse me, may I just reach the bananas?". I do, if someone is taking a while imo, and - like magic! - they nearly always say "Ooh, sorry!" and make room for me to pick up a bunch. Nobody's ever got annoyed at being asked to move their trolley a small amount.
Or do you prefer to stand, waiting, being "triggered" all the while, just to feel superior (or younger or older - what is that certain age demographic you were too coy to mention?).

Me too. I don't even buy them, I just touch them, sometimes for hours at a time... guess I must be of a 'certain age demographic'...

however, on another note of 'supermarket triggers'

mine are - when a couple is blocking the whole shelf with themselves and their trolley while having a discussion about what's for dinner. At least leave people room to get to the stuff while you chat.

people who come across friends and end up having a whole-ass chinwag while blocking the aisle.

Abandoning something you don't want on a random shelf.. either put it back, or take it to the checkout and let the staff know you no longer want it so they can arrange for it to be put back ('reverse shopping' is often fave of the staff in Tesco, gets you a wee break)

I'm on crutches.. i can't STAND people who barge into me with their trolley because i didn't move as fast as they expected.. happens at least once a week...

How would we ever know how many people have handled, or how much care & attention they’d paid if we didn’t see it?

I eat a banana first thing every day so I buy a lot of bananas! I have never seen this happen, ever. And I don't do it. I look at them and pick up the bunch I wish to buy.

Bananas have a skin on that you remove so it doesn't matter one bit to me if someone has touched the skin. Other fruits get washed.

If I did see someone prodding bananas, I would assume that they are being careful to buy something that is just the right amount of ripeness to avoid waste.

Waste and a COL crisis are worse problems than someone handling a banana.

On the 'putting stuff back on the shelves'

Thieves often use a method where they will 'hide' a big ticket item they had in their trolley behind cheaper stuff on the shelves, carry on shopping, then come back around and pretend to shop in that area again, then snaffle it away in their coat/bag because cheaper items are often less observed.

If you DO find an expensive item hidden behind other stuff, inform a member of staff, or take it and hand it in.

Shame you don’t seem able to cope with people disagreeing with you!

I lived with a man from Loughton; this would not surprise me in the least.

I used to shop in store (before I started getting it delivered during Covid & never stopped) & what used to rile me in the fruit section was people eating the grapes! They knew they were stealing because they would get a glazed or shifty loook & try to palm the things before stuffing them in their mouths - sometimes repeatedly. Yuk. I don't think stores have open displays of grapes any nore, do they?

Nowadays I sometimes shop in store in a naicer area & a more expensive store, & I will admit to tapping the openly displayed bread with the tongs to see how crusty it is -- but that's as far as it goes. No squeezing.