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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2511 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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So I came across a reddit thread that discusses something I've been feeling for the past decade or so.

  • Strawberries that are bright red outside, but white inside and have no flavor
  • Bananas that are green and rotten at the same time
  • Kiwis that are partially rock-hard and partially mush
  • Potatoes that wrinkle in a couple day
  • Chicken thighs that maintain a texture more like raw even when cooked to temp
  • Beef that smells foul and is somehow rubbery even when barely cooked

I doubt it's just my city, and I go to several different grocery chains (some better than others), but the frequency with which I encounter the above issues and many more just feels so much higher than 15 years ago. I've gone back and forth about how much of this is bias/nostalgia and how much of this is real, but the more that I eat abroad and the more that I go grocery shopping, the more convinced I get that there has indeed been a significant recent decline in produce quality in the US.

Apples are much better than they were fifteen years ago, mostly because I know what varieties to buy now. My guess is that apples have 'improved' because people buy them by cultivar while strawberries have gotten worse because they are sold simply as strawberries. Sugar dense cultivars are naturally more expensive by weight or volume than water dense cultivars, and consumers probably just buy the cheaper strawberry without a recognizable name like Honeycrisp to attach to the expensive package.

Driscoll's has been selling Sweetest Batch berries as a premium line that (presumably) uses more sugar dense cultivars. I do find Sweetest Batch to have a much higher hit rate of good berries.

Apples are just better now actually. People eat them and give them to their kids. They're very convenient for all parties involved. If stored correctly some varieties will keep for 18 months. You could be buying an apple today that was picked in the late fall of 2024 and its mostly fine. They'll get turned into something else if they get to old and arent Fancy any more. Several terrible varieties of apple have more of less vanished as Americans started to eat more apples in the 90s, red delicious at the top of the chopping block. Apples have trends too, which lets them charge more for some of them desipte idential costs when they're 'hot'. Good margins generally in a space not really known for them. Low spoilage. Great crop overall thoughout American history.

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