Subject: Apple stickers

From: [email-masked] (Woody Brison)
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 12:17:24 -0600

Does anyone know why the apples I buy in the supermarket
have started carrying these little stickers?  Are they
put on by the growers or the market?  While I can't imagine
any positive benefit from them, I can readily see a great
disadvantage:  If there were a choice between buying an
apple with a sticker and one without, I'd buy the one
without.  The sticker tastes bad and chews funny.  If I
try to pull it off, it tears.  I have to put a bruise on
the apple to get it started peeling.  And all this takes
time.  Dad-gum nuisance.

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From: "Lance Marshall" <[email-masked]>
Date: 21 Aug 1996 23:10:52 GMT

Woody Brison <[email-masked]> wrote in article
<[email-masked]>...
> the apple to get it started peeling.  And all this takes
It's a straight issue of marketing.....like anything else, each fruit
shipping organization wants to establish a brand identity and one way to do
it is by putting those tiny stickers on each apple. BTW, you're not
supposed to be eating the sticker :)

LM

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From: "M. Counides" <[email-masked]>
Date: 21 Aug 1996 19:38:03 -0700

>the apple to get it started peeling.  And all this takes

You should hear what the growers say about those %$#*& stickers. They have 
to pay for them.

Naomi Counides
Associated Beefalo of Idaho

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From: [email-masked] (DGholston)
Date: 22 Aug 1996 17:09:07 -0400

>Does anyone know why the apples I buy in the >supermarket have started
carrying these little stickers?  >Are they put on by the growers or the
market?  While I >can't imagine any positive benefit from them, I can
>readily see a great disadvantage:  If there were a choice >between buying
an >apple with a sticker and one without, >I'd buy the one without.  The
sticker tastes bad and chews >funny.  If I try to pull it off, it tears. 
I have to put a >bruise on the apple to get it started peeling.  And all
this >takes time.  Dad-gum nuisance.

Some of the stickers also serve a very useful informational purpose of
indicating which variety the particular apple is. This benefits both the
buyer and the person at the check out counter when there are different
prices for the various varieties that often look much alike.

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From: [email-masked] (Woody Brison)
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 14:28:02 -0600

> prices for the various varieties that often look much alike.

Sounds like a bar code is what's needed.  Bet you can't figure out
a way to make the apple have the bar code grained right into the skin.

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From: [email-masked] (Pollinator)
Date: 24 Aug 1996 04:02:13 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>,
[email-masked] (Woody Brison) writes:

>have started carrying these little stickers? 

   There's a case of the computor age making more work, not less.  But the
basic reason is that many of our store clerks cannot distinguich between
an apple and a nectarine, much less between apple varieties.

   In our local supermarket, the (trash) Red Delicious are cheaper, than
the (nice) Royal Galas, Braeburns, Fujis, and Jonagolds.

   Therefore the stickers are necessary for correct pricing.

[email-masked]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554

Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

[email-masked]                                   Dave and Janice Green
Practical Pollination Home Page    
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html  
PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC    29554

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From: [email-masked] (wolfboy)
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 03:35:54 GMT

>have started carrying these little stickers? 

I'm pretty sure they have the product code/number the cashier needs to
punch into the cash register to tell it what kind of apple you are
buying.
     Sheridan/Ivanova '96
++++ OUR LAST, BEST HOPE ++++