Who buys these things?

[impulsereader]

I feel like I want to make this a weekly feature or something. There are things out there for sale that people have to be buying. If no one bought them, if there was zero demand, the market would correct itself by eventually pulling these objects from the shelves of stores, yes? I mean, I don't know much about economics but this is just common sense.

This has to be especially true of fresh food items because they have an actual shelf life. Even if you're not bothered by 'sell by' or 'use by' dates these items will eventually actually go bad and have to be disposed of because - even if I cannot understand why someone would buy it now - I'm pretty sure no one would purposely buy rotting food unless you needed it for a Sherlockian experiment of some kind.

What brought these thoughts into my head? Shrink-wrapped potatoes. Shrink-wrapped potatoes sitting next to and actually mixed in with the normal (dare I say naked?) potatoes.

I looked closely at one of the shrink-wrapped potatoes and determined that it had not been scrubbed clean before it had been dressed in its little plastic bag, sealed neatly, and slapped with a label identifying it as a potato. That eliminated the only possible reason I might be willing to pay more for this potato than the one right next to it.

Of course, the last time I asked this sort of question I learned that my entire grocery shopping strategy had evolved to account for the fact that I lived on the third floor for years and most people do in fact own enough canned goods at any one time to have to plan for moving them from house to house. So perhaps I'm just looking at it from an odd perspective and don't realize it.

Comments

[mundungus42.livejournal.com]

People that only eat one potato at a time?
People who don't want potato germs on the rest of their produce?
People who worry about buying potatoes that have been tampered with?
People who work for plastics companies?

[pargoletta.livejournal.com]

Hooray, you're back! I've missed seeing you around.

I guess some people are so used to buying packaged food that the idea of loose vegetables scares them off a bit. Maybe they're so accustomed to having food come wrapped in plastic that unpackaged vegetables don't even register with them. (Mind you, I'm not sure I want to know these people.)

By the way, we should hang out some time soon. I have a copy of Ballet Shoes for you.

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

People will pay money to not have to wash potatoes.

I would if I had money to waste on it. :-P

[northernwalker]

I might buy a bag of potatoes, but shrink-wrapped? No.

[azriona.livejournal.com]

My understanding with shrink-wrapped potatoes is that you're meant to cook them in the microwave exactly as they are - but if it hadn't been washed first, then that sort of defeats the purpose, unless you're the type of person who likes to eat dirty potatoes. Blech.

[ladyuranus.livejournal.com]

As mentioned, they're shrin-kwrapped to cook in the microwave. They're pretty useful, if you're willing to pay a bit more-- I never get through a bag of potatoes myself. And isn't there a Mitch Hedburg joke about putting a potato in the oven and by the time it's done you might actually want to eat it? So 5 minute baked potatoes aren't bad, even if they're silly.

[f-m-r-l.livejournal.com]

Well, if they're not cleaned first, I would guess they're for people who are afraid that the naked potatoes had rolled across the floor, or that toddlers had handled them with snotty fingers while their mothers explained that this was what raw potatoes looked like, or that a carrier of some even-more-dreaded-than-usual virus had sneezed all over the potato bin.

[salad-barbarian.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's supposed to create the illusion of better quality? Those other potatoes are exposed to all and sundry and we all know that cooking has to be more complicated than just poking holes in it if you want the very best tasting baked potato. Also it's easy to fall into the trap of more expensive = better quality.