Whole Foods thought that the customers need help peeling their oranges.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store” has done it again. Only, this time, it didn’t put a fancy vegetable in a bottle of water in order to sell it for the money equivalent of a whole meal. A Twitter user attracted their attention to their latest product, pre-peeled oranges that were being sold in a plastic container. After some very mean social media comments, Whole Foods pulled the peeled oranges of its shelves.
A photograph depicting a peeled orange inside a non-reusable plastic container went viral these days. The not so much eco-friendly product was being sold by “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store”, or Whole Foods.
It all started when Twitter user Nathalie Gordon, or @awlilnatty, paid a visit to her local over-expensive, highly fashionable grocery store. Among the overpriced products, she sighted something that just didn’t feel right.
The store was selling already peeled oranges that were enclosed in a plastic container. Seeing as we are living in the social media age, she didn’t just go to a manager to report the problem, she took a picture and posted it online.
The caption read:
“If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn’t need to waste so much plastic on them.”
Naturally, her post went viral. A lot of people started to re-tweet the picture and announce their disappointment. The store was beginning to get a lot of negative attention.
And some of the arguments made by the social media users were pertinent. There is a lot of plastic waste that pollutes not just our country, but our planet. Why use plastic containers for a fruit that already has a thick skin?
Also, why contribute to the already saturated plastic waste industry when the peel of the oranges is organic?
Needless to say, Whole Foods pulled the peeled oranges of its shelves and publicly apologized on Twitter. Their post read:
“Definitely our mistake. These have been pulled. We hear you, and we will leave them in their natural packaging: the peel.”
Last year the grocery store chain received some serious heat from customers that were upset with yet another Whole Foods original product. “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store” was selling bottled water with a piece of asparagus inside. The asparagus infused water cost $5.99.
After clients had started to complain, explaining that they could buy the water and the vegetable separately and make their own fancy drink with just a small part of the price, the store pulled the asparagus water of its shelves.
Image source: www.wikimedia.org