Pick a Pepper

Would you pay a quarter for this pepper?

That’s what I paid yesterday for this pepper that I found on my supermarket’s reduced price rack. It came packaged with a similarly blemished pepper (see below) for 50 cents. Not surprisingly, I’m a big believer in this idea.

As we’ve discussed before, many supermarkets shoot for perfect-looking produce. Anything that doesn’t reach that status, is relegated to the dumpster, unless…that store has a sale rack.

This idea makes way too much sense not to exist in every grocery store. Why not make some money on items that still can be used? The stores I’ve spoken with who don’t employ a sale rack say they want to create an association of ‘complete freshness’ in customers’ minds and a cut-rate produce area wouldn’t encourage that. Hmm.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t pay full price for these green peppers with black spots. Yet, cutting out the rot on these peppers took all of 30 seconds. 

Yesterday, I told the produce manager–an older guy who seemed to be on the same page as me, waste-wise–that I appreciated the rack and asked how he determines what to move there. He said that for some items it’s blemishes, but others are just a bit soft. If I read his expression correctly, he’d long sold these items at regular price. 

And here’s why. Cutting into the pepper, even I was surprised by how “perfect” the interior looked: