US expat tries out bizarre Aussie supermarket dating trend

A young woman has revealed the dating trend sweeping supermarkets and the small trick people are using to let others know they are single.

Dating trend sweeps Sydney. Picture

Heading to the supermarket might be the best thing you can do for your love life.

Brooke, an American woman living in Sydney, recently got over 20,000 views on TikTok by sharing the supermarket dating theory she has been testing out.

The theory is simple: you walk around the supermarket like usual but with bananas in your trolley facing up to indicate that you are single and ready to mingle.

The 31-year-old posted a video of herself pushing her trolley around Woolworths and revealed why she was hopeful to meet an eligible bachelor.

“Does anyone know what time the singles go to Neutral Bay Woolworths on Mondays? My co-worker told me it is a thing, and if you put bananas in your cart, it means you’re single,” she wrote.

Could eyes meet while you’re shivering in the frozen food section, and some Prince Charming could offer you his jacket?

Or could a fellow single make a move by offering you an actually edible avocado? The supermarket meet cute possibilities are endless.

Brooke posted about the theory on TikTok. Picture: Instagram/brooke.alison.laven

She likes the idea of meeting someone in real life. Picture: Instagram/brooke.alison.laven

Brooke conceded that she hadn’t seen anyone in the aisles that looked “relatively young and attractive” with bananas in their carts, but she was hoping she was just shopping at the wrong time.

The young worker told news.com.au that when she told her co-worker Kathy that she’d moved to the lower north shore suburb of Neutral Bay, Kathy immediately suggested she head to the supermarket to find true love.

“The first thing my nearly retired co-worker, Kathy, said when I told her about my move was the banana theory. I have a second job and another co-worker her age said the same thing,” she explained.

Unfortunately for Brooke, she’s yet to find love in the cold meat section, but she’s hoping the theory turns out to be true.

“I understand it’s probably an old theory from 90s, but I’d love to bring it back. It just needs some more awareness. Meeting someone at the grocery store and not on the apps is like a modern-day fairy tale,” she said.

Bananas indicate you are single. Picture: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Brooke pointed out that hardly anyone meets their partner in real life anymore, and she likes the idea of being able to buy her cake and meet someone too.

“It’d be nice if it took off because, unlike other dating avenues, you don’t waste any time if you don’t meet anyone. You need to go grocery shopping anyway,” she pointed out.

She also said that because in Australian dating culture “nobody wants to make the first move” bananas might be the perfect prompt.

Online, singles were quick to respond to the dating theory. Who doesn’t want to meet someone without having to sift through thousands of online dating profiles that often involve men holding fish?

“Wait is this a thing?!?! I will be there the,” one commented.

“I’m engaged, but a guy did approach me at that Woollies when I lived there,” another shared.

“It is normally 8pm,” one advised.

Another said, “You have to have the bananas pointing up, not down. That means you’re ready and looking.”

“I thought was Tuesday,” someone else wrote.

Brittany Hockley shared this viral theory in 2022. Picture: Instagram/BrittanyHockley

The Bachelor alum even mentioned the bananas. Picture: Instagram/BrittanyHockley

Brooke’s theory isn’t as random as it sounds, in fact, former Bachelor star Brittany Hockley spoke about it in 2022.

“You can go and pick up in a supermarket, and there are all these secret signs and signals — depending on what you have in your trolley,” Brittany said on the Life Uncut podcast, which she co-hosts with fellow Bachelor alum Laura Byrne.

“You have to get a trolley and you go to the fruit aisle. If you pick up a bunch of bananas, if they are upright, so the curves facing up in the top trolley, this means you are single.

“Now if you just want to buy bananas but you’re not looking, you turn them the other way down – so that means you are not open.”

Other signals – that Britt said people in the “singles club” use – include placing an “upside down” pineapple in your trolley.

“If you have a pineapple, upside down in your trolley, you are telling everybody that you are a swinger and you are open to swinging,” she explained.