Have we really got to the point where we can’t peel our own fruit?

ARE we now so lazy, as a species, that we need others to do the most simple things for us? How much further can this go?

THIS picture of peeled oranges for sale at Wholefoods in the US came through our Facebook feed last night.

Here’s the full post:

Image: Facebook

There are a few points to be made here.

Firstly, if you manage to annoy vegans about fruit, you know you’ve gone too far.

Secondly, nature did a fairly good job of packaging these little suckers in their delightfully coloured skin, and then someone has decided to rip off that sweetly scented armour and put non-biodegradable packaging on instead. Smooth move. (This is a point people have been making on social media for a while about bananas):

@tim_brannigan posted this pic on Twitter with the caption “if only bananas had robust, natural, biodegradable packaging of their own. Some sort of peelable skin, perhaps”.

Thirdly, they have dropped the ball a little with this new concept. If they really wanted to make it truly convenient they’ve have someone chew all the pips out of the segments for you before lovingly popping it in the container. Lift your game, supermarket.

But finally - is this a sign that we’ve reached peak laziness? Maybe it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock ... last week we learned that millennials aren’t eating cereal because it’s ‘inconvenient’.

If our ancestors who had to hunt and gather their own food could see that we can find peeled fruit in an air-conditioned store and pay for it by waving a plastic card near a machine (while bitching about the queue wait time), they’d probably punch us square in the jaw and tell us to harden up.

It was news to us that peeling an orange was the cause of such frustration, but it seems it’s been an issue for our friends in Britain for a while. In 2008 it was reported that Sainsbury’s supermarket had discovered an ‘easy peel’ orange that could be peeled in 35 seconds.

The supermarket had hoped the new variety would reverse the declining sale of oranges in the UK (because Brits view them as too challenging to eat).

But let us shift our gaze from the people in Brittania, because if anyone knows how to make products for lazy people, it’s the good folk of the USA:

Good. I didn’t want my toast hot anyway. (Image: Reddit)

Finally: a stand for your hairdryer. (Image: Imgur)

This is a machine that shoots popcorn straight into your mouth. AKA the greatest thing ever invented. (Image: Reddit)

And if a product hasn’t been invented to suit you, feel free to have a go yourself, with a clever hack:

Well played. (Image: Reddit)

Innovative. (Image: Imgur)

If you are a lazy sod like the people above and the sight of that pre-peeled citrus made your heart sing, we have some bad news. After Michelle Taylor Cehn posted that pic of the peeled oranges on Facebook, more than 2000 people shared it. Popular Instagrammer The Fat Jewish posted the pic with a comment saying “we’re all f*cking doomed” the Plastic Pollution Coalition tweeted about it.

As a result Whole Foods said they would be pulling them from the shelves.

Sorry gang. You’re going back to peeling your own oranges.

But at least you can have some fun with it.

(Image: Reddit)

Originally published as Have we really got to the point where we can’t peel our own fruit?