Whole Foods Tries Replacing Orange Peels with Plastic Containers

Whole Foods sometimes has a reputation for indulging in Privileged White People silliness – expensive bottled water with asparagus in it, kale being put in guacamole and other places it has no business being, somehow always spending at least $40 no matter what you’re buying. So it’s kind of hard to see something like this and take it seriously.

Yes, Whole Foods decided to remove the organic, biodegradable peel from oranges and put them in plastic containers instead.

The story immediately got so big on Facebook, with people mocking Whole Foods shoppers for their laziness, that the company had to retreat and pull their Fancy Peeled Oranges from the shelves.

Just briefly before we all cackle in glee over this PR disaster, blogger Kim Sauder pointed out that peeled oranges could actually help people with disabilities:

”As a person with limited hand dexterity, I look at this and see an easier way to eat healthy food. I actively avoid oranges, not because I dislike them (they are definitely tasty) but because I have so much difficulty peeling them.”

So in fairness, this could be a situation like that meme of escalators at the gym, where we’re not considering the many different reasons why a person could have difficulty doing everyday tasks that don’t include “they’re worthless and lazy.”