Inglorious Baskets: The Ugly Produce Craze Sweeps France

Thanks to innovative thinking, your next trip to France may get ugly, but in an altogether wonderful way.

Now if all goes according to plan, a jaunt to the local grocery store worldwide may one day be far more hideous than you remember.

YouTube account Marcel (h/t Digg) uploaded the following video featuring a grand experiment offered by Intermarché, France’s “third-largest supermarket chain.”

According to the video’s narrator, about 300-million tons of food is discarded each year because it’s, well, ugly: potatoes that look more like conjoined veggie twins, tomatoes with blemishes and generally fruits and vegetables that, while as nourishing as its pristine brethren, otherwise look like something made by Frankenstein.

Well, if you market anything correctly, they will come.

To that end, the supermarket chain launched an “Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables” campaign, illustrating to grocery store goers that the awkward carrot and derpy eggplant are just as delicious as what you consider to be a handsome piece of food.

Giving just a taste in the form of juices, people were hooked on the notion of ugly food at a discounted price.

The video’s narrator continues, “Our new kind of fruits and vegetables were an immediate success. We faced only one problem: being sold out.”

The video goes on to state the store sold, on average, 1.2 tons per store during the first two days of the campaign. Not only that, but store traffic increased 24%, according to the video. Consider this the modern equivalent of the circus freak show but, you know, delicious. 

I always try to visit a grocery store whenever I travel. It gives a quick glimpse into the food culture and illustrates the produce and items that are important to the local population. And really, you can find some truly captivating supermarkets around the world such as the Eliseevsky store in Moscow, Russia.

More than that, visiting a normal supermarket can be the cheapest way to sate that traveler’s hunger you worked up. To that end, anyone in and around France might want to poke his or her inquisitive head into an Intermarché to see what all the hubbub is about.

Fortunately, we don’t have to board a plane or book a hotel to see how other countries are attempting to curb so much food waste.

Business Insider’s Ashley Lutz reports Berlin’s Original Unverpackt, opening in August, is ditching all of the superfluous packaging that comes in tandem with your food purchase.

It’s clear that there is room for innovation stateside as Brand Channel’s Sheila Shayon offers the following about American waste: “more than one-third of food produced is never eaten.”

By all means, see all that France has to offer, from the beautiful to the downright ugly.

Just because something looks unsavory doesn’t mean it should be tossed. As one of France’s leading supermarkets illustrates, there is a place for the unsightly. It just so happens to be in your grocery cart.