Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
THE GROCERY STORE — If you already know why oranges are sold in mesh bags that are vibrantly orange or red, you can just go ahead and stop reading this story right now. You can also pat yourself on the back for being smarter than the rest of us.
As for me, I had never thought about why those mesh bags are used. I'd always seen oranges in orange mesh bags, lemons in yellow mesh bags and limes in green mesh bags, so it just made sense.
But those bags are intentionally designed to encourage you to buy more produce. Thanks to a type of optical illusion called the confetti illusion, our eyes see more color on the main objects due to the darker-colored mesh that overlays them.
So, even if the oranges you're about to buy are a bland yellow rather than orange, the magic of the mesh will make them look deeply orange. Check out the secrecy in this video entitled "Supermarket Trickery."
I'm not at all bothered by this trick. For one thing, we're way too obsessed with the "perfection" of our produce. These mesh bags are basically just a mirror that reveals how obsessed society is with looks.
Also, those mesh bags are certainly preferable to the dyes sometimes used to make our produce look more colorful. I'll take an optical illusion to yucky dyes any day of the week.
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