I still remember the code for Braeburn Apples, over 25 years after I worked in a supermarket.
For some reason, their code of 6969 sticks in my mind.
NiceNice
Nice Twice
MuskMusk
That’s more like “TerribleTerrible”
Is your brain broken?
Nice.
So how did you like them apples?
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Product code checks out!
Worked in a stationers over 20 years ago, still remember the barcode for this one pencil eraser we sold all the time that would never scan - 4007817526040.
… Still can’t remember a single damn birthday or important appointment. Why, brain, why?
Add the word eraser and a symbol youve got an uncrackable password youll never forget
Touché - except now all 500 of us on Lemmy know what to append to our rainbow tables…
I still remember my ICQ user ID 208646779 even though I haven’t logged in for 20 years.
I still remember my Windows 95 license key.
I think everyone remembers your windows 95 key
We for sure all had the same XP key 😆
Nah mine was unique. Unique enough, there was actually a formula. It was the OEM key that was printed on the upgrade CD that came with my Packard Bell. I reinstalled windows on that fucking shit box so many times that it’s tattooed on my brain stem.
It probably wouldn’t work if you did. The last time I looked at ICQ I believe that there was a situation where they either chose to, or were forced to, essentially purge all the dormant/old ICQ accounts.
I don’t have all the details, but once I saw that, I just noped out. I can’t get back in and look at all my old, now permanently offline contacts? No thanks. I was here for the nostalgia, and I can’t even get that.
51501242
But I can’t remember if my niece’s birthday is next month or the month after… And I’ve been to her birthday every year…
The only one I remember is 4011.
That shit is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s
Totally!!!
I’m staring at an organic banana and it’s 94011 so it does seem to follow the +9 for organic shit pattern
I never got how you guys could remember all that shit.
Constant exposure and repetition.
I remember training someone and at the end of their first cashier shift I asked them what they thought. They said it was pretty easy, but they needed to get better with the fruits and vegetables. I told them not to worry, you’ll memorize the numbers with time.
They replied “No, I need to learn what they look like so I know what number to look for…”
Inner cities are wild sometimes!
You just punch them in so often.
Is it organic because it has more carbonic acid?
I only worked at a grocery once as a summer job, but holy crap I sold a ton of 4011s. Nearly every customer bought them, or at least anyone who wanted to live. Basically the exceptions were the old women who instead bought cartons of Pall-Mall cigarettes.
94011 is better.
Nah you get the 94011 but you use the 4011 code at self checkout.
Weird… Prime rib, avocados and maple syrup are also 4011 at self checkout.
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They were suggesting stealing by inaccurately ringing up stuff as bananas.
Which by the way, there’s probably cheaper PLUs to use for that
I’ve heard onions or pumpkins is where it’s at.
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Do you have to figure out how much everything weighs in bananas?
Gives new meaning to “banana for scale”
They usually have devices to calculate that for you.
I bet those scrubs don’t even measure the radiation level to check against the amount of claimed banana mass.
Jet fuet doesn’t melt steel beams! Oh wait I might misremember that one.
Worked in retail many moons ago. Back when organic was just becoming a thing. I can tell you one thing.: A lot of people were getting a deal on organic food -because cashiers would just key in the code for non-organic. The lines were too long, and you look foolish looking things up in the “book” haha.
Isn’t it usually just the same code with a “9” concatenated at the start? I.e. tomatoes are #4664, organic tomatoes are #94664.
Sure, but still you need to look at the sticker to know if it’s organic or not
Are those tomatoes made from metal? Or sand? If you can chew it then it’s organic. Technucally if it has carbon-based compounds.
Fun fact: acetone is organic too. And you don’t want to drink it. Seriously, don’t do it.
MSc in chemistry here
Just because chemistry utilizes words and defines them with specific criteria it doesn’t mean these words can not be used in other contexts with different meanings (e.g. vinyl)
Oh and you probably know, but diamond, graphite, CO2 and all sorts of carbonates are excluded from being organic.
And you are right. They need to have orbital hybridisation. SP{,2,3}.
And in other meaning as produced by organism nearly all food is organic too. Some stuff like sugars should be possible to make without organisms(but you know it better than me), but too expensive compared to produced by organisms.
Sorry for awkward sentences, English is not my native language.
EDIT: there are apparently more meanings
When people use the word “organic” for food, they’re specifically referring to particular certifications, like the National Organic Program in the USA, and foods that are “organically farmed”. I agree that the naming isn’t ideal, but the word “organic” is very commonly used for this, and therefore it’s a legitimate definition of “organic”. That’s just how language works :)
Sorry for awkward sentences
Don’t be sorry, you’re communicating quite clearly.
And, just for the record, I do agree that the term “organic” is daft when referring to food. The term is entirely arbitrary and I wish we had a food certificate that was actually based on scientific factors (like impact on environment etc.)…
They need to have orbital hybridization
This one is often cited as a factor (because it excludes carbides like e.g. WC, TiC, TaC) but afaik it’s not true. Carbon in graphite is sp2 hybridised, in diamond it’s sp3 hybridised, both are explicitly excluded from the definition of organic.
Side note: I am unsure whether graphene falls under the definition of organic. Depending on how you look at it, it’s just a huge aromatic molecule. Don’t get me started on nanoribbons which are synthesized from organic precursors…
But I know people doing research on graphene, and I don’t think they would care about that definition. It simply doesn’t matter.Side note^2: While CO_2 is also explicitly excluded from being organic, it can be used as an educt in organic reactions (e.g. Preparing Phenylacetic Acid from Benzyl chloride and CO_2)
Carbon in graphite is sp2 hybridised, in diamond it’s sp3 hybridised
Didn’t expect this.
I still do this if I have to go through self checkout. Look man, I don’t work at a grocery store. If they force me to do two completely separate jobs (cashier and bagger), and still raise my food prices, I’m going to give myself some employee discounts.
That’s stealing, says the person who also does this. Also I have some saffron I nicked from Wally world too if you want to try it with our ill gotten gains.
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Nice and you still have 8 lives left
last time I didn’t use self checkout, the cashier keyed in all my stuff as organic when it wasn’t :(
Organic is the same code with a 9 in front.
As expensive as organic food is, I’m sure that they already factor incorrect item entry into the cost of organic produce items.
The only inorganic compounds in food I can imagine are salts. It is beyond me how they not understand that almost everything everyone eats is organic.
I get what you’re going for, but not everything is literal. People refer to their computers as “rigs” even though they can’t drill for oil.
When people use the word “organic” for food, they’re specifically referring to particular certifications, like the National Organic Program in the USA, and foods that are “organically farmed”. I agree that the naming isn’t ideal, but the word “organic” is very commonly used for this, and therefore it’s a legitimate definition of “organic”. That’s just how language works :)
an agricultural system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal
Guano wars, anyone?
and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting.
Isn’t this a thing everyone always does? Isn’t monoculture turns soil into shit?
Maybe. I’m just tired of seeing “GMO-free” soda kind of idiocy.
0118999881999119725 … 3
I understood that reference.
Booyakasha
That’s the code for the Tnetennba.
Well sir, as a former one of these, I can say with confidence, the code provided is not a valid PLU.
But is it two put together
Oh look at the rich guy buying exotic fruit
I’ve had cashiers not recognize jackfruit, plantains, ginger root, star fruit, pomegranates, and dragonfruit. All of which grow in South/central America and are regularly shipped to the US just like bananas.
Plantains and casava (or yuca if you’re Puerto Rican) can even grow locally here in Texas, so idk what the deal is.
Wait why were you being downvoted
I threw him an upvote for jackfruit, but I suspect the downvotes are because “serious reply to an obvious joke”
Spike-y Pear? I have no code for spike-y pear. Halp. 🍐
And then there’s the poor kid who started counting how many habaneros I had in the bag when they’re sold by weight. I let him finish, and he rang up like $60 for 8 habaneros.
How much could one habanero weigh, Michael? One pound?
Are the codes all unified across stores and POS systems? Is it an extension of the UPC? I assumed the code was like a part number from that store chain’s inventory.
There are standard sets of PLUs, yes. Not every store uses them, but you’ll definitely find them at most large chains.
They are called PLU numbers and I’m assuming they’re regulated because bananas are the same code everywhere I’ve been, as with grapes. Maybe certain produce between regions or chains is different but I think most are similar.
Yeah I think the PLU codes (like 4011 for banana) are the same practically everywhere. The codes used in Australia are the same as those used in the USA
Most use the PLU system. There’s a handful of (imo stupid) smaller stores that have their own system/ codes, but then it doesn’t even match the sticker on the fruit/ vegetable. For the most part, it’s universal.
Most produce you find at larger grocery stores, have stickers applied before they arrive to the store. Nobody there gets paid enough to care if the apples all have their stickers (or bananas, or pears, or - insert food item here)… So many are fairly standardized.
I’m not sure where in the production and distribution chain that the stickers end up on the produce, but it’s before the stores.
I worked produce department for a few years when I was a teenager, and we got shipments from our own internal distribution, and the manager would suppliment anything they couldn’t provide with a smaller, more local distributor. AFAIK the local guy had more reliable stock, but cost more (not enough to create a loss, as far as I was aware - but enough to reduce profit margins); so the thinking was: get it cheap from distribution, if they can’t or won’t, then fill in whatever is lacking with this other guy. It was almost always the same stuff regardless (in the same boxes, from the same growers, etc) and everything from both sources always had the exact same labels/stickers/codes on them. The workers only needed to get it from the truck to the shelf for the most part. The only produce we touched any more than that, was the stuff that went on the wet display; mostly lettuce, celery and such.
I’ve worked at several stores and I’ve noted the few codes that I actually know are consistent among different local stores.
IMO, it might change from country to country or something, but largely, the numbers are the same.
When I worked retail, the problem wasn’t “knowing the code” for the fruit. We could look that part up. But in order to look up the code, you had to know what the fruit was called, if it didn’t have a sticker or label. That was the hard part – at least until the equipment was modernized and also included pictures.
Most of the time, if you didn’t know what the thing was, you could just ask the customer “What is this?” and then look it up from there.
However, a surprisingly frequent problem was that the customer wouldn’t actually know what the thing was or what it was called. They were buying it just to try it, no idea what it tastes like, how to use it, what it costs, or what it’s called.
It takes a special kind of adult to see something that they don’t know what it is but then to also decide “I’d like to eat that.” But then again maybe it’s because of this type of person that our ancestors figured out that pineapples are delicious but hemlock is deadly.
If it’s in the fruit aisle and I don’t know what it is, I’m absolutely buying it. Trying new things is great.
Yeah, me too mostly. New fruit / veggie that I don’t know what it is or tastes like? Just my style.
But, I’m also going to read the sign(s) so that I know what it’s called and how much it costs. I don’t need to get up to the checkout to find out that the “warty pink golf ball sized fruit thingy” is going to cost me $22. And I definitely want to know how to tell if it’s ripe or whether it needs to be cooked first and not eaten raw.
Ok that got a giggle out of me.
Limes are 4048 and half a lime will clean the heck out of a garbage disposal
and bananas are 4011
Vanilla beans are 4908
And smell amazing doing it!
One time my grocery store had Lions Mane mushrooms. The cashier didn’t know what the code was so rang them up as white button mushrooms.
That was pretty sweet.
