Spain’s amorous supermarket pineapple craze
Spaniards ditching dating apps in favour of stores in quest to find love
In the past week, a new vogue has emerged amongst Spanish singletons: heading to supermarket chain Mercadona, and placing an upside down pineapple in your trolley as a means of flirting.
It all goes back to a TikTok video by television star Vivy Lin as she went around a local branch of the store that went viral, where she asked her friend what the best time for flirting in Mercadona was.
Apparently it’s between 7 and 8pm, when many Spanish solteros do their grocery shopping, and that’s exactly when Lin and her friend were out shopping.
There’s an etiquette involved — one has to grab a fresh pineapple and place it upturned in one’s trolley to advertise availability.
It goes further — other items in the cart signify exactly what type of liaison you’re after.
For example, lentils or other other legumes with a long shelf life show that you’re after something long term.
Lettuce, pre-cooked pizza, or other perishables indicate interest in a fling.
Once you’ve stocked up, you need to head to the wine aisle.
In a real-life imitation of Tinder’s ‘swipe right’ feature, you then crash your trolley into that of somebody else with the upturned fruit to create a match.
This column recently headed to its local Mercadona shortly after 8pm and noticed an absence of pineapples and a distinct lack of trolleys.
Make of that what you will.
The trend has since spread to other social media such as Instagram and X, sparking media commentary and no shortage of memes.
Perhaps Spaniards are tired of online apps and want something, forgive the pun, more organic, like with previous generations?
Either way, the fad has taken on a life of its own. It’s the first item that shows up whenever I enter the search bar upon opening TikTok, and has been for days now.
Apparently, other supermarkets have their own ‘hora de ligar’ (‘flirting hour’) as this meme shows.
For example, going to the fragrance section of upmarket department store El Corte Inglés between 2 and 3pm has been fingered by some on social media as a surefire way to find love.
People have been speculating as to whether it’s some sort of nefarious PR campaign by Mercadona.
Spanish news site El Confidencial is even reporting that the chain is having to take exceptional measures in light of this mania.
The TikTok channel @24.horass has shared footage of an employee wheeling away a huge cart of pineapples during the ‘flirting hour’.
It says they were taking them away into the storage area so that customers wouldn’t make “inappropriate” use of them during that time.
Many TikTok users have said it's only reasonable for Mercadona to take measures such as this, considering the circumstances.
"People don’t realise how they can bother people who are working" said one.
"If they grab a pineapple, they should at least buy it," said another.
Others have questioned the hygiene of the practice.
"My girlfriend stopped buying pineapple so people wouldn't look at her in a weird way" says one user.
It’s also caused awkwardness for innocent patrons going about their regular business.
"The other day I ended up going to there at that time, but it was pure coincidence. I really wanted to buy a pineapple, but I was afraid and ended up not picking one up because there were a lot of young people in that aisle.”
“The worst thing is that I ended up not even taking a trolley and carried the shopping in a bag to avoid embarrassment," Jennyffer Moreira, told BBC News Brasil.
But many point out that Mercadona can't complain about all the free publicity they’ve been getting.
While some have expressed exasperation and said they are now avoiding shopping at this hour, others find the fever to be a wholesome face-to-face alternative to an increasingly toxic online world.
It’s not the first time this fruit has been used as a code for lust.
In the United States, having it upside down has long indicated membership of the swinger community.