Out-of-season fruit and last-minute orders: a billion-dollar illusion

🇬🇧 Out-of-season fruit and last-minute orders: a billion-dollar illusion

What do a strawberry in January and a last-minute Friday night order that arrives Saturday morning have in common?
They are both the product of a system designed to make us forget that natural timing exists.

We live in a time where everything is one click away, where gratification must be instant, where there’s no time to wait. And yet, every shortcut has a cost, even if we don’t see it.

Out-of-season fruit exists only because multinational corporations can grow it artificially in other hemispheres, store it for weeks, ship it in refrigerated containers, and make it appear “fresh” in our supermarkets.
Likewise, last-minute orders can be fulfilled only thanks to dehumanizing logistics — robots, exhausting shifts, and living plants treated like boxes of cookies.

And this all works.
Not just because it's technically possible, but because they’ve trained us to want it.

The taste of a built habit

When we can have strawberries all year round, we start to expect them all year round, forgetting how extraordinary they are in spring.
When we can receive anything within 24 hours, we begin to reject anything that takes longer.

These aren't real preferences. They are manufactured habits,
part of a strategy where powerful corporations shape our expectations — and then profit from them.

Small businesses can’t (and won’t) play this game

A small grower, an artisan nursery, a shop like mine — we can't force nature’s timing, and more importantly, we don’t want to.
Every plant is chosen, nurtured, and shipped at the right moment, with care and respect for its life cycle.
Every shipment is handled with attention — not speed.

But if customers are convinced that everything must be available instantly, then true quality appears “slow”, and honest businesses get pushed out of the market.

It’s time to challenge this artificial “normal.”

Slow down to choose better

Slowing down isn’t about giving up — it’s about choosing wisely.
A plant is not an object. It’s a living being. It doesn't grow on command, it doesn’t travel well in every condition, and it can’t be “packaged” without care.
Likewise, a thoughtful purchase opens the door to a new kind of relationship — between the buyer, the seller, and what’s being sold.

In conclusion?

Out-of-season fruit and overnight shipping look like progress.
But in truth, they’re tools in the hands of a few, to earn a lot, while the small ones struggle to survive.

I choose a different path.
I won’t promise “everything, right away.”
I promise care, seasonality, and real quality.
And if you need to wait an extra day, it’s because the plant will arrive at the right time — for it, and for you.

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