Grocery Store Artifact: Best innovation ever

This coding and product identification sticker that you can find on just about all the individual fruits and vegetables at your local grocery store has also been blessed with one of mankind's greatest innovations ever.

Until relatively recently, when you decided to enjoy a piece of fruit it was difficult to peel the annoying little label off the skin of your treat. Removing the non-tasty sticker used to mean scraping at it until it came off, usually in several tiny pieces. Often, you tore the skin of the food and usually got stinging acidic rind painfully wedged up under your fingernail. I hate that because it hurts.

Then a while ago somebody tweaked the design of the the stickers by the addition of a small, adhesive-free tab to the edge. This meant no longer did busy housewives mar their expensive silk-wraps and weirdos with repressed anger weren't pushed too damn far again for everyone's own good. Just bend the tab up, grab hold and pull. The sticker peels right off with no mess, no fuss and most importantly...no burning sensations. I hope whoever came up with that design change became insanely wealthy.

Tags: Grocery Store Artifact retail innovation advertising