Well mostly because the average customer doesn't care. The marketers think it's better to try passing off multiple varieties that look the same as all being the same when they aren't.

But even if you got the variety name it would still be a very hit and miss method of choosing a variety for your conditions. Most people don't realize how much fruit eating quality can vary even on one tree in one yr. Add more variables and the quality is all over the map. Many stone fruits I've grown have had nearly a two fold range in brix, like 15 to 30 for many nectarines and pluots.

I saw a box of peaches at one grocery store and it just said something like trip ripe peaches (no other markings for variety)..t.hey were as hard as a rock.

Yeah, Paully1, I share this frustration.

I'm sure fruitnut is right about not really being able to make sound choices for your backyard planting based on knowing which variety you are buying at the grocery store.

Still, I think that not naming them needlessly dumbs down the customer. I don't believe that the average customer doesn't care, simply due to the fact that now apple varieties are all named in a way they weren't a decade or so ago. People like to search for their favorite kind, or to try something new. This is true for tomatoes, onions, olives, and coffee, etc...

What really really bugs me even more though is the FALSE naming of fruits. How many times have I had people call the grapes I grow champagne grapes simply because they are small? (I don't spray them with plant hormones to get them big). This is because that's what small grapes are called in the grocery store. Somehow, red, black, white, and champagne is supposed to sum up all the grape varieties available? Don't people know that champagne would never be made with a seedless grape to begin with? Or how many people are fooled into thinking that zante currants are actually dried currants, when they are instead simply very small raisins (grapes)? The list goes on and on… Hopefully with the culinary revolution that we are experiencing in popular culture these things will change. We've already got named varieties of potatoes showing up, meyer lemons in addition to the "standard" ones, and unusual heirloom tomatoes gaining popularity.

I am a produce manager and I can tell you that the vast majority of the product we bring in does have the cultivars named on the shipping crates the fault if any would be at the growers end, we order say red plums, that day I might get 2 to 3 different cultivars on the same load they are only sold as red plums not as individual cultivars, the signage itself in store would be a nightmare, there maybe something they could do at the growers end printing on the plu stickers but, maybe that next delivery that certain cultivar is not available or they get a better buy on another, I would have customers turned off or disappointed in the fruit, I agree that it is frustrating, I have my own preference to certain cultivars, say when I get Robada apricots, that really is the only one I like and will buy myself, but I cannot order Robada apricots I can only order apricots and whatever variety that is available is the one I receive, I make cultivars known to my customers whenever possible, when we get a steady stream of that certain cultivar, but that could only be for a week or so at a time. Right now we have a promotion on pluots and are pushing three cultivars by name, this really is the first time we have separated cultivars on pluots, generally we order pluots and whatever variety is available at the time is what we get, could be dinosaur egg (dapple dandy), flavor supreme, fall flavor, flavor grenade or so on, if everything came with a cultivar listed there would be thousands of different signs and displays, so most is generalized, gala apples could haves a dozen different cultivars, broccoli the same, navel oranges, red green black grapes as well.

The produce manager can sometimes tell you -- that is, if s/he knows and you take the time to ask.

Often if you can see the box it is printed on the side. That is true at Costco and the last two produce stores I went to here. Its funny, there is a pluot that is sold with a PLU for red plum, I thinks its called Crimson Dandy and looks a bit like Dapple Dandy but with blood red flesh. At two different produce stores it was mixed in the bin with an entirely different cultivar of red plum.

Thanks for the feedback. I am glad that I ranted!

I must confess, that I never considered asking the Produce Manager, since they may know, even if the display is not marked. That is good advice.

When I get a good piece of fruit, I always want to know what it is, so that I can look for it again.

It is mostly the inconsistency that irks me, I guess. Some fruits are worthy of full names and others are not.

I laugh to myself when I think what people would say if you went into a store and found only three bins of apples: "Red Apples," "Yellow Apples," and 'Bi-coloured Apples!"

This might be one of the reasons why it pays to shop at the farmers market, even if it costs more...

Hi...i spoke to Driscolls who grows Raspberries, Blackberries and whatever else.......they won't disclose what variety they are selling, i asked because i grow both and wanted to know what they grow and they told me they can't because of business concerns, however they did tell me they have their own botanists and grow their own cultivars privately and exclusively for Driscolls....i'm sure you will find this is common among most Fruit Growers that sell to Supermarkets etc, generally Trade Secrets like Colonel Sanders famous recipe for Chicken.

Go to pick your owns. There is no better source of local produce to give you an idea of what grows best in your area.

farmers markets are nice too but you have less quality control than harvesting it yourself.