M&S reveals bizarre plan to grow strawberries in store

Updated
Freshly picked ripe strawberries.
Freshly picked ripe strawberries.



'Pick your own' could be coming to a branch of M&S near you. In what sounds like an elaborate April Fool's joke, Mark's & Spencer has announced it is working on a strategy to grow strawberries in their stores - under LED lights. Customers would then be able to pick their own fresh strawberries - all year round. M&S unveiled a prototype of the idea at its Marble Arch store in London today.

The fruits aren't grown in soil - but in a fibre made as a by-product of the coconut industry. They are kept moist with hydro pebbles, and get the light they need from red and blue LED lights.

The new scheme means customers can benefit from some of the bonuses of picking their own fruit - namely the freshness and being able to involve children in a way that makes them keener to eat the end product.

However, it offers none of the green benefits of visiting a local farmer's field, and takes the farmers out of the value chain entirely. Plus, of course, there's the fact that most people won't want to take ten minutes to fill a punnet of strawberries and would prefer to take one off the shelf in a matter of a few seconds.
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Strange developments

The pros and cons aside, it's an interesting idea, and the store insists that in the future this could become a reality in stores around the country. The future, however, is a fair way off. British Summer Fruits - which commissioned the prototype - admitted that the process would require a specially developed berry - and that it could take a decade before that kind of berry is available.

We will have to see whether this vision of the future comes to fruition. However, as we have seen previously, strange things can happen down the fruit and vegetable aisle of the supermarket:

1. After a trial in 2012, Sainsbury's is now a major stockist of tomberries - tomatoes the size of berries.

2. At the end of last year Tesco introduced a new breed of apples - with pink flesh.

3. Bubbleberries were introduced by Waitrose last April. They look like strawberries and taste like bubblegum.

4. In 2013, M&S was selling Tiddly Pommes - apples the size of golf balls.

5. And back in 2007 M&S experimented with the sale of round carrots - roughly the size of a 50p piece. They were around seven times the price of ordinary carrots.

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Awesome Strawberry Hack That Will Make Your Life Easier
Awesome Strawberry Hack That Will Make Your Life Easier


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