Spanish Shoppers Are Using ‘Upside Down’ Pineapples At The Supermarket To Find Love

Tired of endless swiping on dating apps, some singles in Spain have turned to a more old-fashioned way of finding romance: heading to a popular grocery store at 7 p.m. with an exotic fruit in their shopping cart. This unconventional dating method, which gained traction on TikTok, has led to numerous Spanish singles sharing their experiences on the app- though with varying degrees of success. It’s part of a broader global trend where people are becoming disillusioned with dating apps, weary of the monotony and increasingly finding online dating unfulfilling. Speed dating events, for example, are seeing a revival in some U.S. cities, the Washington Post reported.

Gustavo Contreras, a 28-year-old waiter from Malaga, on Spain’s southern coast, echoed this sentiment, saying, “Apps have become monotonous, and people are looking for something different. Meeting someone face-to-face is more meaningful than just swiping through photos.”

In a TikTok video last month, Spanish comedian Vivy Lin endorsed the 7 to 8 p.m. window as the ideal time to find someone to flirt with in a Mercadona store. Contreras, who knows people who have met by playfully colliding their carts, spent about an hour twice last week navigating his local Mercadona with an upside-down pineapple, hoping for a romantic encounter but coming up empty-handed.

The first time, “I picked up a pineapple and wandered around with my cart. I was going to shop anyway, but I noticed a couple of knowing glances,” he shared in a text message on Wednesday. “There was a certain tension in those looks.”

When he returned to the store the next day, Contreras found no pineapples left- a shortage he attributed to the craze’s growing popularity.

Like dating apps, the pineapple method isn’t guaranteed to work. Fan, the Barcelona resident, tried it at a Mercadona near the Sagrada Familia on Monday evening but didn’t find a match. “Honestly, I was the only one with a pineapple at that time,” Fan admitted with a laugh.

He believes the trend has gained traction in Spain because people are tired of swiping and small talk. “Maybe it’s because people spend so much time just chatting on apps that they get bored,” he suggested. “On dating apps like Tinder, you might match and start talking, but you might never meet in person. But in the supermarket, you can talk face-to-face.”

This pineapple method is just the latest sign that people are growing weary of dating apps, opting instead for real-life encounters. Many users find the apps increasingly frustrating, with new pricing structures and algorithms making the experience less enjoyable. Concerns about whether they’re even chatting with a real person, given the rise of AI chatbots, are also growing.

Earlier this year, six dating-app users filed a class-action lawsuit against Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge, and other dating platforms, accusing the company of designing apps to keep users swiping rather than helping them find genuine connections. Match called the lawsuit “ridiculous” and insisted that they work to get people off their apps and into real-life dates every day.