The shops are the new place to find love — and there's a supermarket dating code (2024)

Forget that rooftop bar, or joining a run club, apparently there’s a new place to find romance: the supermarket.

We can’t be the only ones who’ve spotted a hot guy in the fruit and veg aisle and hoped we might lock eyes.

But this is levelling up the supermarket meet cute: now, people are going to the shops at specific times, purely to land a date.

The trend appears to have started in Spain, at popular supermarket chain Mercadona (their equivalent of Tesco or Sainsbury’s), after Spanish TV personality, Vivy Lin, posted a video sharing the theory that singles were browsing the shelves for more than just groceries.

In the video, which has now been viewed 1.6million times, Vivy is shopping at Mercadona with a friend, who asked what the ‘best time to flirt in Mercadona is’, and said there was a ‘a specific time’.

After a Google search, the ladies learn that it’s from 7pm to 8pm. ‘There’s people here that have been walking around for a while…. and their carts are empty,’ says Vivy. ‘They’re not even pretending to shop.’

People in the comments seemed to agreed, calling the place ‘Mercatinder’, and recommended other Spanish supermarkets’ so-called flirting hours.

One user explained that Corte Ingles (another major supermarket) was best at lunchtime, while for Lidl it was between 6pm and 7pm.

Other videos have even said that there are secret messages you can send to potential partners using the items in your shopping basket.

Content creator Nacho Pla, said that the first step was to put an upside down pineapple in your cart, to show you’re available.

Of course, upside-down pineapples have long been associated with the swinging scene, with people using the fruit to subtly represent their sexual preferences.

Nacho even goes up to a fellow shopper to ask if her pineapple was indeed a signal. ‘Well, to see what happens,’ she replies. ‘I can see some good looking guys.’

Nacho also explains that there are other items that can help show your intentions.

‘Lettuce? It goes off quickly, so that’s if you want a one night stand,’ he says. ‘Lentils, as they don’t go off, is for looking for something long-term. Oil if you are looking for someone with money.’

And if you want to be really forward? ‘If you like someone.. you need to bump your cart against the person’s cart,’ he adds.

And while pulling at the shops is certainly having it’s moment online, apparently, sending coded messages from your trolley has been going on for a while.

Over on Reddit a post asks: ‘Singles night at supermarket, urban myth?’. With one person commenting: ‘The urban myth 20 years ago was a single banana prominently displayed meant you were single.

Another agreed. ‘A friend of mine and his girlfriend are into unicorn hunting, and they’ve told me that having bananas on top of your shopping is a sign that you’re open to being propositioned by a couple looking for a third.

‘No idea if it’s true or not, but they were adamant.’

Someone else said it was specific to the queer community: ‘Banana up… was to say a top, down ya a bottom!’ [sic]

When it comes to the likelihood that you’ll meet someone special in the store according to YouGov, just 15% of people have met their current or most recent partners by chance while ‘out and about’.

This could apply to a range of activities, from clubbing to grocery shopping, which means the proportion of people who met their paramour while down the shops is likely far smaller.

So while it’s worth a shot, don’t go putting all your eggs – or fruit – in this one basket – especially since it’s safe to assume that not everybody will know about this so-called secret code.

So if the bananas don’t work maybe try using your words and starting a conversation?

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