Been there. Complained about this very thing on HN, and got shot down. Apparently, individually plastic-wrapped fruits exist because of people with motor disabilities.

I accept that, and I understand that under our economy, it's better (cheaper) for people with such aliments that these fruits are just another item in grocery stores, and not specialty item in special stores (which would be sold for a much higher price). Still, I can't shake the feeling that this is wrong, there must be a better way of supporting people with motor problems than carpet-bombing shops with environmentally absurd individually packaged fruits, and exposing those to regular people without motor problems, some of which will start buying (and thus creating demand) out of convenience or false perception of quality...

I think the pre cut/wrapped apple slices and oranges and such are arguably for disabled people (or children, or convenience, and priced at a 5-10x premium) but the individually wrapped whole fruit, which are sold in much higher volumes, make less sense.

What's worse than individually plastic-wrapped apples? Individually plastic-wrapped bananas or oranges. They do already have their own natural wrapping.

Worse yet are styrofoam padded pears

I like the boiled eggs in plastic at Walmarts. As though it's just a stretch too far to expect someone to take eggs in their existing shells and boil them briefly!

You can even provide boiled eggs plastic free. In the UK and Germany I've seen eggs painted with a special paint that seals the cooked egg and lets you keep it outside a fridge for weeks.

I get those in the summer when too hot to cook.