# Why are clementines sold in crates? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 10, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455 "2010-02-10T18:39:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/21 "2010-02-10T22:10:59Z")
What I want to know is why they’re only available around Christmas time? They’re damned tasty - why can’t I have some clementines with my Fourth of July BBQ? ---
**Author:** ![Anachronism](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@Anachronism](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anachronism)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/22 "2010-02-10T22:22:27Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Digging in Google finds [the real reason](http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Little-crate-changed-the-fate-of-the-clementine-82898.php) for the crates - it’s clever marketing. > > Originally, clementines were sold loose. People would buy them onesey-twosey and stores were left with piles of oranges not selling. Back in 1990, the marketing director for a growers’ co-op tried packing them in 5-pound boxes with gift bows. They started flying off the shelves, and the rest is produce marketing history. There have been plenty of times when I wanted to grab a couple of clementines but a crate was to much, so I didn’t buy any. Apparently I am in the minority. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/23 "2010-02-10T22:33:18Z")
The vast majority of Clementines imported to the US are from Spain, and their harvest season begins in November, therefore that are tied by the calendar to Christmas time. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/24 "2010-02-11T00:46:33Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > What I want to know is why they’re only available around Christmas time? They’re damned tasty - why can’t I have some clementines with my Fourth of July BBQ? There is a box sitting in my home right now that was purchased last weekend. It’s not Christmas, it’s winter. Also, the ad from the store said that they had “California” clementines, when the packaging indicated they were from Spain like usual. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/25 "2010-02-11T01:31:48Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > There is a box sitting in my home right now that was purchased last weekend. It’s not Christmas, it’s winter. > > Also, the ad from the store said that they had “California” clementines, when the packaging indicated they were from Spain like usual. Clearly they were exported from a cavern or canyon excavated for a mine, probably by one of those San Francisco football players. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/26 "2010-02-11T01:48:52Z")
I’m not exactly sure of the relationship of various orangey citruses to each other (especially as nomenclature varies from region to region) but here we don’t have Clementines, but do have [mandarines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_orange) which are probably similar. They are about the only fruit we choose to buy in a box rather than individually, primarily because a) they slide down the throat very easily, so you can do half a dozen at a time without hardly noticing, b) they store best in a cool dark cupboard, which the box is ideal for c) they last up to a month so we don’t have to worry about them going mouldy before they’re consumed, and d) they’re light enough you can actually carry a box around without doing your back. I can think of no other fruit that applies to. Mind you, I’m talking 5-10 kilo boxes, not 1 or 2, so that’s a slightly different marketing strategy again. But we’re a big household 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/27 "2010-02-11T02:09:14Z")
Clementine is one variety of mandarin orange, according to Wikipedia. [See here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine) ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/28 "2010-02-11T02:31:05Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Where I live, what we used to call “Christmas” oranges come in sturdy cardboard boxes that can be stacked high without damaging the contents as another poster described. It wasn’t very long ago though that wood [orange crates](http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/carl/pencil/lincolnBiographer/enlargedThumb/CARL1319_orangeCrate2.jpg) were standard (ok, 30-40 years ago). They didn’t look much like the pictures that were linked but I wonder if there’s any nostalgia marketing involved in using wood where cardboard will do. The “Cuties” they are selling around here this year are in cardboard boxes. I have also seen them in 3# mesh bags. ---
**Author:** ![stinky2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@stinky2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stinky2)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/29 "2010-10-12T04:00:19Z")
i would say because of bruising. as a person who likes good clementines, i’ve noticed the ones at the bottom of the pile go bad faster (my store sells them in mesh bags only.) always thought it had to do with the weight they were under. just my conjecture. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/30 "2010-10-12T14:55:28Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > > [@Joe Frickin Friday](#): > > > > When we buy them, they’re in a mesh-plastic bag, inside the aforementioned crate. You could eleminate the crate, and the bag of oranges still wouldn’t roll around. > > Here we have some plastic mesh just stapled over the top of the crate so the Clementines don’t fall out. They do anyway. There’s no mesh bag. > > Come to think of it… I suspect the mesh is to prevent people from _adding_ more and more clementines into a heap in the crate more than to keep the roundlings from escaping. > > ETA: [Pic of box with mesh](http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/reviews/blog/clementines.jpg) just overtop. The real conspiracy is that the orange mesh makes the clementines look more orange than they actually are. ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/31 "2010-10-12T15:04:54Z")
The real pisser is for us single people who like them but have a hard time eating FIVE POUNDS of them and thus never buy when forced into the bulk scenario. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/32 "2010-10-12T16:54:29Z")
My husband and I like them well enough, but we aren’t about to buy five pounds at a time. We rarely buy more than a pound or so of any given fruit at one time. Even if we keep the clementines in the fridge, if we buy the five pound container about half of them will spoil before we eat them. I prefer not to feed my compost bin with pricy food. This is also the reason why we buy a half or quarter of a watermelon at a time. We like fruit, but we like a variety, and there’s just the two of us. So we don’t buy clementines, even though I love them. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/33 "2010-10-12T22:36:03Z")
> [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](#): > > The real pisser is for us single people who like them but have a hard time eating FIVE POUNDS of them and thus never buy when forced into the bulk scenario. Move to Europe then. I’ve never seen crates of clementines or mandarins here; they always seem to be sold singly, like any other fruit. Bags, nets, and shrink-wrapped packs of some fruit and vegetables are available too, though that’s always alongside rather than instead of singles. ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/34 "2010-10-13T01:50:34Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > They are about the only fruit we choose to buy in a box rather than individually, primarily because a) they slide down the throat very easily, so you can **do** half a dozen at a time without hardly noticing, I know what you mean. I like to line the little sections up on a mirror and suck them up with a straw. What? Am I doing it wrong? > [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](#): > > The real pisser is for us single people who like them but have a hard time eating FIVE POUNDS of them and thus never buy when forced into the bulk scenario. > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > My husband and I like them well enough, but we aren’t about to buy five pounds at a time. We rarely buy more than a pound or so of any given fruit at one time. Y’all need to get a competitive eating coach on retainer stat! Training. That’s what makes the difference. Eat, eat and eat some more. And when you’re so stuffed you think you’re going to pop, go for that last wafer-thin section . . . C’mon! You can do it!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/35 "2010-10-13T03:14:31Z")
Mandarin oranges are “Christmas” oranges to me, and somehow seemed special. Always in a little box (cardboard, though, not wood), and usually individually wrapped in the tissue paper. (Western Canada born and raised.) When the grocery stores started selling mandarin oranges in bulk, I was very pleased. Our two-adult household can’t get through a whole box of mandarin oranges. (Especially by two, I mean “me”, as the primary fruit-eater.) I didn’t notice “clemantines” being sold until the last few years. It was either ordinary oranges or special mandarin oranges that arrived in November. But I’m a fan, whether they be mandarins or clemantines. Fruit, tasty, easy to peel, and so easy to take in my lunch. Off to check the Wikipedia links to sort out what’s a mandarin and what’s a clemantine and what’s an orange… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/36 "2010-10-13T03:18:22Z")
Don’t forget to ask it what’s a tangerine… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/37 "2010-10-13T03:19:03Z")
More: When I was a wee lass, my mum always put a single, paper wrapped mandarin orange in the toe of my Christmas stocking. It was to be a special treat, because when she was a little girl in the 40s, a mandarin orange _was_ a very special, expensive Christmas treat. (She grew up in very small-town BC.) She always said that the Japanese mandarin oranges were the best, and looked down upon the inferior Chinese mandarins that we could get in the 80s and later. Clover the dog also wanted to add that as a dog, she heartily approves of both mandarins and clemantines and finds them delicious. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/38 "2010-10-13T03:22:04Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Don’t forget to ask it what’s a tangerine… > > 😃 Ack! All this citrus will confuse me forever. Don’t _get_ me started on my beloved tangelos, which I hold to be a cross between a tangerine and pomelo and nothing else, but apparently are no longer those two citrus species exclusively… ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/39 "2010-10-13T06:56:11Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > Ack! All this citrus will confuse me forever. > > Don’t _get_ me started on my beloved tangelos, which I hold to be a cross between a tangerine and pomelo and nothing else, but apparently are no longer those two citrus species exclusively… Here, have a delicious [plout](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plout). (No, really. They are _delicious_!) ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455/40 "2010-10-13T10:39:02Z")
Surely a better solution that forcing people to bulk buy (five \*pounds \*of clementines? It would take me weeks to get through them) is to make loose clementines a little more expensive? That’s how they do it here-- you can buy mesh bags of them if you like, which are cheaper per unit weight, or you can buy them individually. I’ve never seen crates of them. Even the bags are less than a kilo (maybe 1.5 lb). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-clementines-sold-in-crates/528455.md?page=3)