A new kind of meet-cute is currently taking off in Spain, and it requires a trip to the produce aisle.
On TikTok, a quick search of “Mercadona” (a Spanish supermarket chain) yields hundreds of videos of young shoppers strolling about the fruit aisle—always between the hours of 7 and 8 p.m.—with an upside-down pineapple in their carts. To outsiders, the ulta-specific trend looks like a strange occurrence of group psychosis. But to participants, the action symbolizes a very specific goal: They’re looking to hook up.
The pineapple-based meet-cute craze seems to have been sparked by TikToker Vivy Lin, who posted a now-viral video on August 20 wherein she joked that “The time to hook up in Mercadona is 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.” In the days since the trend took off, it has resulted in a busy, often downright chaotic social hour at many Mercadona locations, leading at least one store to hide the pineapples before shoppers looking for love could find them.
In an era wherein Gen Zers and millennials are going to extreme lengths to avoid online dating (from joining running clubs and members-only gyms to trying out cold plunge speed-dating) the Spanish pineapple trend is yet another way that young people are opting out of the dreaded doom swiping. Yet, many Americans may already recognize the upside-down pineapple as a sex symbol—most ubiquitous on cruises and at vacation resorts—used to connote interest in swinging.
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Here’s where the pineapple’s symbolic roots stem from, and how the fruit become the icon of hookup culture worldwide.
Diamonds, galas, and . . . pineapples?
Before the pineapple became a sex symbol, it actually stood for a different kind of indulgence: excessive wealth.
The pineapple was originally imported to Europe from Guadeloupe in the 15th century, at which point Europeans—enraptured by the spiny fruit’s taste—tried, unsuccessfully, to grow it outside of its native tropical climate. From that point until the late 1800s, because the pineapple could only be imported from the Spanish colonies, its rarity made it a highly valued status symbol among the European elite.
Records from the time show that aristocrats would often tout the fruit to gatherings well past the point of rotting, and a market for renting out pineapples for social appearances sprang up. The fruit was even given the nickname “King Pine.”
In an interview with the BBC, Dr. Lauren O’Hagan from Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication, and Philosophy, posited that “the pineapple was previously unknown in the Old World, so it was free of the cultural resonances of other fruits, which enabled people to create new meanings from it.” She added that the pineapple had a mystical quality which was “enhanced by its golden crown, viewed as the symbolic manifestation of the divine right of king.”
Once the pineapple was more easily conveyed to Europe via steamship, it became significantly less expensive and accessible to both the middle and lower classes, thus eventually losing its luxury connotations.
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The pineapple’s sexual past
The transformation of the pineapple from a symbol of wealth into one of non-monogamy is difficult to pin down. As early as 1629, author John Parkinson wrote that the forbidden fruit of temptation in the Garden of Eden was actually a pineapple. Some argue that the double meaning evolved from the pineapple serving as a symbol of hospitality in Hawaii. But, in practice, the upside-down pineapple seems to have gained traction in the ‘90s and early aughts.
According to reporting from Men’s Health, the first appearance of “upside-down pineapple” in the Urban Dictionary can be traced back to 2006, followed by an official definition in 2017. “The pineapple represents hospitality and welcoming,” the entry reads. “A pineapple is placed on a porch or mail box by swingers to signify that a swinger party is going on. A pineapple is turned upside down when a person is in search of a swinger party. Originally it was turned upside down in the individual’s shopping cart.”
In that same Men’s Health article, one interviewee who identified as a swinger reported successfully using the upside-down-pineapple-in-the-shopping-cart strategy to find out about a swinging party in New York City. The current TikTok-driven fad in Spain, it seems, is a new spin on an existing trend, geared more toward a younger generation’s idea of hookup culture.
Barring the current grocery store craze, the most common place to find an upside-down pineapple symbol, by all accounts, is on a cruise. Multiple cruise-based publications have published dedicated guides on the topic, walking cruise-goers through the fruit’s connotations.
“No, it is not just a cute tropical decoration,” one such guide from the publication Cruise reads of the pineapple symbol. “If you see one, it is because the cabin’s passengers are trying to convey a very specific message, one that has nothing to do with dessert.”
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