6 hours ago, scubadoo97 said:My ability to pick ripe avocados that aren't a little black in the center is poor when picking from the ripe bin at the grocery store. These days I've been having to plan a few days ahead and buy them green and ripen at home. So far so good
When it comes to fragility, avocados are just like bananas. Unripe, they can handle getting banged around a bit- especially if they're very unripe. Once ripe though, it's kid's gloves only. And you're not going to find gentle treatment in a grocery store bin- just the mere weight of other avocados on top of a ripe avocado will cause it to be bruised- and that's just sitting in a pile. Once you add the potential injury from handling - produce dept. workers and checkout people, being able to walk into a grocer and purchase a ripe unblemished avocado is pretty much impossible. I don't go as crazy as I used to, but I used to make little pillows out of paper towels for my ripening avocados.
And, of course, 'unblemished' is relative. I've been to plenty of parties where hosts made guac from hideously brown fleshed avocados without blinking an eye. But, for me, If the brown parts can be cut away, I'll try, but if it's more than half brown, off to the garbage it goes, with a pour of my forty for my dearly departed homie 
Speaking of things that make you want to cry, avocados were $2.50 a pop this week in my local grocer. They were a dollar a couple weeks ago, so hopefully they'll drop again soon, because, as much joy as they bring me, it'll be a cold day in hell when I spend $2.50 on an avocado.
