This Could Be Why You Rarely See Golden Delicious Apples In Grocery Stores

Many associate apples with the image of Red Delicious or Granny Smith apples, but there are well over 7,500 distinct apple cultivars. A group devoted to finding lost apple varieties actually rediscovered at least 10 apple varieties once thought to be extinct. However, there are really only 25 varieties we use for commercial production, including Golden Delicious. Well, until lately, that is. Golden Delicious apples are harder and harder to find each year, leading many consumers to wonder: Where did they all go?

Golden Delicious apples are great cross-pollinators to use when growing Red Delicious apples. Apples have to be cross-pollinated to grow viable, edible fruit. Without that, they can grow malformed and often drop from the tree before ripeness. Given that Red Delicious sales are down, it would make sense apple growers have reduced their acreage of Red Delicious and thus its main cross pollinator, the Golden Delicious. A 2022 report by USApple shows that Golden and Red Delicious apples share the same downward sales trends year over year. Still, a more recent report from 2025 that declining sales have stabilized. 

Perhaps one of the best explanations is the economic one as several new, high-demand varieties have hit the market. Back in the 1990s, these new varieties were cultivated and studied by companies and universities. Among these were Fuji, Honeycrisp, Cosmic Crisp, and Jazz — just to name a few. The market shifted, and suddenly old mainstays weren't able to keep up. 

While we see fewer Golden Delicious apples in stores, we're actually seeing an increase in apple diversity. It's remarkable that we have over a dozen of types of apples in grocery stores, with new varieties arriving each year. It's getting to the point where you need an apple guide to make sense of it all.

So which apples are replacing the Delicious apples, both Red and Golden? Well, if we go by the industry outlook report from 2025 (mentioned above), we're looking at a few varieties. The biggest contenders are Gala, Honeycrip, Fuji, and the newcomer Cosmic Crisp. While we might not all be apple experts, these apples have at least one thing in common: When perfectly ripe they are crisp and have balanced acidity and sweetness. 

While the decline of the Red Delicious apple isn't a super straightforward tale, it's hard not to mention a noticeable decline in quality of Red Delicious. It seems from its heyday in the 1980s, Red Delicious production shifted from taste to a game of pure numbers. Farmers started to grow as many Red Delicious as they could, with their thick skin and famously dimpled bottom, which helped them withstand transit and packing better.

Some food writers and reporters are now saying the same thing about Honeycrisp apples. It seems American apple growers are always looking for new varieties to offer. And while no apple will remain on top forever, it's good to know we'll always have our pick of the bunch. Hopefully we can regain more and more of the 17,000 lost apple varieties.