They aren’t ‘bad’ apples in any sort of objective way, but are so bland compared to other easily-available options and so frequently inedibly mealy that I can only assume that they’re popular because they taste like the first apple most people ever ate – likely a Red Delicious – and other apples are too tart, too crisp, too hard, etc. RD’s are “the apple” people are familiar with and a comforting ideal to go back to.
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Yeah, some of us like bland. I love a nice, crisp, juicy red delicious apple and I rarely have problems these days finding them that way at the grocery store (a little harder mid-winter). Growing up, we had Mcintosh or Granny Smith apples where I’m from, and I always disliked those. I didn’t learn about red delicious until my twenties, and it was awesome, an apple I could finally enjoy.
Sure, I have bad taste in apples. Whatever. But I bet not one of you have the nerve to try a baked bean and mayo on rye bread sandwich. Mmmm… so good. You can keep you boring, sugar-filled pb&j’s on white bread while I’m savoring a true original flavor. You know, the PB we have today isn’t like the old days when it was hand ground up and mashed and bought from rural farmers.
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My go to magical snack is a ginger-nut biscuit with marge, marmite and cheddar cheese. 
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again…SUBJECTIVELY “inedibly mealy” and “bland”.
The Red Delicious apples we get here are locally grown and crisp with a great sweetness but not like a sugar bomb in your mouth. Macintosh are generally in my area mealy and not good eating apples, but generally great for cooking purposes.
Like I said…this is subjective. No one can disagree with that and be right that “objectively speaking this apple sucks and this apple is great”. No…that is point blank wrong.
I am not here to defend the great red delicious apple from the haters…love it or hate it at your discretion. Its like people who like their bourbon neat or on the rocks…pick whatever makes it taste best for you. But I will fight tooth and nail and yes DIE ON THAT HILL that no one gets to say categorically that “oh this brand/style/version of said food item is BAD and this one is GOOD”. Its subjective. Period. End of Story.
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OK, this is getting off-topic, but I have to say: Marmite FTW!
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By golly, that IS a good idea. And I’m in the position to give it a try! Life is good. 
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Lady Alice are good too.
Cripps Pink . . . Pink Lady . . . Lady Alice . . . it’s like racehorses, I guess.
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Uh, welcome to the interwebs! 
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Here in MN a true Honeycrisp is a wonderful thing. Can’t speak for anywhere else.
Like tomatoes. I’ve never had a store bought tomatoe that can even try to measure up to the gross looking heirlooms I grow in the garden.
It’s like a baby trying to fight mike tyson levels of disparity.
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Marmite, Cheddar, Cox – now that’s lunch
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I was looking for the Granny lover (that didn’t come out right)…I’m with you there. Tart for the win!
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If you ever get the chance to eat an Empire from right off the tree: do it! They don’t store well, but they’re so lovely when fresh.
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Now they have apples that no longer turn brown. Started out as GMO, looks like there are some non-GMO out there. I’ve had them. What’s next?
I was going to post about Empire myself. I find Honeycrisp to be too sweet, as others have mentioned. Empires are lovely and tart. They are my current favorite apple. (Alas, I can only find them in local stores for a couple of weeks every other year.)
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My cheapskate way of trying out new retail apple varieties:
Fred Meyer stores have a “second rate produce” shelf in the produce section. These have bags of cosmetically fruit and vegetables, marked down to a dollar. The bags of apples – three or four depending on the size – can have anything in them. But more often then not, one of those pricey varieties I normally wouldn’t spring for.
NOT RECOMMENDED BOUTIQUE APPLE VARIETIES
Beauvier Thick Skin
Moser Acre’s Mealy Disappointment
Randall Sledge Acrid Champ
Washington County Blue Ribbon Pucker-Lip
Purple Nightmare
Lilly’s Crampmaster of Shilo Farms
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I grew up in WV (which is a fairly strong Apple growing state), and moved to OH.
There seem to be two rather different apples grown and sold as Red Delicious apples. The local ones are sweet and fine-fleshed and crisp and rather delicious. Yes, there are better varieties, but it’s a great mid-level apple that is really quite good. They are definitely worth eating, and this apple and the “Granny Smith” apples are the fruits that defined “Apple” for me growing up.
I had no clue what you all were talking about when you described Red Delicious apples as being mealy and bland and tasteless. Then I had one; I threw it out because I presumed it was bad. I mean, I had had bad apples like this before, but I grabbed another out of the bag, and it was mealy and flavorless and sucked as bad as the first. The bag was labeled as Red Delicious, but… ugh. It was a West Coast grower. Over the years, I’ve gotten more west coast bags of horrible apples. To the point where now I mostly only buy apples grown in WV and OH, and won’t buy Red “Delicious” apples at all unless they are grown in WV or OH.
I don’t know if it’s a genetic difference between the trees, if it’s a problem with the way the farmers out west store their apples, if it’s an age thing (or an age out of storage thing), but I am guessing that the west coast is just awash in horrible, horrible apple-shaped blobs of disappointment being falsely sold by unwitting merchants as Red Delicious apples…
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Wow, the marketing department really needs some lessons here! 
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I think literallly every other apple that I have eaten has been better than a red delicious - which is a lie.
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As a fellow WVian, I must say I failed in my previous post. I think it is in the constitution somewhere that we need to proclaim the glories of the Golden Delicious, which is a fine apple (and one I have growing in my backyard) but still, Granny is my go to. Also keeps really well in the root cellar.
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