system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:If the apples you buy at the store were picked an average of 14 months ago, why does fruit spoil so fast after you buy it?

I just heard from the podcast stuff you should know that the apples you buy at the store have been off the tree for an average of 14 months. If that is true, why does fruit (of all kinds) go bad so quickly after you buy it?
gpt
When it is kept in cold storage it has been treated with 1-MCP (methylcyclopropene), sprayed with wax and kept in a high CO2, low O2 environment. This keeps the apples from maturing. Before it gets to the grocery stores, the wax is removed and once it sits on the shelf, the atmosphere is back to normal breathable conditions and the fruit only has at most three weeks before it spoils. 

Edit: a lot of people keep mentioning Nitrogen. The process to lower O2 is by backfilling nitrogen to get the Oxygen concentration down.