They are picked before they are ripe and they are artificially ripened, like bananas. They are cultivated for fast growth and maximum size, and not given time to mature.

If you grow your own tomatoes, the results can be amazing.

30 years ago, my grandmother grew the most amazing tomatoes in her vegetable garden on the farm. When she died my uncles sold off the farm and a developer split it into 5 or 6 plots that are now mostly horse pastures with huge McMansions on them. So it goes.

A lot of us don't like the taste of raw tomatoes. As far as I'm concerned, the closer they are to latex bags of water, the better. I only use them (generally sliced on sandwiches) to bolster my "eating vegetables" status to satisfy social pressures. I'm satisfied, whether I'm getting actual vitamins or not.

I'm American. Possibly there are a lot of people like me here, so the stores are actually providing what the people want.

Your generic supermarket tomato these days is optimized for long shelf life and not flavor or nutrition.