Going Bananas

When I saw that the theme for this week's My Sweet Life link up at Suger Coat It was "weird" and that the original post was about weird things at work my thoughts immediately ran to the crazy banana man.

About 6 weeks ago (when supermarket prices were $12.98kg and most fruit and veg shops were selling bananas at $9.99kg) we ran a promotion at our shop where we were selling bananas for $3.99kg and printed and distributed flyers advertising the special. I delivered the flyers myself and spoke with a few people as I did (as they were watering their gardens, speaking with their neighbours or walking their dogs.) All responded in the manner in which we expected "Oh, that's a great price, I'll have to go there, where is the shop?"

Shortly after I returned to the shop the phone started ringing. A man who I immediately recognised as being irate about something demanded to speak to my husband and as he couldn't come to the phone I offered to have him call back, resulting in the following exchange:

Crazy Banana Man: "No, you cannot get him to call me back, he doesn't have my number, he can't call back!"

Me: "I'm sorry, can I give him a message then?"

CBM: "Yes, you can tell him that his bananas are too expensive! He's crazy if he thinks people are going to pay that price! They should be only one dollar, ONE DOLLAR ONLY is the right price for bananas!"

Me: "Sir, I'm sorry but bananas have not been that price for at least a couple of months due to supply issues"

CBM: "I don't care about that. David is crazy! Noone will pay that for bananas!"

Me: "Are you aware that (the supermarket) next door is selling bananas for $12.98kg?"

CBM: "I don't care about (the supermarket)! You just tell him this, it is too expensive for bananas, noone will pay that price, he's crazy if he thinks they will and they're crazy if they do. ONLY CRAZY PEOPLE WILL PAY $3.99kg FOR BANANAS!"

As he hung up I burst into uncontrollable laughter; glad for the relief of him being off the phone so I COULD laugh at him.

The poor man was clearly lacking the vital brain food which is so readily supplied by bananas!

Bananas are the most sold fruit in the world and with prices at highs like they are at the moment many people are doing without them. I'm interested to hear how much people have paid for bananas (ie how much they're willing to pay) and where they are selling at their highest prices. Current talk in the market is that bananas may reach a high price of around $17kg retail; I know if I had to pay retail prices for bananas we would be doing without and even paying wholesale prices we are still eating a lot less bananas that we would normally.

So; how much were the last bananas you bought? How many did you buy? Or, when was the last time you bought bananas?

For those not in the know banana prices are almost at their peak at the moment, the pries rocketed from a regular price of around $1.99kg up to around $7.99kg almost immediately after Cyclone Yasi tore through North Queensland in February. Most places (in Sydney) are currently stocking bananas at around $12kg, 'though we've heard of supermarkets selling them for $16kg. At out little fruit shop we've not sold bananas for more than $8.99kg (if we can't get them at a price that we can sell them for a profit at that price we don't buy them in.) Up until two weeks ago we had not raised our price to more than $5.99kg.