5 ms·
Fun banana facts: Bananas are the most-sold item at most grocery stores and, notably, Wal-Mart. Bananas also have the highest standard deviation in terms of p
by disillusioned 7y ago
Fun banana facts:
Bananas are the most-sold item at most grocery stores and, notably, Wal-Mart.
Bananas also have the highest standard deviation in terms of predicting if a given (known) consumer will purchase bananas in a given store run. (At least as compared to other food products and consumables.) When predicting a consumer's shop, it's generally pretty easy to make a highly educated guess about their purchasing activity and, thus, to project volumes for products. But bananas defy that wisdom, except that people in aggregate buy a lot of them. Someone who buys bananas reliably every week for months will randomly stop for months, and then start again, for no perceivable rhyme or reason. Bananas aren't seasonal purchases like berries or corn or other fruits or vegetables. Bananas also tend to be a high purchase at gas stations and convenience stores.
Bananas have to be effectively "tricked" into continuing to ripen after being prematurely picked and then refrigerated for transit. So there are banana ripening centers that pump ethylene through a chilled chamber to get them to ripen.
- neiman 7y ago> Bananas are the most-sold item at most grocery stores and, notably, Wal-Mart. In which country? The US? This can't be globally true..
- apexalpha 7y agoI've heard this about Dutch stores as well. Supermarkets sell banana's at 0% margin or even a loss simply because it lures customers in.
- nimajneb 7y agoThey have been 49 cents per pound in the grocery store in NY, both where I grew and in WNY for as long as I can remember. They have got to be at a loss if you consider they don't adjust for inflation or gas prices, etc. Milk does this too if I'm not mistaken, a lot of grocery stores use that as a customer lure as well.
- disillusioned 7y agoOr, put another way, because they HAVE to sell them: if you're the grocery that _doesn't_ carry bananas, people will move their shop elsewhere.
- ReallyAnonymous 7y agoI'm a surgeon and always ask patients what they do for a living. I once took care of a gentleman who travels the world for his company that designs and manufactures refrigeration units that are used to ripen green bananas. I never would have thought it.
- sondr3 7y agoSame thing when I worked in a convenience store in Norway, bananas were far and away the most sold item, even during very busy seasonal peaks.
- rz2k 7y agoThe photography book Hungry Planet[1] by Peter Manzel shows what 30 families around the world typically purchase in groceries. Looking at them is almost like an exercise in find the bananas. A few of the families do not have bananas, but no other food is as common in the pictures. [1] http://menzelphoto.com/galleries/hungry-planet/ http://menzelphoto.com/galleries/hungry-planet/
- hammock 7y agoBananas are the first item in the store. Just based on how they are merchandised it would be easy to predict this. (I know it is more complicated than that, please don't reply with "loss leader")
- acd 7y agoAre you a data scientist?
- buf 7y agoHe listened to the Freakanomics podcast about cavendish.
- mieseratte 7y ago> Bananas also have the highest standard deviation in terms of predicting if a given (known) consumer will purchase bananas in a given store run. (At least as compared to other food products and consumables.) When predicting a consumer's shop, it's generally pretty easy to make a highly educated guess about their purchasing activity and, thus, to project volumes for products. But bananas defy that wisdom, except that people in aggregate buy a lot of them. Someone who buys bananas reliably every week for months will randomly stop for months, and then start again, for no perceivable rhyme or reason. Bananas aren't seasonal purchases like berries or corn or other fruits or vegetables. Bananas also tend to be a high purchase at gas stations and convenience stores. Where can I find and read more things like this?
- disillusioned 7y agoThis was from a friend who worked adjacent predictive analytics for Prime Fresh, who was complaining to me about how frustrating bananas were to account for, but how they can't just exclude them because if you're not able to cover a substantial enough portion of the consumer's shop, then you're not doing their job, and they end up in a supermarket to complete the shop anyway, and you lose sales you would've otherwise had.
- aldoushuxley001 7y agoAll pre ripened fruits are gassed with ethylene to ripen them, not just bananas. Tip: if you want to ripen your fruit or e.g. avocados faster, put them in a bag with a fruit that is ripe because the ripe fruit gives off a lot of ethylene which will ripen the others.
- LgWoodenBadger 7y agoFrom my days working in software for the retail market about 20 years ago, we had to build functionality to allow the exclusion of bananas and milk from our predictive analytics application because EVERYBODY bought them. Probably over 99% of retail grocer transactions contained them.
- spelunker 7y agoThat's super interesting! Are you saying 99% of retail grocer transactions contained either bananas or milk? Or BOTH?
- 0xffff2 7y agoAs someone who despises bananas outside of banana bread, I find this episode of Banana Facts completely shocking. I always thought is was like cilantro, where some people think it tastes like soap. I guess I'm the only one who has to suppress my gag reflex whenever someone peels a banana within smelling distance?
- Aromasin 7y agoI don't think I know anyone that doesn't like bananas IRL. It's the only thing that keeps me grounded and reminds me that we're all just a bunch of hairless monkeys.
- checkyoursudo 7y agoI have a friend who goes berserk just being within eyesight or nose...smell of bananas. Her story is that her mom fed her too many of them as a kid. Whether that's the real reason or not, I don't know. But there are at least two of you. But probably only two. ;)
- ashtonbaker 7y ago> Bananas aren't seasonal purchases like berries ... Fun fact, though - bananas ARE berries :)
- disillusioned 7y agoHaha, fair point! I of course meant like summer berries like blueberries or strawberries. :-)
- dragonwriter 7y agoStrawberries are, despite the name, not berries, just as bananas are berries.
- simonebrunozzi 7y ago> banana ripening centers that pump ethylene through a chilled chamber to get them to ripen. Thanks for sharing this. I've read a few things like this one, regarding "ripening centers" for various fruits, including apples and strawberries. I am not sure that a banana stays "healthy" after going through a toxic gas - well, apparently the normal concentrations are not toxic to humans [0]: "Ethylene has been found not harmful or toxic to humans in the concentrations found in ripening rooms (100-150 ppm)." Or maybe IT IS toxic after all? [1]. This is where a national medical/certification/food system should step in and clarify things for good. [0]: https://www.catalyticgenerators.com/ethylene-c2h4/ https://www.catalyticgenerators.com/ethylene-c2h4/ [1]: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/MMG/MMG.asp?id=730&tid=133 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/MMG/MMG.asp?id=730&tid=133
- dole 7y agoSimilarly, meat processors pump carbon monoxide into meat packaging to keep it looking cosmetically fresher/redder.
- trehalose 7y agoEthylene oxide is a completely different chemical from ethylene. They're as different as methane and formaldehyde. Ethylene oxide is an epoxide, a class of chemicals that are generally extremely reactive. Ethylene is a simple hydrocarbon.
- simonebrunozzi 7y agoThanks for clarifying. I'm deeply ignorant, despite I loved studying Chemistry 20+ years ago.