Tuesday, August 07, 2007

The Price of Bananas

Remember my post about the Bananaman? That and some comments on my deli posts got me thinking about doing some price analysis on the cost of the items I buy for breakfast, to see if I could really be saving a lot of money by buying them elsewhere. Here's the results of some research into banana prices in New York City:

Garden of Eden (a sort of gourmet deli): .79 per pound. 3 large bananas weighed about 1.5 pounds, so one large banana about 40 cents

FreshDirect: as low as .59 per pound. 3 banana minimum. est 1.35 lbs, so .26 per banana. But FreshDirect does not deliver to my neighborhood.

Whole Foods: .99 per pound for organic bananas. 3 bananas were about 1.25 lbs, so about .41 per banana.

Sunset Park Key Food: 2 lbs for $1.00. The bananas were pretty average in size though I didn't actually weigh them, so I'm guessing something like .23 per banana. This was definitely the cheapest per-pound price I found for bananas.

Bananaman: 25 cents per banana. Bananas tend to be a bit smaller than the ones at Garden of Eden, but sometimes just as big, and sometimes even bigger.

I don't know how else to sum this up other than to say "SIZE MATTERS!" As long as I make sure I get a nice big banana, the bananaman is actually one of the cheapest places to buy bananas. But if he always has wimpy little bananas, then I might be able to do better elsewhere on a bite-by-bite basis.

Well, that was interesting... maybe I will do some more price comparisons on other fruits I regularly enjoy, such as cherries, fresh figs, melons...

12 comments:

Josh said...

Quality is probably less of an issue in bananas, but fruit is one area where it's hard to skimp. The best dates, I think, are at the Grand Central market, and the best nuts (any kind) are at Trader Joes. The cheapest of both are at slezy delis, but it's always a mistake...

SavingDiva said...

The price of produce in NYC is SO much more than the midwest!

You might want to consider apples in the morning...all of that fiber will keep you full longer :)

Anonymous said...

Carrots make a good snack!

Anonymous said...

A lot more can be read into this then just fruits:)

Caio,

Anonymous said...

I'd go for the organic, every time. It's worth it to keep nasty chemicals out of our bodies, and off the planet.

squire said...

Typical woman, "size matters",hehe. I follow your blog and am quite impressed. GOOD WORK.

Anonymous said...

Seems like too much thought to give to something that costs pennies. From a financial standpoint, do you ever wonder if you're "lost in the weeds?"

Jane said...

My ex used to complain incessantly about the price of groceries as if he were an 80-year-old grandmother who longed for the general store. When I once told him I paid a cart guy 25 cents for a banana, he said, "That's outrageous." I mulled that comment over for MONTHS. I honestly didn't feel -- in the grand NYC scheme of things -- that a quarter was that much to shell out. Madame X, today you have proven that I was right. I am vindicated. Thank you. (And size does matter.)

Anonymous said...

I love nice big round melons.

Janet said...

Your post on bananas got me thinking on ethnic supermarket prices vs. Trader Joe's.

In chinatown a bundle of bananas is 49 cents/lb. For one pound you get 4 banans - that comes out to 13 cents each. At Trader Joe's you can get the organic ones for 19 cents each. not that much of a price difference when you compare to chinatown. it's quite fascinating. thanks for the interesting analysis!

Caitlin said...

peaches are pretty tasty...

austere said...

You might want to factor in the time and effort cost as well, bananaman at the corner 25 c/ 35 c versus effort, time and petrol cost for fruit which may be cheaper and far away. But you'd probably bundle, so that would be fine.