With supermarket prices still hovering at around 79¢ a pound in Southern California, the traditional bargain spot for the banana lovers has been Trader Joe’s, where the fruit is sold individually at 19¢ each (that comes out to about a half buck a pound – see my earlier post on TJ’s pricing strategy.) But there are cheaper ways to get bananas in L.A. At the city’s Grand Central Square Market – a sprawling version of the mercados common to most Latin American cities and villages – at least two vendors are battling it out with fruit at 33¢ per pound (that’s about 13¢ a banana.)
It’s war at the Grand Central Square Market in downtown Los Angeles. These fruit stands are right across the aisle from each other.
But a street vendor at the corner of Echo Park Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, just a couple of miles west, has them both beat. His price of eight-for-a-buck (that’s the minimum purchase) comes out the same as the market, but he lets you pick and choose, so you can go bigger. Even when I let him select for me, I made out: my octomom-sized bag weighed in at 52 ounces, or less than 31¢ per pound.
Such a deal you can’t pass up! Click here for directions to the spot. Bonus points, because you’ll end up right next to my favorite churro truck.
Want some additional economics? This year, in Ecuador – the country that exports more bananas to the U.S. than any other – the spot price for bananas has fluctuated between about $3.00 and $7.00 per 40-pound box of the fruit, or between about seven and seventeen cents a pound. Our supermarket chains pay about double that, wholesale.
Think about that low number: seven cents a pound to produce the world’s most popular fruit. Compare that to those tart cherries that are in season and so good right now. This has been a banner year for the Wisconsin producers of that fruit, and though they’re pleased – last season was lousy – they’re also worried that the big numbers will mean a drop in prices, which are now hovering at about 40¢ per pound. Wholesale. To live and work in the U.S.A. is a good thing.
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman 
