The Viral Banana Supermarket Hack Gives New Meaning To The Word Frugal

These days, with inflation still raging and grocery store food prices higher than ever, consumers can be forgiven for trying to cushion their wallets when they go shopping. However, some shoppers have resorted to especially drastic measures to cut corners. A recent viral TikTok showed a man taking his frugality to the next level. A woman filmed her boyfriend at the store as he peeled a banana, discarded the peel, and wrapped the naked fruit in a plastic produce bag. The text over the video read, "[H]ow my frugal boyfriend saves money on his bananas," and the caption spelled out the girlfriend's shame: "[T]he secondhand embarrassment tho." Presumably, the hack would shed some weight and save a few cents when it came time to check out. The video sent viewers into a frenzy, whose reactions ranged from amused to disgusted. But hang on, let's hear the boyfriend out.

On average, bananas weigh around 180 grams, but about 36% of this weight can be accounted for by the peel. That's over a third of a banana's weight that's inedible but still costs you at the grocery store checkout. While this logic helps justify the frugal shopper's hack, it doesn't account for just how cheap bananas are in the first place. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average price for a pound of bananas in the U.S. was $0.64 in April. This means a single banana only costs around $0.26, and ditching the peel would likely only save you around $0.09.

TikTok commenters were quick to express their disbelief and outrage, with many pointing out that even now, bananas simply aren't expensive enough to risk this kind of shame. "Did he save 2 pennies," one commenter wondered. Another riffed on Lucille Bluth's famous line from "Arrested Development": "It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? $10?" Others joked about the absurd hack, claiming they up the ante by ditching the bag altogether.

While it's certainly easy to jump on the hate train, the fact that the hack features such a cheap item hints at the growing desperation of consumers. The exceptionally frugal method has gone viral as price hikes persist. The TikTok was taken in Australia, where grocery store prices soared nearly 10% over the past year, but this kind of inflation is a universal problem. In the U.S., the trend certainly affects the produce aisle, where banana prices rose in 2022 and haven't budged much since. The USDA projects a continued increase in fresh fruit prices in 2023.

On the other hand, we can't say if inflation alone is responsible for this shopper's behavior. Maybe it doesn't matter what the price of a banana is to shoppers like this. For them, the race to be frugal had no start, and it will have no end.