Friends of Dave #391: the 💩 is bananas 🍌
Seeking a high ROI purchase? Look no further than the produce section.
Friends, if you regularly tune in to this newsletter, you know the preamble can go in a lot of different directions.
This was a bit of a crazy week here, so I’m giving you a heads up that this one is going to have us covering some new ground….but will still give you something to think about…..
Here’s a question: if you had to guess, what would you say might be the highest value item you purchase at the grocery store?
Everyone’s seeing the cost of living going up these days — the price of groceries continues to skyrocket worldwide even with inflation beginning to slow.
We’re seeing it up close in our family — I have three sons in our house this summer, including an active, growing teenager that is burning tons of calories daily with sports. Let’s just say the dude himself is an puberty fueled eating machine.
So going the grocery store getting the usual stuff has definitely gotten more painful over the last year or so.
Except, this week, I had a pleasant, maybe life changing revelation.
We ran out of bananas.
We seem to always run out of bananas.
The Banana Situation is starting to take on Pandemic Toilet Paper Crisis proportions in our house.
Bananas get removed from a shopping bag, placed on a counter and they quickly get consumed in yogurt, in smoothies, with Nutella on rice cakes, as post sports practice snacks, as an appetizer while dinner is being made, with ice cream. Anytime, anywhere.
Soon, all I can say is “Yes, we have no bananas… we have no bananas today.”
Or one could also say, Friends, that in our house…..earworm alert in-coming….these days the 💩 is 🍌🍌🍌….B-A-N-A-N-A-S…..for some of you, I just ruined your day, I know…..😜
With a major crisis on the home front brewing, especially now that school is out for summer and the Teenaged Man-Child is looking for things to keep him occupied when he is at the house, I had to do something. So, with a few minutes to spare, I decided to run into the grocery store and just pick up bananas.
If you notice, in most grocery chains, bananas are among the first items you probably see upon entering. They are a pretty frictionless purchase — walk up, pick the bunch that look good, and you can quickly be on your way.
I guess I’m just not one of those people who likes to make a production about buying fruits. You know THOSE PEOPLE — they saunter up to the bananas and feel compelled to poke, prod, inspect and JUDGE each bunch for bruises, color hues, et al. They may even be so brazen to break up the bunches and take like two bananas and leave four behind….simply because they CAN.
Not me. Maybe I am a bit of a rule follower but I trust the process — someone somewhere put a lot of thought into the presentation of these potassium loaded torpedoes and decided they were best sold as a set. I am buying the whole thing as packaged. I mean, who ever buys that leftover bunch of three anyway?
I grabbed a pretty handsome bunch of eight bananas, just green enough but not too green, and headed directly to self-checkout. No list, no checking with my wife, no worrying that someone might complain that I didn’t buy cream cheese (yes, that too seems to be an odd staple in our house….don’t ask).
Easy peazy banana squeezy.
With the precision of a Seal Team, I complete my mission in less than 2 minutes.
The total financial damage: $2.88 for the Bunch of Handsome Bananas (not to be confused with the Savannah Bananas btw).
Let me repeat this: $2.88 bought me 8 individually wrapped, nutritious, satisfying versatile, take anywhere snacks. That’s basically the equivalent of a tall Starbucks cup of air.
On that day I think I may have skipped out of the store I was so giddy, Friends…..this is what middle aged life has come to…. as I floated on air to my car all I could think about was “what could possibly get me and my family a higher return on investment at the grocery store than a bunch of bananas?”
How good of a provider am I for my family? Like the BEST, right? Cavemen couldn’t do this.
After my excursion and subsequent revelation, I will gladly go to any local grocery store and buy my family fresh bananas. Every. Single. Day. I’m so convinced that this is the way that I challenge you this week to prove me wrong and find a higher ROI purchase at your local grocery store than bananas.
And that is it. That is this week’s intro. End of month and end of quarter for most of you next week — get some bananas and make it count!
XOXO
Dave
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