The obvious reason to shop at Haymarket’s weekly surplus market is the low prices. As far as I know, there are no grocery stores around where one eggplant sells for a buck or a salmon filet is listed at four dollars a pound. Just last week, I came home with five pounds of potatoes, a haul costing me exactly two dollars. And the tax is included in the price!
However, a couple of the items sell at 'Whole Foods prices'. Being my local grocery store, this is a relevant metric for me because it represents the savings I achieve every time I go to Haymarket.
What does Haymarket price at Whole Foods levels? Avocados are one. And just recently, bananas joined this group in what came to me as a surprise development.
The journey to same food, same price was different for each. The Haymarket avocado price rose to match Whole Foods levels. You used to get five for a dollar. Now, buying more than one for a dollar is a good deal. I think this is the general path for price changes at Haymarket. By definition a surplus market, if the surplus goes away, the price will rise.
Bananas, however, have always been priced at between a dollar-fifty and two dollars for three pounds. Reader, the Haymarket banana price didn't increase to bring it to parity with my closest produce aisle; the price equalized because Whole Foods dropped their prices.
The catalyst was Amazon's decision to buy Whole Foods. In one of their first official moves, the geniuses at Amazon HQ set the world straight in terms of proper banana pricing. Out with the corporate price-gouging at seventy-nine cents per pound, in with the people's price of forty-nine cents! I can walk into any Whole Foods in ten minutes and buy all the bananas I want at Haymarket prices. Progress!
Naturally, the nostalgic operation over at the HMart continues to price bananas as if it were a rare luxury good. For one-forty-nine per pound, anyone can buy a bag of organic bananas. And yes, I do mean bag, since HMart likes to pre-package bananas into a bag for easy...pollution?
I suppose one explanation is to help cashiers. A pre-packaged bag saves time used in weighing, pricing, and scanning produce. I would understand if this was the reason. But since none of the other produce is pre-packaged, weighed, and priced, I don't think this could possibly be the case.
It is also a strange policy when considered in the context of the Cambridge plastic bag law (in the People's Republic of Cambridge, stores are required to charge customers ten cents per bag used at checkout). Do I want to spend a dime on an extra plastic bag for my plastic bag of bananas? I do not. And is the tax included in the price?
But what’s the point of all this complaining, right? Who cares about bananas? I'm sure you don't, reader, so I'll get to my point.
I’m just frustrated with the process. Why must The Banana Buying Experience always be so difficult? At Haymarket, the minimum purchase is three pounds. Who could eat three pounds of bananas? At HMart, the World’s Greatest Plastic Bag Factory, I'm still forced to buy at least three bananas, the minimum bagged number. Who could eat three bananas? Sometimes I come home from these shopping trips to find another letter from the food bank begging for a donation. It's a letter I cannot open until I set down all the fruit I've just bought for the people who are not in my life.
Is Amazon going to do anything about this? Perhaps their next move will be to find a way to have drones deliver single bananas. If they can do it same-day delivery, then all the better. I'd pay a dime for that, at least, and I'll tip a nickel if you keep the plastic bag for yourself.
