Seriously, we need more of this.
Bananas are fickle things. We’ve all been through it — you buy bananas for the whole week, and either they’re not ripe right away, or they are ripe, but they spoil before you get a chance to eat them all. It seemed to be one of those things that are just unavoidable — a minor inconvenient associated with modern life. But not in Korea.
As Twitter user and blogger @AskAKorean pointed out (via Daum), Korean grocery-store chain E-Mart has a solution for this problem: they sell bananas in a pack of five, with bananas in various stages of ripeness. So on one end, you have the ripe, perfect banana that you can eat right after you buy it, and on the other end, a greener banana that will only be ripe a few days after purchase. They call it “haru hana banana” or the “one-a-day banana.”
The idea that you can buy a pack of bananas for the whole week is both creative and useful. A pack sells for 2980 KRW, or about US $2.70, which is not the cheapest, but is reasonably acceptable, especially since it ensures that the bananas won’t turn brown the day after you buy them. The only big problem I see is the relatively large amount of non-recyclable plastic involved in the packaging — hopefully, E-Mart will also address that soon.
It’s not the only campaign E-Mart has started to make fruits more attractive. Recently, they started selling coconuts with a special straw, strong enough to pierce through the coconut’s tough outer shell and make it easier to drink from it. They also started selling watermelons with a package with handles, to make it easier to carry and eat them.
Unfortunately, the package is only available in Korea, but hopefully, other sellers will pick up on this idea. Now, all we need is a similar solution for the even more delicate avocado.
