Don’t know if it matters, but its the middle of winter. What’s the best price per pound for bananas in your neighborhood? How is the quality? Are prices and quality better in summer? (Please give us some idea of where you live.)
Just paid 69 cents a pound here in southern California. Don’t believe the quality is the same as summer.
Southern Md - at Food Lion, they’re 48¢/lb. At Aldi, they’re 29¢. I don’t eat them often, but my husband really likes them and he said the ones I’ve been buying are quite good. He’s never commented on changes in quality as the seasons change.
Prices don’t vary much by season here. The bananas are imported from either the Phillippines or Ecuador. I have never noticed a difference in quality over the year, so I don’t know why you feel there is.
Price is about $2.99 a kg ATM. (1 NZD = .66 USD, 1kg = 2.2 lbs), so about 89 cents/lb in New Zealand.
3 lb for 1.39$ U.S.
.49 per pound here
$2/kg at Woolies. A few years, Cyclone Yasi caused a shortage, they went to over $20/kg. Ouch.
.79 a pound here, but probably cheaper at Costco.
They’re $3.00 per kg (roughly $1.50 per pound) here in southern Australia at the moment.
As Cugel mentioned, they’ve been up to $20kg per kilo during ‘shortages’.
29¢/pound here, at Aldi.
I paid .79 for organic bananas. They taste way better than the big name brands, which usually don’t ripen properly. I think Dole or Chiquita were .59. My local grocery runs high on produce, Stop & Shop could be much less.
I live about 20 miles from the major banana port on the Gulf Coast. And our bananas are $0.59/lb. Which appears to be the same or even higher than locations far from the import point.
From the quoted prices in this thread, shipping costs in the US are essentially zero. I guess that comes from bananas being the most frequently purchased item at Walmart…
Sadly, it appears that shipping does matter for our friends down under. 
Here in Florida it’s 79 to 99cents. Fresh produces are generally expensive here in Florida. We have some banana growing the backyard. Not a fan of store banana since they’re too sugary with fiber. (Sorry if that sounds a bit snobby).
It’s funny because I have noticed Bananas seem to be really cheap which seems counter intuitive given they grow in tropical climes. The Trader Joes near me sells regular bananas for 19 cents each (not by weight, by each banana). 29 cents each for Organic. The Super Market near me which is relatively pricey sells them for 79 cents per pound for regular; 99 cents per pound for Organic.
Those poor Australians are hit by higher prices because they are all domestically produced fruit. The growers in Queensland have managed to lobby so that there are no imported bananas, so high prices. That’s why the price was so high after Cyclone Yasi. Many of the plantations were wiped out so there were hardly any bananas available.
So, not shipping but lack of market competition.
.52 cents a pound in Northeast Ohio. I don’t know about the quality, I never eat them. My grandparents have me pick them up when I go shopping for them.
are bananas a loss leader?
$2.80 a kilo tonight. $1.27 a pound. I’ve been getting lots since I discovered How To Make 2-Ingredient Banana Pancakes. At last I don’t have to throw them away when they suddenly ripen.
Between $0.59 and $0.99 per pound in Phoenix generally, depending on the store and the current sale. Once in a great while it’ll drop down to $0.47 per pound or shoot as high as $1.59 per pound, but I haven’t seen either price often (or for long).
ETA: I have not noticed a seasonal correlation with quality - sometimes they’re better, sometimes they’re worse, but I have not noticed the difference being particularly linked to season.
Don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are effectively no profit for groceries. They can’t cost too much to sell something perishable at that low of price per pound. Groceries do pretty well these days keeping bananas in cold storage and cycling them out to ripen, but with all produce there’s a lot of loss between harvest and sale. When I see .29 a pound I know someone has taken a loss.
Actually I believe Australia is quarantined. They already have Tropical Race 4, a fungus that will ultimately destroy the banana industry worldwide. The best way to protect the remaining disease-free plantations left in the world (Latin America) is to prevent import/export of bananas across the quarantine line. Eventually the Cavendish Banana will go extinct worldwide (like the Gros Michel did in the 1960s from Tropical Race 1) as well.