This tropical fruit is portable, affordable and easy to eat, which are just some of the reasons that consumers picked it as the most popular item in the produce department. More than eight in 10 consumers (84%) put bananas in their cart this year.
The likelihood of a banana purchase slipped four percentage points from Fresh Trends 2012.
Bananas’ popularity extends across the board to all demographic groups. Families with kids at home were slightly more likely to buy the fruit, at 85%, than those without kids, at 84%. However, families with three or more kids clearly stood out from the pack – in those households 91% of shoppers bought bananas, making this demographic segment the most likely group to buy them overall.
Younger consumers age 21-39 were a bit less likely to buy the yellow-skinned fruit than older shoppers, as was the case last year. Shoppers in the lowest income bracket were the least likely group to buy bananas overall, followed by Midwestern consumers and single shoppers.
Almost half of shoppers (48%) said they always bought bananas ripe or preferred to buy them that way. And most shoppers were content with the ripeness of bananas – 79% said they were extremely or very satisfied with the ripeness at store level.
Conventionally grown bananas are the norm for most consumers. However, interest in organic is growing. One-quarter of banana buyers said they purchased organic fruit at least some of the time, a number up three percentage points from Fresh Trends 2012. Five percent of buyers said they always bought organic bananas.
84% of customers purchased bananas within the past 12 months.
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