I used to have a blasé attitude toward little typos. Until I read the story of a supermarket that turned a little typo into a huge problem. The store ordered bananas as usual. But got the weight unit wrong. And what followed was the ‘Manager’s Special’ of the century!
Bananas are far and away the most popular fruit in the grocery store.
Produce managers routinely dedicate a whole aisle to them!
The produce manager at Tesco supermarket in the UK must have been in a rush when he ordered hos bananas for the week. Instead of the usual 380 kg (about 3,000 individual fruits), he put down 380 BOXES. Each box contains approximately 100 bananas. So… the supplier dropped 38,000 bananas on him!
What was worse…
The Tesco – part of one of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains – was in the town of Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland. The bananas had to come from the mainland, via ferry. But high winds and rough waters interrupted ferry service for several days. So the excess bananas were NOT going back to the source.
What do you do with 38,000 bananas that are ripening as you stand there, staring at that mountain of fruit?
‘Manager’s Special’
“We have mountains of bananas … literally lol!!!!” Tesco community champion Paula Clarke posted on Facebook on March 28. “Would any local groups like to come along to the store and collect a box for free? Pop past the Customer Service Desk to collect…”
She also posted photos of homemade banana bread and muffins to encourage folks to come claim some bananas – and avoid the otherwise inevitable waste.
Mission accomplished
“Members of the community quickly responded to the posts, requesting boxes be put aside for local childcare centres and community kitchens,”PEOPLE magazine reported. “Some also provided suggest-ions for local charities and organizations that might benefit from a donation.”
The last box of surplus bananas went, a week later, via another ferry, to another, more-remote Orkney isle.
My take
This is a great example of the kind of community spirit we all should all show in our daily lives. Why did we have to go to a remote island in the North Sea to find it?
~ Maggie J.