Study Finds Shoppers May Pity Individual Bananas | Food waste

If the sight of a lonely, abandoned banana on the supermarket shelf makes you feel a little depressed, you’re not alone.

Researchers have found that labeling unsold loose fruit as “sad singles” touches shoppers’ hearts and increases the likelihood that they will be sold.

Their study showed that when customers appeal to empathy, they are more likely to pick up a single banana, often left behind because someone else has snatched it from the bunch.

Scientists from the University of Bath, RWTH Aachen and Goethe University Frankfurt put up a sign in front of the orphans in the fruit shelf. It showed a banana with a frown and the message “We are sad singles and want to be bought too”.

That’s what moved buyers. On average, sales of individual bananas increased from 2.02 next to an emotionless sign to 3.19 with the sad sign – a 58% increase. The insensitive sign simply referred to them as singles who wanted to be bought.

In addition to the sad and neutral signage, the scientists also placed a “Happy Single” notice. But while the happier version was more effective than no emotion at all, customers seem to prefer their fruit more sentimental.

The happy banana sign increased hourly sales of individual bananas from 2.02 to 2.13 (5.4%), making the sad banana sign nearly 50% more effective than the happy banana. A later online study also showed promising results for tomatoes.

The researchers conducted the experiment in a large German supermarket chain and observed the purchasing behavior of 3,810 customers over a period of 192 hours. The study, “Anthropomorphic sad expressions reduce waste of ‘single’ imperfect foods,” was published in the journal Psychology & Marketing.

Dr. Lisa Eckmann, a researcher from the Bath Retail Lab, said that stimulating people’s emotions about selling bananas was a “simple, cost-effective and effective” way to reduce food waste and promote sustainability.

She added: “The plight of individual bananas is truly relatable and the findings have very practical applications to boost sales and reduce food waste in our supermarkets.”

“We don’t know if consumers will become emotionally numb to sad bananas in the long term, but it’s definitely an idea that appeals to people and is easy to implement.” I wasn’t aware of how individual bananas become such a big food waste problem and now I always look for loose, individual bananas when I go shopping.”

Previous research has shown that individual bananas cause the greatest climate impact and food waste in supermarkets.

Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at Oxford University who has studied, among other things, the connection between human senses and design and marketing, says people can feel emotions about the food they buy.

“A growing number of the population live alone and eat alone. When they see a single banana and are told that it is also lonely, that creates empathy, and that makes people want to buy it.”