Bananas

Yesterday at the grocery store I picked up a bunch of six bananas which were the proper color (due to ripen over the next 2-3 days), broke off four of them, and left two on the display.  We can't eat six bananas in 3 days so I took only what I wanted.

I have always done this.  I learned it from my mother, shopping with her as a young child.

However, this time for the first time ever, I saw the produce manager swoop in and remove the two green bananas from his display.  He immediately took them to the back room.  This explains why I can never find a "human-sized" cluster of bananas for sale in a grocery store -- it's always 6, 8, 10 bananas in a bunch.

It does not explain why produce managers do this.

There's always the possibility that you could have partially "opened" one of the bananas left behind. I would guess that is the reason they were removed.
I've noticed that the bananas we buy have tape around the stems to prevent easily removing any from the bunch.

Easy to check.

No doubt. And possibly they do check when it is convenient. Maybe they don't want one or two bananas in the bin. Perhaps they add a few and tape them together. But any way you cut it, it is an incredibly trivial matter.

_Howard wrote:

Maybe they don't want one or two bananas in the bin.

That's what I wondered.

I realize it's a minor question. But it's unexplained, and that offends my sense of order.

Today I beat the he produce manager to the banana display, and found two connected bananas and one single. I bought them, as a not-so-subtle message to the store.

Do you think it'll do any good? Me either.