A Japanese Department Store is Selling $6 Bananas

Have you ever had a desire to purchase a gimmicky, ludicrously overpriced fruit in a box? If you live in Japan and have $6, today is your lucky day.

The $6 bananas are being sold at Takashimaya Department Store in Shinjuku, and they’re individually stamped and serial-numbered (as one typically does with bananas). They also come in a box with “Dole” right on the front, because if you’re going to make a purchase which will result in your friends and family making fun of you forever, you really do want something by which to commemorate it. Dole Japan says the bananas were grown by “selecting the best qualities from over 100 bananas and are grown at 500 meters above sea level” — which just goes to show you that most American hipsters are total amateurs with this stuff. They’re selling 59 of them today, on May 9, for 590 yen ($5.80) because sure, why not, that’s not at all a random day to theme stuff around or anything.

This isn’t as insultingly, comically opulent as either the $100 grilled cheese or the $1000 sundae, but it’s still pretty silly. At least those items involved premium ingredients and an attempt at making food. This is just a banana in a box. Am I the only one who would find it really funny if a banana spider somehow accidentally ended up in one of these boxes? “Yes, sir, here is your $6 banana, served with just a soupcon of DEADLY POISON!”

Amazingly, this whole thing is still not as absurd as the trend where companies play classical music in the background as food goes through its embryonic stages, but I’m struggling to figure out what, short of Guy Fieri, could be as laughable as that.