AU: Banana vending machines pop up around Brisbane
MacKays Produce Solutions marketing spokesman Mike Evans said he had helped design the concept alongside North Queensland (Tully) banana farmers Daniel MacKay and his family.
Mr Evans said: "Being banana farmers, the family were always asked why there weren't bananas available at sporting events, universities and hospitals". "During our research we found Brisbane's CBD was dramatically under serviced when it came to stocking bananas," Mr Evans said. "When we did our research we found only 67 bananas were available in the city at one time, and that was at places including a 7-11 shop, Woolworths and a cafe. That was a very little amount of bananas available for more than 15,000 people who work in that area."
Mr Evans said Brisbane people had taken "very well" to the Banana Bars. "It's exciting and people at the hospital actually approached us to see if they could get a Banana Bar on site. It's a lot better than having chocolates and fast food as the only options," he said. "It's good for people who do all sorts of shifts and are looking for a healthy snack.
"At the moment we're selling about 60 to 80 packs of bananas a day at the hospital, we're stocking the machines with about 110 packs of bananas." He said the bananas were kept at the "perfect" temperature (12.5 degrees) and the machines were serviced daily. "We load them in as ripe bananas and they last about two to three days in their special packaging," Mr Evans said. The bananas are sold as packs of 3 ($2) or packs of 5 ($3).
He said the bananas that were deemed perfect for sale, were later passed onto Food Bank.
Source: couriermail.com.au
