Browsing grocery ads over my Saturday morning latte, I noticed a big, bold citrus sale advertised on the front page. Yum! Contemplating the tangy possibilities, I saw that I could buy a 5 pound box of clementines for $4.88. What a deal!
On the opposite corner of the page was advertised peeled clementines for $3.99/lb.
My eyes darted back and forth. The markup was extraordinary. By the box, clementines were a little less than $1/lb, but peeled, they were about $4/lb. Of course, you're not paying for the weight of the peel in the second scenario. Ok, so estimating that the peel makes up 20% of the weight of the fruit (I googled the question to ensure accuracy), the 5 pound box would yield 4 pounds of peeled fruit, so that brings the price up to $1.22/lb.
Still, hat's a 330% markup. For what? There are about 5 clementines/lb. I, an untrained peeler, can peel a clementine in about a minute. That's one pound in 5 minutes, or 12 lb/hr. So, for an hour's labor, the price of 12 pounds jumps from $14.64 to $48, which means that hour's labor earned about $33. Whoa! That much for peeling fruit? If the store is paying $10/hr to an employee to peel, they're still making $23/hr on the labor (minus overhead, I know).
So, this is why grocery stores sell peeled fruit. It's also why I'll be buying my clementines by the box.
Would you like me to peel one for you?
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