The bragging right to having the world’s biggest banana display has returned home to Utah due to the efforts of the Macey’s grocery store in Providence.

The 66,000-pound heap of bananas awaited to be purchased when the store opened Aug. 26, at 20 cents per pound. Scott Fraser, district representative for Dole bananas, said 1,650 boxes were on display and about 165,000 individual bananas made up the presentation.

The produce manager of Macey‘s, Jared Beesley, said the display took about three hours to put together. Beesley said the store invested approximately $14,000 in the bananas and expressed confidence that they would sell the entire stock.

The appeal of having the world’s largest banana display stemmed from the desire to build the store’s relationship with the community.

“The 20-cent banana, it sends out the price image that we’re willing to do something crazy, to do something out of our box,” said Mark Seipert, produce specialist for Associated Food Stores. “I think a lot of the retailers would never consider doing something like this for their guests, for the community.”

Lee Vaughn, director of produce for Associated Food Stores, said, “It builds a lot of community loyalty. We’re not making any money on it. Nobody is … We’re making friends.”

In 2002, the record belonged to a branch of Macey’s in Orem, Utah, until the record slipped away to a grocery store in Kentucky in 2004. Competition for this title is fierce, Beesley said.

“About every two to three years some store in the United States tries to break it,” he said. “They do and they typically break the record by a few boxes.”

The record this year was broken by about 200 pounds, he said.

The bananas were grown in South America and made the trek to Macey’s by way of Los Angeles and were then staged in the Associated Food Store’s facility in Farr West, Utah. The Macey’s in Providence sells approximately 60 to 65 boxes of bananas a day. The average American consumes roughly 26 pounds of bananas a year.

–jaredprice25@gmail.com