A single photo of peeled bananas sold in shrink-wrapped trays in an Austrian retail outlet operated by supermarket chain Billa has sparked a mixture of outrage, scorn and amusement among consumers and commentators worldwide after it was posted on its official Facebook page.
The retailer, which is owned by German group Rewe, soon found the page populated with angry comments from shoppers threatening to boycott the chain and mocking the apparent impracticality of its product presentation – unfortunate coverage for a grocer like Billa that markets itself as the 'common sense' supermarket.
Having temporarily suspended its Facebook account, a spokesperson for Billa moved quickly to explain that the decision to peel and package the bananas was a one-off instance of over-zealous merchandising by an Austrian franchise partner.
'In what branch of this photo was taken?' a company spokesperson inquired in the original photo's comments section. 'We can assure you that this was by no means as provided and a branch has apparently acted arbitrarily here.'
However, members of the public continued to pan the decision to remove the banana peel and replace it with plastic, with one Facebook user labelling it 'the ultimate symbol of waste and the throw-away society'.
A spokesman for Greenpeace in Austria told the Austrian Times: 'If there is an easy to open ready-packed food it's the banana - peeling it only to pack it in environmentally unfriendly plastic is just madness.'
With Billa's Facebook account subsequently reactivated, the picture was re-uploaded by several more users and tagged to appear on the official Billa page.
Global slip-up
Despite efforts to draw a line under the criticism, the story went global and found its way on to major international news websites including Time.com and Gizmodo.com, as well as featuring onNBC's Nightly Newsprogramme in the US.
Gizmodo.com, known for its provocative reporting style, carried the news under the typically outrageous headline 'Pre-Peeled, Re-Wrapped Bananas Are the Most Wasteful Sign of the Apocalypse Yet', while Time went for the altogether more dismissive 'Pre-Peeled Bananas Incur the Wrath of Humanity'.
Users on the social network Twitter, meanwhile, adopted the hashtag #nakedbanana to flag up the story.
As the furore continued, the company made an official announcement confirming it had spoken to staff at the outlet in question about the slip-up.
'We have found the branch and explained the problem to them, as well as to all our other branches,' the group declared.
In a separate letter to its Facebook fans, it commented: 'Following the lively discussion triggered by the packaged bananas, we have investigated the matter immediately.
'The bananas were probably packed in this way by the store itself. This is in no way our merchandising policy and there was never an order to do this. We ask you to forgive us for the incident.
'While we normally look forward to seeing the innovative ideas our branches can implement independently, this example has shown on the other hand that must convey the theme of sustainability direct to our colleagues, so that in future such incidents do not come to pass.'
Billa has more than 1,000 stores in Austria itself, with more than 660 other outlets in eight other countries including Russia, Italy, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.
