Trader Joe's has raised the price of its well-known 19-cent bananas for the first time in 20 years.
The new price is 23 cents per banana-- a 20% increase.
"We only change our prices when our costs change, and after holding our price for Bananas at 19¢ each for more than two decades, we've now reached a point where this change is necessary," a company spokesperson told CNN.
The average price for a pound of bananas has remained relatively unchanged over the past two years, fluctuating between 62 cents and 64 cents, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The current price is 63 cents a pound.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, bananas were 58 cents a pound.
Although overall inflation may be showing signs of cooling down, grocery prices continue to climb, with consumers paying nearly 20% more for the same groceries as they were in 2021, CBS MoneyWatch reported.
And there's no relief in sight, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates all food prices going up by 2.9% to 5.3% in 2024.