An Illinois Town Now Holds the Guinness Record for Largest Fruit Display

So... my hometown went unequivocally bananas this week!

The Jewel-Osco at N. Cass and Ogden Avenues in Westmont, IL put together a 70,000 pound display of bananas. The potassium monument was put together by Fresh Del Monte and Jewel Osco and large enough to break a world record!

Westmont is a comparatively smaller town to those around it. It's a bedrock between the wealthier Downers Grove and Hinsdale neighborhoods, and exists roughly 18 miles outside of Chicago. Up until this week, it was predominately known as the place where blues musician Muddy Waters died at the age of 70 back in 1983, and where a scene in the Larry the Cable Guy movie Witless Protection was filmed in 2007.

Until yesterday, at least. Westmont is now the home of the grocery store that shattered the Guinness World Record for largest fruit display!

The exact weight of the display was 77,365.9 pounds.

The best part? The bananas were given away for free to any and everyone who wanted a bunch (or several bunches). A close friend of mine went with his family and evidently tried to play Supermarket Sweep with how many they could grab!

The tricky part with bananas is how quickly they spoil. Or the fact that overtime, while they're still good to eat, they do lessen in nutritional value. My advice: always look for the green bananas; you'll buy yourself an extra couple of days!

Jewel-Osco's produce departments stock more than 140,000 pounds of bananas a day. They're one of the grocery store chain's top-selling items across all departments.

The remainder of bananas that weren't picked up by customers were donated to the Northern Illinois Food Bank. Talk about a fun, beneficial event all around!

Speaking as a Westmont native, it's absolutely fitting that Jewel Osco further helped put our town on the map!