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Price of premium melons plunges

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30 Comments
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Plummet another 99% and I will buy 3.

21 ( +22 / -1 )

Buying food at exorbitant prices is ridiculous anyway. What a rude, self absorbed event. As long as there are people who cannot afford nutritious food, this practice should be illegal

4 ( +10 / -6 )

Their price was a joke to start with. Still is.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

A pair of premium Japanese melons sold Monday for just a slice of the five million yen 

Now I love me some nice Japanese melons, but ¥5,000,000? I'd better get me a slice of heaven for that price too!

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Good

4 ( +4 / -0 )

From 5,000,000 JPY down to 120,000 JPY is a perfect example of how super inflated this nation is.

I believe Korea produces the same melon and it is currently being sold in Japan for 3,800 JPY.

Hard to believe but true. Can't even tell the difference by looking, the Korean melon tastes very good.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I'm not a huge melon fan, but those are some nice looking melons.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I will wait till it Rotten Ripe then I'll get it for my goat for free.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

No sympathy here. Boo bloody hoo, you can only sell them for a mere 120,000 yen?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I would just like to point out that for a country that prides itself on eating seasonal fruit and vegetables, these melons have been grown in super-heated polytunnels over winter (!!) in Hokkaido. A number of foreign documentaries and articles about industrial farming have claimed it takes 10 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of food like maize, but these melons must be off the scale.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The biggest fruit is not usually the tastiest. Do they get a refund if it’s not good? WhT if it’s rotten inside?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Do they have gold inside?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Oh well. Still a million other overpriced goods out here they can try to sell.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Picking strawberries off my plants at the moment-total cost for a kilo of strawberries about 500 yen...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I love big melons. So nice and big and round and sweet. Japanese melons are the BEST! All natural 100% with no additives or chemicals like in other countries. I always look forward to "melon season" where you see them just hanging out everywhere in the summertime where the weather is high!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Good riddance

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Good. Absolutely zero pity here. I'd pay 200 yen for one, if that. This insanity has been the butt of a lot of international jokes for long enough, though of course the real purpose of it is cheap advertising for whomever wins the auction.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I wish I were a Melon-aire.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Japanese melons are the BEST! All natural 100% with no additives or chemicals like in other countries. I always look forward to "melon season" where you see them just hanging out everywhere in the summertime where the weather is high!

dont get me wrong Ive seen a few good sets of "Japanese melons" in my time, while they do have good shape and firmness they are a little small at times

Look at the stems on those melons!

I do like me a thick stem on my melons

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I've seen better looking "melons" at my local supermarket!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Great photo caption.

We should get some virologist or similar health expert to say that these melons are good for preventing infection by the virus.  that will get the price back up.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Maybe people donated the funds to covid and no longer has it to spend on a melon....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I agree with many comments posted earlier that the two cute melons did not justify ¥5 million in the current time. However, the bidder was not that moron.

According to theJapantimes, the successful bidder was the Tokyo-based Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage Ltd. This company paid that extravagant price as a marketing tool to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of its melon-flavoured soda water. This company will make the most of its ¥5 million through exhibiting these melons at Sapporo Dome and New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido. It will also conduct an analysis of the melon smell and colour for its new product development. Thus, it looks as if the more people talk about the ¥5 million melons, the more the bidder enjoy its commercial trick!

For further information, see https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/24/business/pair-hokkaido-melons-fetch-record-45500-seasons-first-auction/#.Xs4KnS9h3OQ.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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