AN ILL-CONCEIVED stunt backfired big-time on an Austria-based, German-owned supermarket chain that bills itself as a ‘common sense’ store.

Billa, which has locations in nine countries across Europe, thought it was a good idea to sell pre-peeled bananas wrapped in plastic and promote its ‘common sense’ move on Facebook, reports the Austrian Times.

It wasn’t received very well.

In fact, angry folks flooded the chain’s Facebook page, lambasting Billa for being environmentally unfriendly and wasteful. After all, the banana is one of the most convenient naturally packaged foods out there.

The Facebook page is now disabled.

Billa was forced to apologise, calling it a “one-off” mistake that will never happen again.

- Kim Bhasin