Pop Quiz: Name The Best-Selling Item At Illinois Grocery Stores

Before we get to the shopping part, there's the stealing part.

I was surprised recently (although I don't know why) to read that cheese is the most shoplifted product in Illinois' grocery stores. A survey of 1,187 retailers representing more than 250,000 retail outlets across 43 countries, found that cheese trumps fresh meat, chocolate, alcohol, seafood, cosmetics, and infant formula, all of which made the most-stolen list.

As far as the hardest thing to find in Illinois grocery stores, it would seem that "reasonable prices" tops the list, if my wife's bad mood after shopping is any indicator.

But what about best-selling items, or the single, best-selling product? There's a really good chance that you've got it at home right now, or you'll be getting this item later.

The Thing This Product Has Going For It Is Its Competitive Price, Which Has Remained Fairly Stable Over The Last Couple Of Years While Everything Else Is Skyrocketing

That little clue should help you make an educated guess on this. If a stable, competitive price helps stores move this product more than any others, it obviously can't be:

• Meat
• Dairy
• Bread
• Eggs
• Soft Drinks
• Most Fruits
• Vegetables

Or a lot of other things that I can't list because I'm only given a certain amount of space for these posts. Here's one final clue: you probably shouldn't store this product in your refrigerator. Some people do, but experts say it takes away from flavor and texture.

Give up? Here's your answer:

Instacart, A Delivery Company That Operates A Grocery Delivery And Pick Up Service In The United States And Canada, Has Determined That Bananas Are The Top Selling Grocery Item Almost Everywhere

Instacart recently released data that shows bananas outsell other grocery store products by far, in terms of quantity. Bananas have held the top spot for the last 11 years, and Instacart's announcement comes as the company reached a milestone of selling and delivering 1 billion bananas to customers in Illinois and the rest of North America.

Instacart calculated the share of banana orders by dividing the number of orders from grocery retailers that contained bananas by the total number of orders from grocery retailers.

By their measurements, Instacart has sold enough bananas to:

• Circumnavigate the surface of Earth (24,855 miles) more than 5 times
• Reach the top of 24,352 Mt. Everest’s stacked on top of one another
• Travel from New York City to Los Angeles (2,790 miles) more than 47 times
• Equal the same height as 486,229 Empire State Buildings stacked
• Cover a flight path more than halfway to the moon