More than 60 percent of the proceeds went directly to fund the orphanage in India, now known as Pathway. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush called the invention “special.” Queen Elizabeth II’s personal chef responded, thanking Sheffield for his “great invention.” And Banana Bill’s hard work paid off: Throughout the early 1990s, he sold nearly 1 million slicers. The gregarious inventor sent prototypes to political leaders as well. He formed a partnership with Chiquita by flying to Cincinnati to convince a very skeptical VP of marketing that “a home with a banana slicer would buy more bananas than a home that didn’t have one.” (Sheffield says that the VP initially declined, responding that Chiquita’s “business is bananas, not banana slicers,” but he was soon sold on the product after he saw how much his kids loved it.) Inventions don’t sell themselves. He wrote to CEOs, owners, and managers alike, asking them to stock their shelves with his slicer. (The patent describes the banana slicer as a “tool which has a frame circumscribing an area into which a typical banana readily fits, and a plurality of spaced ribs or blades disposed transversely to the longitudinal axis of the frame and interconnecting opposite sides of the frame.”) But how would he convince every household to buy one? Sheffield purchased a book with the name and address of every grocery store in America. "Do they make this product for lefties? "Īccording to Amazon, customers who viewed the banana slicer also viewed a raspberry slicer, a competitor's banana slicer and a Briggs & Stratton gas-powered wood chipper.In 1989 Sheffield met with a plastics manufacturer in Hong Kong, built and tested a prototype, then secured a patent. "It's pretty cool, but I hear that the Hutzler 571S will have the headphone jack on the bottom, and will be *slightly* taller. 99.9% of the time, I would get so frustrated that I just ended up squishing the fruit in my hands and throwing it against the wall in anger."Ĥ. HELLO! I had to resort to carefully attempt to slice those bananas with my bare hands. Well, my parole officer won't allow me to be around knives. "For decades I have been trying to come up with an ideal way to slice a banana. "Once I figured out I had to peel the banana before using - it works much better."ģ.
It's one of those chores NO ONE wants to do! You know, the old 'I spent the entire day rearing OUR children, maybe YOU can pitch in a little and cut these bananas?' and of course, 'You think I have the energy to slave over your damn bananas? I worked a 12 hour shift just to come home to THIS?!' The minute I heard our 6-year-old girl in her bedroom, re-enacting our daily banana fight with her Barbie dolls, I knew we had to make a change."Ģ. My husband and I would argue constantly over who had to cut the day's banana slices.
this is one of the greatest inventions of all time. "What can I say about the 571 Banana Slicer that hasn't already been said about the wheel, penicillin, or the iPhone.
Here are five of the funniest that we found:ġ.
#REVIEWS FOR BANANA SLICER SERIES#
We can't tell you what the 570 series banana slicer was like but we can tell you that customer reviews of the 571 are hilarious. is selling a Hutzler 571 banana slicer for $4.89.
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