Man uses avocados to buy £300 smartphone

The rising price of avocados has its benefits

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

There’s been much talk in the media in recent years about the rising price of avocados due to poor harvests and a sharp rise in demand.

However, the increasing value of the millennial favourite has proven particularly advantageous for one individual who managed to purchase a £300 smartphone with 58 kilograms of the green goodness.

Camilo Briceňo, a Chilean avocado dealer who goes by the name “el weon de las paltas” (the avocado guy) on Instagram, caught sight of a very enticing deal for a Motorola smartphone on the website of Chilean department store Ripley.

As part of its recent CyberDay promotions, the retailer had featured the price of the Android phone by listing its recommended retail cost of $400 (£300), its online price and its equivalent value in avocados.

While some may have taken the avocado price as a joke, Briceňo decided to take Ripley up on the offer by making the most of his expansive supply of avocados.

He proceeded to post a video on Instagram, asking the department store how he could go about exchanging the avocados for the phone.

Not one to bow down from its word, Ripley responded in a comment underneath the video stating that Briceňo could come to its Parque Arauco store the next day at noon to make the transaction.

Ripley Chile (Instagram)

As proof, a Twitter user shared a photo of Briceňo obtaining his Motorola smartphone with the avocados pictured in the background.

A Reddit thread has been discussing the absurdity of the situation, with one person commenting: “Ah the millennial currency of choice. Move aside bitcoin!”

While Briceňo was successful in his endeavour, Ripley has now removed the price of 58 avocados from its website so that others with a similar idea can’t follow suit.

Briceňo’s passion for avocados is very apparent from his Instagram page, which has nearly 50,000 followers.

He sells them from his home in Chile and regularly professes his love for the fruit on social media.

Briceňo used the avocados to purchase the Motorola Moto X4 Triang Smartphone, which comes with a touch screen, dual lens camera and a capacity of 32GB.

While the avocado is undoubtedly popular, in March it was revealed that the pineapple had overtaken it as the fastest-selling fruit in the UK.