SANTIAGO – A Chilean man has been making headlines after he successfully swapped 58 kilograms (127 pounds) of avocados for a new Motorola Moto X4 phone.
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.
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, which comes with a touch screen, dual lens camera and a capacity of 32GB.
Una tienda de retail llamada Replay, aprovechando la situación de la Palta (así se llama el aguacate en Chile) y para llamar la atención, decidió lanzar esta promoción muy curiosa: Un Moto X4 a 58 Kg de aguacate. ? ? ? ? pic.twitter.com/xjde4XaVuH
— Javier ? (@JavierJMED) May 30, 2018
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.
As proof, a Twitter user shared a photo of Briceňo obtaining his Motorola smartphone with the avocados pictured in the background.
Y un usuario de Instagram llamado Camilo Briceño, más conocido en Chile ?? como “El Weón de las Paltas”, que se dedica a venderlas a domicilio, tomó el desafío y en Ripley tuvieron que respetar lo ofrecido. Ahí detrás están los 58 Kg de aguacate por la compra ? ? ? pic.twitter.com/z0BtvEa30B
— Javier ? (@JavierJMED) May 30, 2018
However, Ripley has now removed the price of 58 avocados from its website so that others with a similar idea can’t follow suit.
Despite being one of the world’s leading avocado exporters, it is getting increasingly expensive to buy avocados in Chile. At the end of March, the average price for an avocado was around $4.20, which is 50 percent higher than it was at the same time last year.
