SortStack #24 — 2026-07-03
By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.
- A banana at a US grocery store $0.25
Nearly all export bananas are one variety, the Cavendish — adopted after a fungus wiped out its tastier predecessor, the Gros Michel.
- A Peloton Bike+ exercise bike $2.5K
During the pandemic Peloton was briefly worth more than Ford. Its stock later fell more than 90% from the peak as gyms reopened.
- An Apple Vision Pro headset $3.5K
Each Vision Pro contains more pixels in its two tiny displays than a 4K television — packed into screens roughly the size of postage stamps.
- A French Bulldog puppy from a breeder $4.5K
Frenchies can't swim and most can't give birth naturally — nearly all are delivered by C-section — yet they became America's most popular breed.
- The Louisiana Purchase, as the US paid France $15M
The 1803 nominal price bought about 2.1 million square kilometers — roughly three cents per acre — and doubled the size of the United States overnight.
- Building the Large Hadron Collider at CERN $4.8B
The LHC's 27 km ring is colder than outer space — its magnets sit at 1.9 kelvin — and it briefly held a section of the emptiest vacuum in the solar system.