Could you put a middle layer in that functions as an aggregation point for all the count and price data?

No, that is impossible. The communication absolutely must proceed in two stages.

In real life, we're not just talking bananas. We're talking bananas and thousands or millions of other items, and minute-by-minute changes. The cost to update a centralized repository for information about all possible items is prohibitive. If an aggregation layer were feasible, I would implement it. I agree that it would be a good approach.

In the absence of such a solution, streamlining the communication between the boss node and the worker nodes becomes doubly crucial.