Yahoo Finance Woolies shopper erupts at $22 sandwich bill
With the cost-of-living crisis mounting, it seems every other day another Aussie shares the outrageous cost of their grocery bill or insane produce prices.
But one shopper’s latest purchase may have taken the cake after they were charged $22.80 for ingredients to make a humble ham and cheese sandwich.
“Miss Madeline”, as she is known on X, visited her local Melbourne Woolworths to buy a white loaf of bread, ham, and a block of cheese – not knowing the purchase would set her back more than $20.
The woman broke down the costs of each item, with the TipTop bread priced at $5.40, $9 for home-brand cheese, and $8.40 for Don ham.
“Ducked into buy something for a quick lunch,” she said. “This would be gone in a day (for families).”
Miss Madeline said she also considered buying tomatoes for $5.90/kg but decided to “wait till my veggies are ready to pick at home” due to the high price.
Her post received mixed reactions online, with many commenters arguing she needed to be a “better shopper” despite general agreement that supermarket mark-ups are out of control.
“This just shows what being disorganised leads to. Can easily buy that for less than half the price,” one person replied.
“You’re not doing this grocery shopping thing very well,” a second commented.
Others were quick to come to the woman’s defence and pointed out the price fluctuations across different suburbs in metro and regional areas.
“People relax! Price would vary depending on company, location and other factors. The real issue here is inflation impacting groceries. A ham, cheese, and bread all together shouldn’t cost more than $10,” a sympathetic commenter posted.
“The problem is Australians are being ripped off everywhere you go,” Miss Madeline responded.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, Woolworths said it was aware of the cost-of-living crisis and the impact it was having on households.
“One way to save is to shop our own brands that provide great value and don’t compromise on quality or taste,’ the statement said.
“We want customers to spend less with us and that’s why we have more than 6000 weekly specials, more than 3000 products on our low price program and dropped the price of more than a 150 popular products for Christmas and introduced member pricing.”
Coles and Woolworths were lashed by consumer advocate group Choice after they posted billion-dollar profits this year.
Choice chief executive Alan Kirkland said Australians had rightly questioned the increased cost of basic necessities while the supermarket giants cleaned up.
“While Coles and Woolies have been promoting how they’re supposedly helping with the cost of living, in the background they’ve been banking huge profits,” Mr Kirkland said.
“At the same time, frequent changes in prices mean it’s hard to tell if you’re even getting a genuine discount.”
