Coles and Woolworths price hike on favourite item labelled ‘national tragedy’

Shoppers have slammed supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths for creating a “national tragedy” by hiking the price of one of their favourite items, the classic mud cake.

Posting to the online community of Reddit, a Coles shopper shared an image of the cake display, showing the price of the grocery store’s Chocolate Mud Cakes at $6.40.

A national tragedy
by u/imedgylole in sydney

In February, the price of the beloved bakery item cost $5.75, whereas previously, they were a steal at only $4.80.

Competing supermarket Woolworths has matched their mud cakes to Coles pricing, with their website showing they also now cost $6.40.

Frustrated shoppers labelled the price hikes as “a bloody outrage”, slamming the grocery stores for “price gouging” amidst the rising cost of living.

“Crazy! it seems so recently these were like $4 or even $3.50?,” one shopper commented.

“They also shrunk a bunch over the years.”

“Coles and Woolies are guilty of price gouging just because they wanted to make more money, and they did. After huge hikes, they have now started to advertising that they have cut prices… But only by a fraction of what they have raised them,” another person said.

“And then the RBA increases interest rates because we’re all spending too much, apparently.”

Some felt quite emotional over the price increases, suggesting “protests should be planned for every capital city until this stops”.

“First they came for the avos, and I did not speak out—because I was not an avo eater,” one comment began.

“Then they came for the iceberg lettuce, and I did not speak out—because I was not an iceberg lettuce eater.

“Then they came for the cereal, and I did not speak out—because I didn’t have time to eat breakfast anyways.”Then they came for the mudcakes—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

However, Coles has defended the price hike, attributing the cause to the cost of “raw materials and production”.