The latest victim of inflation has been spotted by keen shoppers, and you’re going to want to take a seat for this one, because the price of the iconic spread Vegemite is now ten bucks a jar. Stop the planet, I’m getting off.
Posted to r/Australia, Reddit user u/DarkLake shared a picture straight from the shelves in a local Woolworths which was advertising 560g jars of Vegemite for the “low” price of $9.40 each.
“And this is a low price?” Asked the disgruntled shopper.
Sorry, I know we hate these posts, but it’s nearly ten bucks for Vegemite now? And this is a low price?
byu/DarkLake inaustralia
Vegemite falling victim to the cost of living crisis is truly a cause I think the nation needs to get behind. There’s a fuck tonne of staples that are wayyyy too expenny right now, like this pub that was selling JUST chips for $16 (no sauce included), but Vegemite takes the cake.
The only thing I can think of that’s more Australian than Vegemite itself, is the inflation disaster that’s skyrocketed its price.
Other Redditors joked about how “the minimum price for literally anything is now $5. Another pointed out that “what used to be cheap army rations is now a luxury item.”
Agreed. Ten dollars per jar is far too much, especially if you are like the 95 per cent of Australians who would eat at least one of those 560g jars in a single sitting.
But is it really costing that much more than it used to? Let’s find out.
According to a comparison put together by finder.com, the prices of Vegemite in 2017 and 2023 are not as different as you would think.
Charted on finder.com, the price of the same size jar of Vegemite in 2017 was $8, which is only $1.40 less than the current cost.
Many online jumped to make fun of the typical supermarket advertising, criticising Woolworths for the fact the price clearly isn’t that low.
However it could be argued that the price rise of only a dollar and a half is in line with inflation, and the stores are not price gouging as they have been accused of.
Though nuance is all well and good, at the end of the day Vegemite just shouldn’t cost this much.
Whether reform is made from grassroots political movements shaping economic policy, or if we start flipping cars in the streets like the French, this cost of living crisis needs to be put to an end.
Poor Aussie consumers are starving and stealing, and that’s just not on.
If you invented a time machine and went back to any point in Australian history and told them how much Vegemite cost today, they’d ask where everything went wrong.
