A Te Puke bakery is in the midst of a war of words after a man had to pay for a single squirt of tomato sauce.
Choosing to remain anonymous, the Bay of Plenty bloke rocked up to his local bakery, grabbed some hot chips and asked for just a little bit of ketchup at the counter. The staff obliged before charging the customer.
“She gave me a small squirt from a big bottle behind the counter – it was a bit purple and had bits in it,” the customer told Stuff. “Then rang up $4.50 for the chips, and an extra 70c for the sauce. I couldn’t believe it.”
It seems like it was a final straw for the bloke, as he has vowed to carry his own bottle of t-sauce around with him. He’s also tired of everything being tougher on the wallet now.
“Pies have gone up from $4.50 to $6.50 – I know minimum wage went up and inflation, interest rates, but we are getting fleeced by everyone.”
Justin Beaufill, the owner of the Te Puke bakery, doesn’t care for the crying customer. He said that business owners are feeling the economic pressure too and that you should just dine in if you can’t cough up the coin for ketchup.
“If you can’t afford to pay for sauce then stay and eat at home instead of whinging,” he said. "We are facing rising costs too – the cost of everything has gone up and sauce costs money too.”
“People are trying to get something for free. Maybe he should have been informed before, but it’s obvious to me if we charge for a sachet then you can’t get round that by asking for a squirt.”
It is ridiculous to pay for a little squirt of t-sauce but it is the same as getting a sachet, so both sides do have an argument here.
More importantly, if this means people will carry around their own sauce I’ve got a banger of a business idea - ketchup holsters. Feel free to steal that one.
