A block of Cadbury’s chocolate has risen to $4.99 retail price in Countdown and New World supermarkets, leaving students stunned as they announce the onslaught of Chocmaggedon.
Though the Commerce Commission’s investigation ostensibly had some impact on freezing prices at the three major supermarkets, food prices have increased by 12.1% across the board in the last year according to a NZ Herald report. Unfortunately for families across the nation, the cost of living has continued to bite, increasing the struggle that has become synonymous with living in New Zealand. And for many students working at supeys, the chocolate crisis is making them question their loyalty.
Critic Te Ārohi spoke with a number of students grappling with this mental conundrum. Though most chose to troop on in spite of their moral hang-ups, some have gone even as far as to stop work in protest of what has been regarded as a “tragic” rise in chocolate prices nation-wide.
Tom*, a full-time employee of New World Gardens who has been forced to carry on work despite his outrage, told Critic Te Ārohi, “Everyone should be able to buy a block of chocolate, it’s a fundamental right.” His particular concern was that customers were coming in to “support Whittaker’s” but couldn’t due to the excessive price. While a block of Whittaker’s Creamy Milk chocolate retails for $6.55 at both Countdown and New World supermarkets in Dunedin, this price is even higher in the New World branch located in Wellington central, where the price of a block currently sits at $7.09. Tapping into the outrage of the customers he speaks to daily, Tom said that “Customers want to boycott the supermarkets but just don’t have any other option.” He said the prices were both “ripping off the workers and ripping off the customers.”
That’s exactly what Blair* thought, another employee at the New World Gardens. He has had enough with the prices and has begun calling in sick for every shift. Speaking frankly, Blair said, “Do you want to know the exact reason I haven’t been at work? It starts and ends with the chocolate prices.” Blair’s* rage has also seen him take to drinking on Saturday nights as a coping mechanism for the sea of emotions which stew within. He did admit to Critic Te Ārohi that his main shift, the one he’s been calling out sick for, was on a Sunday morning – but we’re sure that’s unrelated to the issue at hand.
Another frequently sick member of the New World Garden’s staff, Cormac* said that the issue was getting to be “a bit of a robbery to be fair.” Unlike Blair, Cormac claimed his sickness was honest, citing extreme sugar deprivation as the root cause. Fortunately, he did seem to have a solution for people suffering from similar symptoms. Cormac posited, “People are going to start eating nuts, just wait.”
Nuts or not, it seems clear as day that the students of the university are tired of the drastic increases in chocolate prices. Alongside them stands a nation likely less worried about chocolate in regard to the grand scheme of things, but still revolted nonetheless. Students are worried we are racing towards a breaking point, and not the good kind where it's an even split, the bad kind where you break off too little accidentally and look stingy in front of your mates.
*Names changed.