Yahoo Finance Aussie cafe slammed for $17 ‘basic’ avo on toast as expert calls for boycott: 'Opportunistic'
Would you pay $16.90 for this?
An Aussie cafe has been called out for ripping off customers over the price of its avocado on toast. And a retail expert has called for a boycott of businesses who take advantage of the current market.
The Hervey Bay Boat Club in Queensland recently served up the dish to a customer who, as a member, paid $14.90 for the meal. However, non-members are being charged $16.90 for the breakfast which the cafe describes on the menu as “smashed avocado served on toasted sourdough”.
A photo of the meal shows four slices of toast laid out on a plate next to a small pot of avocado and a slice of lemon.
"Wow ... avocado on toast for $14.90,” the customer said. “I have never seen such a basic version at any other cafe.”
‘Customers need to vote with their feet’
You can get a whole loaf of similar bread at the supermarket for under $3, while avocados are currently in season and are retailing for as low as $1.20.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Professor Roberta Crouch, a retail expert from the University of the Sunshine Coast, said customers have every right to expect quality for what they're paying for.
“There’s a lot of competition out there and the consumer has the power to withhold their service and withhold their money,” she said, but conceded that cafe owners are doing it tough amid the cost of living crisis.
“The cost around that avocado on toast, is not just for the avocado on toast. It's the rent, it's the rates and taxes, it's the electricity, it's their insurance, and it’s their wages.”
But Professor Crouch said companies need to be more upfront about that.
“If these small businesses need to charge more, then it is a matter of transparency,” she explained.
“People just like to know where the $16.90 is going. And I think small businesses, especially little restaurants and sole traders, they’re making tough decisions these days based on what they think their revenue would be, versus what they might have to charge.
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Professor Crouch warned some businesses try to take advantage of the situation.
“There will be some traders who are opportunistic and go: ‘Well, you know, if the market will bear 17 bucks for avocado on toast, why would I charge less?',” she said.
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“So it's up to consumers to vote with their feet a bit more often. To demand some quality for what they're getting.
"And that really is what will lift the game of some of these operations. But certainly, I wouldn't want to be a small cafe owner these days. I think it's pretty tough out there.”
Yahoo Finance reached out to the Hervey Bay Boat Club for a comment but hadn’t heard back at the time of publication.
People slam cafe 'rip off'
Social media uses were quick to tear into the "rip-off" meal after a photo was posted online.
"They should be ashamed to charge those prices, let alone serve something so pathetic," one person wrote.
"You could do that for less than $3 at home," said another. "Pretty poor, just gouging there."
While someone else said they'd visited the Boat Club for dinner and had paid $38 for "a bit of meat on mash".
The avo controversy
It’s not the first time customers have taken issue with the substance of a smashed avo on toast, nor is it likely to it be the last.
A Sydney mother swore off a popular cafe last year after ordering takeaway avocado toast that she was made to “assemble” herself while wrangling a toddler. For $15, the dish from Harry’s in Bondi came with the avocado still in its skin.
While The Glass Den cafe in Melbourne was shunned for charging $27.50 for sliced avocado on toast and $28.50 for smashed avo, but some defended the eatery saying “look at the pics of their food on Instagram and their menu items and ingredients and you can see why the prices are what they are”.
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