TikTokers are ridiculing Coles over the supermarket’s huge price rises during the cost-of-living crisis, with parodies of a celebrity chef’s efforts to feed a family for under $10 taking centre stage.

Curtis Stone’s under $10 recipes first hit Australian television screens over six years ago, but now social media is mocking the supermarket giant by showing what you can and can’t afford with a single blue note in 2023.

The original TikTok, viewed more than 1.1 million times after being posted in August, features Stone giving his spiel, before someone fails to buy 400 grams of Nutella and a loaf of Helga’s white bread for under $10 … despite Coles posting a profit of $1.1 billion in the past financial year.

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It has since expanded into a multi-part series, featuring a bag of cheese for $10, with other people joining in on the fun.

Feeding a family

Heading over to Coles online and using home brand and on-sale items where possible, The New Daily put Stone’s recipes to the test to see how far the weekly shop had ballooned out.

The first recipe is a zucchini schnitzel melt, which cost just $7.82 a meal when the recipe was launched in 2017.

Lets take a look at the cost of the required ingredients in 2023:

• Panko crumbs 220g: $2.30
• Grated parmesan 100g: $2
• White plain flour 75g: $1.50
• Cage-free eggs 12 pack: $5
• 300g Zucchini x3: $2.61
• Western Star butter 500g: $6.50
• Red island extra virgin olive oil 250ml: $4.75
• Cherry tomatoes 250g x2: $5
• Mozzarella ball 250g: $5.50
• Total price of ingredients required: $35.16
• Adjusted 2023 price for portion of purchases used only: $15.56

The cost of the ingredients comes in at over $35, and even giving the supermarket some leeway by only counting the portion of the purchase required to cook the meal, it still lands at over double the original price.

Let’s try another

If any of the recipes are going to come in at under $10, then it is surely Stone’s cheesy broccoli pasta melt, another meal with no meat in it.

The following ingredients are needed to make the meal:

• Western star butter: $6.50
• Panko crumbs 220g: $2.30
• Walnuts 100g: $2.50
• Grated parmesan 100g: $2
• Fusilli pasta 500g $1.85
• Broccoli 340g: 99c
• Tasty cheese 250g: $5.50
• Ricotta cheese 375g: $3.60
• Total price: $24.50
• Adjusted 2023 price for portion of purchases used only: $11.65

Even being kind to the supermarket by going for meatless recipes, only tallying for the ingredients used in the recipe and saving the rest for a future meal, the results reveal the grim reality that in 2023, it’s extremely difficult to feed a family of four a nutritious meal for under $10.

700g of shredded cheese from Coles feeds a family….right? Photo: TikTok

Profits over people

The ads featuring Stone were controversial when they were launched in 2010, with many claiming it just didn’t stack up.

There are no laws in Australia stopping supermarket monopolies like Coles and Woolworths from charging whatever they want, even during times of bumper profits, economic stress and disaster.

According to Australia’s consumer watchdog, the ACCC, prices people think are too high or sudden increases in prices aren’t illegal, but businesses must not mislead consumers about what they will be charged and must set prices independent of competitors.

In the past, competition between supermarkets drove down prices as specials and savings were used to entice customers.

Now, when two supermarket chains control the vast majority of the market share, they can set whatever prices they like.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused supply issues, supermarkets continued to raise prices well beyond the rate of inflation, which resulted in Coles posting a $1.1 billion profit and Woolworths netting a cool $1.62 billion in the 2022-23 financial year.