While all supermarket prices are on the rise, the soaring price of one particular product has sparked online debate about bulk buying.
One Tesco customer took to Facebook to claim that the price of a one litre bottle of olive oil has risen in price from £2.85 to £7.05 in a matter of just four weeks.
Posting to the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK Group, the customer expressed outrage at the increase and said “prices are going mad”.
Despite the shopper’s well-meaning intentions, the post drew a heated discussion from shoppers, reports the Daily Record.
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Many critics argued that it creates a domino effect of hysteria and panic that is "part of the problem".
The same debate arose during the pandemic with household items such as toilet roll and last October during fuel shortages.
Olive oil has joined a long list of items that have surged in price recently - with Tesco seeing the largest increase out of all the big supermarkets.
According to The Grocer, both the own-brand olive oil and extra virgin olive oil bottles rose between 11% to 32.3% over the first week of July.
The shopper shared two photos taken just a month apart to the money-saving page, highlighting how the bottle of olive oil La Espanolo Extra Virgin Olive Oil had surged in price.
The post read: "Bought the £2.85 olive oil a few weeks ago, four bottles of. Now £7.05. Think if you see a bargain.
"Bulk buy. Prices are going mad."
Many shoppers were horrified by the extent of the price hike with comments including.
One person commented: “Flipping Nora!” while another suggested that it was “daylight robbery.”
However, amongst this, the comments section was also littered with angry people who disagreed with the call to bulk buy and believed that it would escalate problems further.
"Please stop telling people to buy bulk. That’s part of the problem. Please think of those who can’t afford to buy bulk.
"£2.85 for olive oil even in Spain is super cheap you can’t find anything under €4 and it’s been a while. I think that was some kind of mistake.", one person argued.
"Bulk buy??? Seriously? Hate that attitude, sorry," responded another.
"All this post is going to encourage is for people to bulk buy, stock runs out, stock is hard to come by due to the war so prices go up higher. Supply and demand, do not encourage such stupidity", said a third.
The Mirror has contacted Tesco for comment.
