Cost of living crisis hits new level as Sydney woman says she paid $25 for a bagel

A Sydney woman claims she had to pay $25 for a smoked salmon bagel as the cost of living crisis reaches a whole new level.

Hannah Bowman said she was fuming after being forced to fork out $25 for the baked good, a price she labelled as absolutely criminal. 

The podcast producer took to social media to vent her horror, saying the cost of living crisis is well and truly ‘out of control’.

In a video uploaded to Tik Tok, Hannah said she feels like she is a ‘victim of a heinous crime’.

‘I just went for a little walk to buy a coffee and I walked past a bakery and I saw this bagel,’ she said.

‘I thought, “I’m gonna just buy my lunch now,” because it looks delicious.’

Hannah said she had never purchased from the bakery before and was left shocked when as she went to pay they said, ‘That’ll be $25 please’.

She did not name the venue but said she hadn’t purchased anything from the eatery before.

‘For one smoked salmon bagel. Is this a mistake?,’ she said in the video.

‘Can that be real?’

Hannah says she was left feeling sick after paying such a ridiculous price for the bagel.

When asked in a comment why she didn’t walk away she said, ‘Honestly I think I was in shock and didn’t realise what had happened until I walked out’.

Social media users were stunned by the abhorrent price, with many asking how the bakery could justify pricing it so high.

‘Excuse me? $25?’ one person commented.

‘I know inflation is real but that’s a bit too much,’ another said.

While others shared similar experiences of being met with sky-high prices while purchasing lunch.

‘That happened to me with a salad recently and I panicked and said oh god no no sorry and ran away and can never ever go there again,’ one user wrote.

This is just the latest in a string of absurd prices as the cost of living crisis wreaks havoc. 

Last month people were left stunned when they found out Five Dock Bowling Club in Sydney’s inner-west charges upwards of $40 for a chicken schnitzel.

The plain schnitzel on its own at the club costs $28.90, with chips costing an additional $6.90 and a salad another $8.90 on top.

If you were to go on the weekend or a public holiday and order the schnitzel, it would also cost an additional 10 per cent.

While recently another shopper in Sydney’s eastern suburbs told the tale of seeing a peeled mandarin in an ‘eco cup’ priced at almost $10.

Mandarins usually cost around a dollar to buy in the supermarket but one store decided to mark up the price for peeling it and packaging it in a BioPac cup.

The peeled mandarin was marketed as a ‘seasonal fruit cup’ and advertised as gluten-free and vegetarian and would set a buyer back a whopping $9.50.