Northland shopper frustrated as pricey fruit and vegetables rot in days

Jared Bettridge with a rotten apple, potato and plum which he bought five days ago.

A Northland man is fed up paying premium prices at the supermarket including for fresh produce which goes rotten within a few days.

Kerikeri resident Jared Bettridge said his weekly food shop for him, his partner and their 9-year-old daughter has recently “exploded” from around $220 a week to over $300.

To add insult to injury, apples and potatoes have quickly rotted, leaving them inedible.

“For some reason, all of a sudden, it’s exploded by $100.

“I thought they’d overcharged me, but I checked my receipt and everything seemed okay.

“So it really pisses me off when I’m paying absolute premium prices for food that rots three days after I get it home.”

Bettridge, who shops at Woolworths in Kerikeri, said he recently bought a 1.5kg bag of Woolworths brand royal gala apples, only to find one that had rotted and had affected two more.

Last week, potatoes went “mushy” in the cupboard, he said, and last month he cut open a watermelon to find it was rancid inside.

“I literally threw away a whole watermelon; it was around $12.

“A few times I’ve bought potatoes and get them home and go and grab one and my finger goes through it because it’s mushy.

“This is constantly happening now.

“Food quality is piss-poor while prices keep going up.”

Bettridge said he and his partner, who are both self-employed, shop conservatively, look for specials and buy low-cost bread for school lunches.

They have a tunnel house, grow their own vegetables and have chickens which lay eggs, and Bettridge said he fishes when he can.

They don’t eat red meat anymore because it’s too expensive.

“I’m at the point where I’m so frustrated with Woolies,” he said.

“Fruit and vegetables are so unreliable now in this town, I almost want to turn to only frozen or tinned.

“The quality of the produce since it changed from Countdown to Woolworths has gone massively downhill.”

Kerikeri resident Jared Bettridge is fed up buying fresh produce from the supermarket, like these apples, that quickly go rotten.

Bettridge’s social media post drew scores of comments from sympathetic residents, with many saying they were also struggling with soaring prices and rotting fresh produce.

Some people were now shopping around for fruit and vegetables, including farmers markets, and many touted the benefits of growing your own.

Woolworths New Zealand encouraged customers to return items that “don’t meet our high standards”.

“Our ‘fresh or free’ promise means if customers are not satisfied with the quality of our fresh products, they can return these and get a refund and a replacement.”

However, Bettridge said returning to the supermarket and waiting around to get served then explaining the situation took extra time that he didn’t have.

Running around town visiting different shops for different items was expensive with fuel prices so high, he said.

“I should be able to go to a reputable supermarket and buy fresh produce like they advertise.”

As for high prices, Woolworths acknowledged the “tough time” Kiwi households were having with cost of living pressures, saying “e’re working hard to keep prices as low as possible, for as long as possible”.

“Our absolute priority is delivering value with great quality, fresh products.”

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.