Aussies have expressed their fury at the number of chips included in a portion at Grill’d, taking to social media to declare it a “rip-off”.
Posting on Reddit, a customer shared a photo of roughly 14 sweet potato chips – what seemingly equates to the burger chain’s snack-sized serving – alongside the caption: “This is what $5.90 worth of sweet potato fries looks like from Grilled (sic) right now.”
“Is it me or is every business everywhere on the take right now?” they added.
News.com.au has contacted Grill’d for comment.
The post garnered plenty of attention on the platform, with fellow Reddit users accusing Grill’d of “taking the p*ss”.
“That’s $0.42 per chip,” one pointed out.
While another wrote: “Burgers got smaller again, too.”
A third person, however, had a somewhat more considered take.
“I feel like we’re at the point now that we know we’re getting less for our money and we all have to decide, for example, am I going to pay $5.90 for sweet potato fries from Grilled (sic)?” they commented.
“And if you want to pay that price, the post shouldn’t be about the big bad vendor. It should be about the guy agreeing to pay that price. You know you have a choice, right? The vendor says this is the price, this is what you’re going to get for it. But what happens after that is on you.”
To which someone else replied: “If I’m going there for the first time, I do not know what their serving sizes are. However I do know their prices. For that amount of money I would expect more. Obviously fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”
Grill’d co-founder and managing director Simon Crowe last year flagged that customers would face increased prices at the chain as a result of rising supply chain costs and inflationary pressures, noting he hadn’t seen this level of pricing pressures from all angles for over 10 years.
However, Mr Crowe told The Sydney Morning Herald in February he was confident Grill’d would scoop up price-conscious customers opting to reduce their discretionary spending, but still dine somewhere “aspirational and premium”.
“We obviously don’t want for people to be doing it tougher out there, but in an economic environment that becomes challenging,” he said at the time.
“We see people who decide to tighten their belts a little, migrate from premium casual dining to fresh or fast casual dining, exactly where our brand sits … We gain a net influx of guests coming to us from above because they still want quality and service, but they want more affordability, and we provide all of those.”