With the cost of living crisis continuing to pack a punch on wallets, we're all well aware that the price of groceries has skyrocketed in recent times - but $1200 for a couple of croissants is definitely pushing it.
A shopper in England has made headlines after he was almost charged an eye-watering £617 (NZ$1217) for a packet of reduced-price croissants at his local supermarket.
The man, who has not been named, popped into his local Asda in Warrington, Cheshire after work and was chuffed to find a pack of two Asda Extra Special almond croissants on sale for a tasty 60p (NZ$1.20), reduced from £1.70.
However, the man was gobsmacked when he saw the bill pop up on the Eftpos machine, he told the Liverpool Echo.
"It was a good job I did a double take, I was very close to just tapping my card without checking," he told the outlet.
Fortunately for the shopper, the item was quickly voided by a member of staff, who was able to rectify the shell-shocking total.
"The member of staff and myself both saw the funny side of it though. Imagine if I hadn't noticed, they would have to be the best croissants of my life."
A receipt supplied to the outlet showed the man had been charged exactly £617.91 for the croissants, which he picked up alongside shower gel, white wine and a cream tart.
A spokesperson for Asda told the Liverpool Echo the markup was a "complete anomaly", citing a smudged barcode as the culprit.
"We know our croissants are good, but we agree £617 might be pushing it," the spokesperson said in a statement.
"This looks to have been a one-off caused by a smudged or damaged barcode that has scanned incorrectly and we’ve checked our other yellow sticker products at this store and not found any other issues.
"Thankfully this was spotted and rectified by our colleague immediately, and we hope this customer enjoyed their croissants knowing he only paid 60p for them in the end."
Luckily for the customer, he was able to have his croissants and eat them too as he left the supermarket with the bargain breakfast in hand.
It's not the first time a customer has been charged an extortionate amount for a grocery item due to a system error. In 2019, UK woman Karla Tandazo was charged a staggering £4689.98 (NZ$9251) for salmon at Waitrose after placing an order online, as per the Mirror.
"For a moment, I wondered if I'd been so silly and ordered 1404 salmon packs," Tandazo told local media at the time. "After I could see there must have been some kind of system error, I got in touch with Waitrose, who - to be fair - were very helpful and apologetic."
In 2021, customers of Pakn'Save, New World and Four Square in Aotearoa were overcharged for their groceries after a computer glitch meant a quarter of advertised specials were not registered.
Later that year, a Wellington man warned customers who shop online with Countdown to thoroughly check their receipts after being overcharged $45 for lamb he never received.
