M&S Café Prices Surge – Shoppers Shocked by Cost of Favourite Meals
- Fish & chips meal rises £2 overnight
- Breakfast items quietly bumped up by up to 45p
- Toast and granola swaps leave loyal shoppers reeling
- Shoppers call it a “slap in the face” during a cost of living crunch
- M&S blames rising costs – but fans aren’t buying it
Marks & Spencer has triggered a wave of café fury across Britain after it quietly hiked prices at all 300 of its in-store eateries – and some of the rises are eye-watering.
The Gastro Fish & Chips meal – once a comfort-food staple at £9.95 – now commands £11.95, a hike of more than 20%. It’s beer-battered fish, petit pois and tartar sauce, but for nearly £12, shoppers are wondering if it now comes with a foot rub.
Meanwhile, the All Day Big Breakfast – a staple for many weekend regulars – has crept up by 45p, now setting punters back £9.95. That’s sausages, bacon, eggs and beans, with a side of wallet burn.
Even a humble portion of chips is up 50p to £2.50. Toast with jam and butter? Now £3.75. And those watching their waistline with granola will find the nutty bowl has vanished – replaced by a pricier "Berry Bliss" version, which comes with a 70p side order of disappointment.
Laura McGuire reported in The Sun that M&S defended the move, claiming it’s doing all it can to “mitigate inflation” while never compromising on “quality”.
But for everyday shoppers already juggling higher food bills, wage stagnation and National Insurance hikes, the posh café price rises sting.
It follows similar moves by Morrisons, Greggs, and Costa, where even the humble sausage roll and latte have taken a beating. At Costa’s hospital cafés, a regular latte now goes for £3.90 – 20p more than the same brew a few metres down the road.
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk the discount code platform said, "It’s another example of the squeeze on the high street hitting customers at every corner. Cafés were once an affordable treat for families – now it feels like you need a spreadsheet just to order breakfast."
Surely this is all due to the government's National Insurance hike for employers. This has increased the cost of labour so it has to be reflected in prices. If you increase taxation like this obviously prices go up. The government should have increased sales tax on many items because then it gets to control what prices go up and it gives them better control of the economy. We still have a huge trading deficit and that should be the government's number one focus at the moment to bring down and ideally reverse. Extra taxation on products mainly imported slows down their importation and makes locally produced products more cost effective by bringing down the difference in price as a percentage. If you use that extra taxation to invest in UK manufacturing and farming its a double win.