Waitrose has been blasted for introducing a completely "unaffordable" and "out of touch" Essentials range during the Cost of Living crisis.
With families being forced to cut down on luxuries, more and more supermarkets are now offering a budget range - including Asda's Just Essentials and Morrisons Savers range.
Waitrose - a premium supermarket - has now jumped on the bandwagon of attempting to offer an affordable budget option for those doing their weekly shop there.
However, shoppers have been left stunned at just how truly expensive the essentials range is.
First-time Waitrose shopper, Rebecca Astill, said that despite expecting the fresh food part to be the "most expensive chunk" of the shop, all the items being over a pound surprised her.
The yoghurts - at 80p each - seemed to be the cheapest from the fridge section, with Rebecca saying: "I thought £2.60 for a cheese and tomato pizza was also quite steep, bearing in mind the Pizza Express pizzas are pretty much permanently discounted to £2.50 in Tesco."
Despite the taste being premium, she went on to admitted that during these trying times, "taste is secondary to price in a budget range."
And in terms of frozen food, the cost of some items in particular has left Rebecca stumped.
With Waitrose offering £2.20 for 10 fish fingers, she said that she would have easily "sacrificed a small amount of taste for a cheaper product in a heartbeat."
And while the cupboard food of the Essentials range was "a little better priced" for a budget range, Rebecca admitted that she was not left impressed by this at all.
In particular, she said she expected the pasta sauce, pasta, potatoes and teabags to be the most obvious to reduce in price.
However, she did admit that the only positive of this was that the quality was improved - with the teabags making a delicious cuppa.
As a regular shopper at Tesco, Rebecca revealed that her basics shop at Waitrose cot her a whopping £31.84.
She then went on to disclose that her usual shop costs her in the low £20s and if she shops at Aldi, it is nearer £15.
She did confess that while she completely understands, "Waitrose is a premium brand, and this IS a budget range compared to their usual stock I think it’s insulting to actually be advertised as so.
"It all just feels a little out of touch."
Rebecca's Waitrose basket breakdown:
Fridge
Apple juice, 1L: £1
Beef Mince 10%, 500g: £2.50
Cheese and smoked ham tortellini, 300g: £1.80
Roast ham slices (seven): £1.40
Mature grated cheddar, 250g: £2.65
Smoked streaky bacon, 250g: £2.75
Yoghurts (two): 80p each - £1.60
Cheese and tomato pizza: £2.60
Eggs, one dozen: £1
Freezer
Frozen French fries, 900g: £1.30
Frozen 10 fish fingers: £2.20
Cupboard
White medium sliced bread: 59p (reduced from 75p)
Tomato and basil pasta sauce, 340g: £1.15
Baked beans in tomato sauce, 220g: 35p
Strawberry jam, 454g: £1.20
Penne, 500g: 85p
Potatoes, 1kg: £1.40
Bourbons, 400g: 75p
Teabags, 160: £2.20
Malted wheat cereal, 750g: £1.35
Multipack of crisps, six: £1.10
A Waitrose spokesperson said: “We're disappointed to hear this and will continue working with our suppliers to keep prices as competitive as possible."At the same time, we're proud of the exceptional taste and quality of our range, noted throughout this review, and our industry-leading animal welfare standards.
"We're also giving customers further ways to save, like our myWaitrose loyalty scheme, which gives customers weekly savings on the products they buy most.”
