Woolworths responds after Nico Panagio calls out the popular retailer over prices

A tweet by Nico Panagio lamenting the prices of groceries is going viral.

On Tuesday, the Survivor SA host wrote in a tweet to Woolworths SA it's "been wonderful having you around - great quality (most of the time); however, since you keep putting your prices up (weekly, it seems), you're gonna see us less and less. Thought I should tell you since we've been in a trading relationship for so very long."

Since the tweet has been posted, it has 1257 retweets, 218 quote tweets and 7164 likes and counting.

It has garnered a lot of reactions from other users, commenting on the increase in various products.

GoodHopeFM DJ Suga-Funk wrote: "I worked at Woolies. I am proud about that, and the experience gained. Life-long lessons. Just can't shop there anymore."

While Algoa FM presenter Wayne Hart countered: "I think we would be incredibly naive to think this is only a Woolworths 'problem'."

In response to a media query, a Woolworths spokesperson told News24: "At Woolworths, we strive to keep our price increases to an absolute minimum. There are, however, circumstances which often lie outside our control which have an impact on price adjustments. We will only accept a price adjustment as a last resort after exploring all avenues to prevent one."

The statement continued: "Based on our long-term relationships with our partners, we work as a collective to best understand how we mitigate price increases. Additionally, we track thousands of industry prices on a weekly basis to ensure Woolworths remains competitive. Several independent market price surveys on the everyday basket of items conducted in 2022 reaffirms our commitment to Price, Quality and Value for our customers."

News24 reached out to Nico Panagio for further comment on his tweet. No reply was received by the time of publishing. This article will be updated if any further comment becomes available.