Shop Where The Miilionaires Shop

Maybe it's just a coincidence but there has only been one brief sighting of Coles' Coq Au Vin, Feed Your Family For Under $10 (FYFFUTD) on the telly. And even then it was just mentioned in passing. They didn't go through the farcical process of pretending Curtis Stone was actually picking someone from a crowd who just happened to be (a) married, (b) to someone of the opposite sex (sorry, this is Australia that's an oxymoron), (c) have two children, and (d) live in the right sort of home (more on this shortly). Can I just say the scripting for these ads is beyond terrible - whoever writes the dialogue has a tin ear. "Good, I need a Dad" sounds like a line from a movie about a needy orphan. But I digress.

My point in the previous post was that Coles had brought in the budget for this particular dish under $10 by ignoring the price of 2/3 bottle vin rouge (red wine to those Australians reading this who haven't been to France, or even Le Patisserie). They did this by saying that this wine was to be found "in the pantry". Sure we all have a bottle or two of almost finished shiraz lying around for a splash of red wine in the bolognese sauce but 2/3 bottle? This implies you were up late with your friends drinking (again) and against the best advice of your partner (or cat, delete as applicable) opened that fourth bottle only to find that after five minutes you were so drunk you fell asleep in each others arms only to awaken the next morning with a look of embarrassment and then relief that you had gone no further #weveallbeentheredontworry. You then poured the undrunk glasses back into the bottle and set it aside as "cooking wine". Maybe this happens in Curtis Stone's house all the time but not mine. I drug my friends if I want to have non consensual sex with them. But I continue to digress.

So I contacted Coles and the FBI (known as the Consumer Complaints Council in Victoria) about the ad pointing out that claiming 2/3 bottle wine as being free was deceptive and they should withdraw their ad. My reply from the CCC thanked me for my communication and pretty much pointed out they were legally obliged to ignore it. Coles said nothing directly. But, like I stated up front, they have only mentioned the Coq Au Vin FYFFUTD in passing and it didn't form the centre of an ad where they go through the ingredients and all the kids at the end go "tarf, arf" making vomiting noises, least that's what I do when I see these inane ads. The digression is about to end, bear with me.

So perhaps Coles read my email and realised the cat was out of the bag (Cat in a Bag - there's one for Continental) and pulled the ads. But here is my point. All those families in these ads have youngish parents in their late twenties or early thirties and they all live in houses with enormous country kitchens that open onto enormous lawns. And, according to Coles, they have pantries. Pantries! Houses like this cost well in excess of $1m in places like Melbourne and Sydney.

So here's my question: why the fudge are they trying to budget a family of four meal for under $10?