Famous date scone price rises with ‘no complaints’ - but it’s still not $8

Friday, 23 May 2025

Sign of the Kiwi cafe owner Eric Devos recently put the price of his scones up to $7.50 from $6.90, and he says there have been no complaints from customers.

Should we or shouldn’t we? That’s the question on most cafe owners’ minds when it comes to raising prices as the cost of ingredients like butter, wages and Kiwisaver contributions skyrocket.

But will $8 scones be the new norm?

The new owner of popular Christchurch eatery Foundation Café in Tūranga central library, Sarah Niu, said she was making a “brave” move next month to increase the price of a cheese scone from $6.50 to “$8, at least”.

She said the scones barely made a profit, and a $1.50 price hike would still only see a profit of about $1 per scone.

Date scone destination Sign of the Kiwi, on Christchurch’s Port Hills, took the leap to increase the price recently and hasn’t looked back.

A batch of 30 scones contains 500g of butter with whole dates in the “massive” scones that are almost a meal, Devos says.

A few weeks ago, owner Eric Devos increased the scone prices 60 cents, from $6.90 to $7.50.

“We had to,” he said, as the price of butter and “everything else” had continued to rise.

The transition was seamless, he said.

“We had no complaints whatsoever.”

Devos said the “massive” scones were worth the money, being “a meal by itself”.

A scone for $8 or more? That's soon the reality, as The Press reporter Carly Gooch explains.

But he was drawing a line at more increases.

“I don’t think we can put them up again. I think $8 is starting to get a bit expensive for scones.”

Dalethorpe House owner Rachel Ferguson says the Darfield cafe’s famous gluten free cheese scones and date scones will need to increase in price to the $6 bracket to cover rising costs.

A batch of 30 scones contains 500g of butter, and every scone is delivered to customers with two triangles of butter too - which at its cheapest was selling in May for $8.49 from Woolworths and The Warehouse.

Devos’ “new mission” was to find affordable butter, cheaper than the $8.80 plus GST he paid.

Dalethorpe House owner Rachel Ferguson said her “famous” $5.90 gluten free cheese scones and date scones had remained that price for a couple of years but “in all honesty, we’re considering putting up the prices”.

She said it was a difficult balance of not losing money on products and keeping customers happy.

The Good Habit cafe owner Vivien Zhao says its scones “should” go up but she was reluctant to upset customers, so the $5.50 price would probably remain.

“Compared to alcohol prices, it’s so much harder to get people to understand the cost of a coffee and a scone.”

The scone prices in the Darfield cafe “definitely” wouldn’t be going up to $8, she said, “it seems mad,” but “into the $6 bracket” seemed realistic.

“We’ve got to be able to sell what we make, it’s such a balancing act.”

Ferguson said as wages, coffee beans, Kiwisaver contributions were all going up, there had to be costs passed on to the customers.

Moment cafe owner Emma Cole says it’s sad Kiwis are having to pay high prices while products were shipped overseas.

The Good Habit owner Vivien Zhao charges $5.50 for the central Christchurch cafe’s spinach and cheese, and raspberry and citrus scones, made with butter milk and butter.

She said the price meant there wasn’t a lot of profit in the scones.

Foundation’s famous cheese scones - soon to cost $8 a pop.

“They should be [increasing in price] but people will complain.”

“We do have a lot of regulars.”

Moment Cafe owner Emma Cole said their cheese scones were made with buttermilk so were largely unaffected by soaring butter prices, unlike the afghan biscuits that had 600g in a batch - using $13 worth of butter, she said.

The price hike probably wouldn’t be passed on to customers, she said.

Cole said if customers couldn’t afford to buy their own butter, it was unlikely they would support cafes.