End of Fish & Chips shops?

[Ifailed]

According to the BBC, some are facing a drop of 30% in custom and face 'extinction'. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-62650572

Personally, I wouldn't buy a meal from one nowadays, a small haddock and chips costs £8.50, 1/4 of my weekly shop (live alone).

I know from previous threads they tend to be cheaper in the North of England, but even so all of them are having to pay more for oil, fish & spuds.

Have any closed down near you?

There are a fair few in our town. One recently closed, it had been there a long time and was massively popular but someone new bought it and the food and service went down. The others all seem to be doing ok, I often see queues waiting. A massive portion of chips was £1.50 the last time I got some (a few weeks ago).

I think fish and chips will be the only take away we will still have soon. Chinese, Indian, pizza is far more expensive, and can do pizza at home or get the meal boxes from a supermarket instead. There is nothing else like fish and chips from a chippy and it's the cheapest takeaway for us, even with prices rising.

Midlands here: Haddock & Chips for two is 17.80 including delivery. Cod would be 18.30.

We always go for Haddock as it is cooked fresh.

For the same price they also offer gluten free or 'skinny' batter

£6.30 near me for regular cod and chips

It's not a cheap meal and I'm ok with that. I much prefer to spend on a quality product. That must be generally true becuase we are gaining rather that losing fish and chip shops in our city and they are mostly very good. The latest one that I know of is excellent. My husband orders cod loin and apparently it's amazing - fresh and meaty.

We had fish and chips in Cornwall recently. 2 regular and 2 small portions of cod and chips (with ketchup sachets) was £42.50. This was at a 'standard' shop, not an upmarket Rick Stein style place.. It was nice, but definitely not a budget option!

Fish was always an expensive option, there are other things on offer. When I was a kid we'd most often have chips and peas/gravy as a meal, adults usually chips, pudding and peas. Even now my local one does fishcake, fish bites etc which are far cheaper.

We live in the north around me we get 2 cods, small chips to share (there's loads), carton of mushy pees and two cans and it's £12 - we went to Blackpool and it cost £15 for one fish and chips and two drinks. I nearly died!

A large cod loin with chips is £13.95 and the delicious minty mushy peas are £1.50. It's the only place I order mushy peas from because they are so good compared with the average. My scampi and chips is £10.50.

East Midlands - A large cod and chips with a fizzy drink cost me £16.50 on Monday, this led us to discussing how it now becoming unaffordable.

We have fish and chips when we go to the seaside not as a general takeaway though. If we are on holiday we don't mind paying more so I wonder if others think the same and holiday chip shops will survive better than ones in general towns and cities

No, they do a great trade here, 2 more have opened up since the pandemic! It's not cheap any more, but what is?

The part of Northern England I am in, they are about the same price £8.50. Sometimes higher. I don't buy them very often now as other takeout options are better value for money.

Agreed. I'm seriously considering a fish supper for my tea after reading thread.

I hope ours will survive. It’s good value and excellent food - I get a ‘mini’ fish and chips and a sausage for my daughter. There’s nothing mini about it, it’s just a normal portion, and we never finish it. It’s about £7 (or was last time I went, which was a few months ago) and easily the best value takeaway. An Indian would be £20, easily (although it would last us two meals) and even MacDonalds is over a tenner.

It’s less processed than the other takeaways, a small independent business and doesn’t use plastic packaging. It’s the first place I spend any disposable income I get, even if it’s just chips in the park on a Friday night. (Sadly, I rarely have disposable income these days. Every penny is allocated to an essential bill before I even get it. I expect a lot of people are the same)

Still doing well around here, small Northern market town, only 2 locally but always very busy, they are also very traditional, no fancy stuff. We are also near the seaside so the ones there do a good trade too. In fact one in particular has massive queues all the time.

One only lasted about two years near me, I have to walk about 15 minutes away.

IBS 😂

There are 3 in my local High Street, 2 are usually busy, the other is much emptier and is more for kebabs.

At our favourite chippie a large cod and regular chips is just about enough for 2 people and is £9.50 at the moment. So ok for a fiver each...can always add a tin of mushy peas at home...2 minutes in the microwave.

I really hope good chip shops can survive.

£44 for fish and chips for four of us here. For £50 I can also get 4 NIGHTS worth of dinners for four of us from Gousto. I suppose neither are really cheap options, but clearly one is a lot cheaper than the other and both are delicious.

My good friends own a chippy and I often help out there, they are struggling, The price of fish has doubled in 2 years and is still rising, they make near enough zero profit on fish now and most of their profit is from other items.

It a vicious circle, a lot people can not afford to buy takeaways like they used to so obviously a lot less customers but they still have to open for the hours they state and have to have the fryers running and lights and appliances on which again the prices are constantly rising.

I do worry for them.

We have a lot of them here, maybe it’s because we’re a seaside town though. They all seem to do a good trade and I’d we ever do go on a Friday or Saturday, there’s usually a queue out the door. They all seem to have a specialism though - o e totally traditional right in sea front, gets all the beach trade, one does fancy spicy chips and vegan ‘fish’ and different special batters, another one does regular stuff but lots of vegetarian options too , one does ‘low fat’ - not sure how and one does a wider range of fish (eg salmon, tuna, skate) that the others don’t do. None have closed down but one was recently taken over by a bit that used to be a sushi chef, he started offering sushi and other Japanese dishes alongside the fish and chips and it’s been so popular that they seem to sell lore of that than fish and chips. The cost has definitely gone up here, we only have it very irregularly, but tbh (bug bear if mine) the portions are so ridiculously massive that me and DH can share a cod and chips and have some left over. If I’m having chips with DDs we can one lot between three of us and have had enough.

We are regular customers at a F&C shop which has an excellent reputation & has won national awards. It used to be ridiculously busy on Friday evenings with queues down the street. Not any more, you can now walk straight in. The food is as good as ever but the prices have increased by >30% this year. It’s clear that many people can no longer afford their weekly treat.

Good grief! @Moddo

Not sure if you're joking about c. £160 per month budget for F&C.

Still going strong in my town. Though I have no idea why, I used to live fish and chips but it just tastes so greasy and meh. Have they changed or have I?🤔