Chippy boss installing self-service tills as 'abrupt' customers query prices

A fish and chip shop owner says he is installing self-service tills to protect staff from customers with "abrupt" questions about price rises.

Rhys McLoughlin, co-owner of Môr Ffres in Dinas Cross, Pembrokeshire, said there were "lots of questions being asked" and he did not think people understood that "incoming prices are going up and up".

"We have no control over that, so either we work [for] no money, or we follow the price increase and, unfortunately, we have to pass it on," he said.

The average price of takeaway fish and chips rose to £11.17 in March, according to the ONS. In 2019, the average cost was £6.48.

The National Federation of Fish Friers said rising prices had "affected frequency of visits and footfall" in "the majority of [fish and chip] shops".

"The word on the street is cod could actually double in price by September," said McLoughlin.

"That would just be unfeasible for us to even entertain selling it because, ultimately, it's cod and chips. It's not a fillet steak.

"National minimum wage has gone up, oil is going up, the price of fuel," he said, adding that he feared potato costs could also rise "because the price of diesel has gone up".

"If these prices continue to go up, who's going to buy fish and chips for £21? Who can afford that?"

McLoughlin said he would install digital kiosks where customers can place and pay for their own orders, in part "because it's quite a small building that we've got here and in the summer it does get quite full on".

But he said it was also due to the pressure his staff came under about costs.

"With prices, there's a lot of questions being asked," he said.

"We have got young staff working here and at the end of the day, sometimes this is their first port of business, this is their first stepping stone out of school."

He added: "It's no fun for a boy or girl to come to work to be asked, not abused, but asked pretty abrupt questions on the spot with 20 people in the chip shop.

"We have actually lost a few members of staff through that."

Sy Crockford, at Marina Fish & Chips in Saundersfoot, said offering the traditional seaside classic at an affordable price had become very challenging.

"Fish alone, we've never seen anything like it. Cod alone has gone up 50%," he said.

"One thing we don't want to do is out-price fish and chips. It's a nostalgia, it's a romance, to come to the beach and have fish and chips, we definitely don't want to outprice."

Crockford said cod and haddock were becoming "a luxury not a necessity", adding that offering "more sustainable" fish options at a "budget that everyone can afford" could see a change in chip shop menus.