Just can’t get a decent bag of chips lately, what’s happened?.Do chippers not cut their own spuds any more, buy the chips in cut mass production?. Throw out more than I eat now
Coola Boola.
https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2022/Fresh-Chipping-Potato-Project-2020-2022.pdf
Agria potatoes are as far as I am currently aware the go to for most takeaways.
It's as accurate as you are going to find anywhere because it is a factual report from 15th March 2023.
If you read it properly it mentions the 4,000 tonnes of seed potatoes that used to be imported has stopped since 2021 but outside of that Ireland imports 64,000 tonnes of potatoes from the UK with most of these being used by chip shop owners.
The report is based on information from the CSO, the chairman of the Irish Farrmers Association Potato Committee and the President of the Irish Potato Federation, the Minister for Agriculture and Teagasc so I don't know if you'll find anything on Facebook or socail media to contradict it but dig away anyway.
No probably not but what has easily risen above 50% recently is electric and gas.
A lot of the time when prices rise it’s because if they don’t then something has to fall. The fastest way to save money is reduce the quality of your food or cut staff wages.
For most food businesses I think you know which one comes first. It’s my personal opinion that our wages shouldn’t be lowered so you can have cheaper food.
I don’t know if that’s quite accurate to be honest but I will do some digging out of curiosity if nothing else
It mentions that stopped in 2021 also? Maybe then the shift to Spanish spuds happened with more shops I don’t know. 😎
could also be Spanish imports from the UK as opposed to importing directly from Spain
chippers use an enormous amount of electricity, and the price of that has doubled in the last 3 years.
good (quite long) article on the British fish and chips industry here - they seem to have a real problem with them burning down, which I wasn't really aware of happening here that often.
Yeah but as much as 50%?
The UK supplies most of the potatoes for Irish chippers....
https://agriinsider.ie/irish-potatoes-keep-your-eyes-peeled/
i assume so considering all across Europe prices for everything have risen due to inflation, the war etc etc.
but the thing is man it’s not just the potatoes it’s everything is gone more expensive.
From the potatoes to the oil it’s cooked in. Not to mention gas & esb, staff costs, taxes, supplies even!
Plus, besides the cost, people are staying at home more these days as well. We never really bounced back from Covid and it’s clear as day some folks are still skittish about heading out and the rest can’t afford to (because of spiralling costs across the board, not just because chips are too dear).
The service industry has always been remarked as being “too dear” so that’s nothing new and prices are not the only reason why people stay at home these days.
It would be interesting to see how much Spanish spurs have gone up since 2020.
I wonder would that be the large increase that may account for a 50% increase?
More or less all come from Spain. I’m sure there’s places that source Irish spuds but i don’t know of too many tbh
How can that add up to a 50% increase though?
Why didn’t the price of chips fall when diesel fell during covid? Or did the price actually fall but due to demand it went up thus absorbing the decrease?
Do chippers not use domestic grown potatoes or are they all imported?
right tbh man just go talk to yourself cos I swear you have to be the most ignorant person I’ve ever dealt with.
I am trying to explain myself to you and all I’m getting is your smart arse quips, won’t let me near the tills? Man honestly just go away.
You said and I quote...
"Our place is 3.50 for a bag at the min. and I know for a fact we're barely making less than 20 cent off a bag".
You then finished off your post with... "It's a **** time to own a hospitality business honestly".
You also said earlier "We have to pay for the MiWadi and the tap water".
That's what I'm on about. You clearly tried to give the impression you own the business.
For some reason you keep trying to twist 3 euro MiWadi's into free MiWadis that "we're not making any money off of". For someone who works in a restaurant you should be able to read the simple receipt that clearly showed 2 lunches costing 40 euro were also paid for along with the 3 euro MiWadi, but then again maybe they don't allow you near the till's.
Chips went to the dogs for a while because they all started trying to save money by buying spanish potatoes.
Is was a hotter than usual year and the things were like rocks, tasted like they were undercooked when fried up.
25Kg bag of maris pipers was about 16.50 depending on the supplier and quantity you buy, and seeing the price and the scabby bags they serve these days, you'd be lucky if you're even getting 2 actual potatoes a bag. So after about 4 bags of chips sold about 8 actual spuds they break even on a sack of spuds. there's still about 20+ kilos left of profit in the bag.
But then like someone mentioned earlier. I know a chipper around here that had electric bills of about 3k a month. Last bill was over 8000 euros.
I never said I owned a chipper what are you shiting on about?
What I do is I work in a fine dining restaurant, the same restaurant as I laid out above in the thread runs a shipping container on the quay across the road. It was kitted out as a “food truck” type thing with our main offerings being fresh fish & Handcut chips.
Anyway, as part of my job I have insight into ordering, costs associated etc. our chips are €3.50 a bag, so yes it was a bit of a shock to see someone charging €4.30.
However it got me thinking so I had a look at a Facebook group setup and ran by owners of takeaways which I have access to because as part of my job also I run social media for the restaurant & the container.
that is where I’ve seen several takeaway owners remark that potato prices across the board are gone crazy, what we pay is very reasonable compared to some folks, which would explain the extra €1 that’s been charged elsewhere.
€3 miwadis are basic common sense that if a guest is occupying a table without spending any money really then the business is operating at a loss for the entire time they sit at it. The restaurant for example would have an average spend per cover. If you’re sitting down and sipping free waters or juices (or indeed even for a nominal 50c/€1 charge) we’re not making that off you and it needs to be made up off someone else.
so does that explain it for you now mate? Can you leave me be and stop following me around boards now? Thanks.
Diesel and the extra costs on all the food imported that make up your chips. Also the extra cost of production on all the non food items that are part of your bag of chips.
I don't know. Same as you don't know.
Why are you so convinced that someone along the chain is making massive profits? It seems like a victim mentality to me. Why can't you believe that all businesses along the chain are merely making "reasonable profits" (which you decline to define)?
I really don't understand why you are so insistent of this fact despite having no evidence to back it up.
You are, literally, accusing businesses of what you consider wrongdoing. You really should have evidence to back this up. You have none. And you wont even define what you think is wrong and what you think is reasonable or how it might be enforced.
You may as well be shouting at clouds.
I've said it in the Kildare forum enough. Romayos. They have their own trucks so I presume a central kitchens doing the prep
Ok so we are getting somewhere now.
Can we say the 50% increase in the cost of my bag of chips is directly correlated to the price of diesel?
No because the farmer only put up the price to cover the extra costs he has incurred like petrol/diesel.
Also the delivery company has put up the price because of petrol/diesel.
And the company supplying the oil have put up the price because oil now cost more for him to import and also delivery costs are up because of petrol/diesel.
The guy selling you the salt, vinegar, napkins puts the price up because the items cost him more to buy in and also his delivery costs have gone up.
The only people seem to be doing fine out of all this are the fuel/energy companies who saw profits increase the last few years.
It accounts for a hell of a lot of it - cooking oil? Massive increase in price for that - anyway inflation is high all round so just like the UK, if chippers can’t attract customers with those prices and can’t afford to lower prices to stay in business then they’ll close- it’s that simple - no point complaining about the prices - you’ll either continue to buy or you won’t. I personally won’t because I think our local Italian takeaway has gone down in quality anyway - I think they’ve cut too many corners through the years so sod them- I won’t be supporting them and won’t feel sorry if they close - if enough people feel that way then that’s it- however I don’t think they will as the place is still quite busy
So today all of a sudden you own a chipper and charge 3.50 for a bag of chips and make 6% profit from every bag?
That's some turnaround to yesterday when you were cursing and complaining and calling people cowboys because they were selling a bag costing 4.30.
You own a pub too? You said yesterday about how you have to pay for MiWadi and tap water when you were trying to justify 3 euro for a dash of cordial.
I think now Raichu you're an ol' bluffer, how could you possibly own a chipper and not be aware of the cost rises over the last 12 months?
Yeah but that doesn’t account for a 50% increase.
Electricity prices are coming back down so will the price of chips?
Ok so the chipper isn’t making the profit as the price of potatoes has gone up.
Is the farmer making massive profits?
If not who is?
It probably has unfortunately- we all know that energy bills have more than doubled - they’re coming down a bit now but were very high- cost of raw materials -potato and oil- also have increased as have wages - not to mention insurance -so it’s very possible
In the UK, there has been mass closures of fish and chip shops over the last 2 years- fish is massively expensive now - beef prices are also high -obviously a price point comes when people no longer can support their local chipper so essentially that’s it- close shop.
Even McDonalds who for years had pretty stable prices have increased massively over the last 2 years and the problem is, peoples wages haven’t increased by the same amount so all takeaway food now looks quite expensive
I'm fine thanks. I just get a little frustrated trying to have a reasonable discussion with someone who cannot produde any reasoned argument for something beyond, "it's my opinion and others share it".
I don't own a food business but I do know people who do and I do know how difficult it is to make money from food. Food businesses fail at a crazy rate (presumably not because they are making obscene profits).
Although, if you do care about my feelings, how about trying to answer a few of those simple questions? I feel undervalued being ignored so much 😉
Did some market research (😂) turns out chippers across the country are facing severe increases in potato prices. I had thought it was just Keelings taken the piss a bit on our end but it’s the same everywhere.
It appears largely due to scarcity in supplies of chipping potatoes in Europe, prob because of the war.
€4.50 is still imo a bit excessive but it would prob depend on the rent etc they’re paying as well. It’s shocking when you see the headline price of nearly €5 for a few chips but when you sit and look at it then it does make sense in fairness.
Our place is €3.50 for a bag at the min and I know for a fact we’re barely making less than 20c off each bag once you account for VAT, wages, energy costs etc etc.
yesterday I was shocked to see places charging €4.50. not so much after checking around. I see a lot of uproar regarding the packaging costs rising fairly steadily as well, my guess being the move away from single use plastics to more sustainable packaging which is probably costing more to make and therefore buy.
It’s a **** time to own a hospitality business honestly.
Back in the 90s, I got fired from Beshoffs for sticking my mickey in the potato peeler.
What happened the potato peeler, I hear you ask?
Unfortunately, she got fired as well.
Can ya name the chain? Or is that against rules here?
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