A chippy owner has defended charging nearly £5 for a carton of chips amid the cost of living crisis.

It’s safe to say that times are tough right now. Inflation has been stubbornly high for months, only slowing by 0.1% between July and August to 6.7%.

Food has been especially hit by price hikes, with experts saying the monthly grocery shop is more expensive than energy bills.

ScotRail worker Margaret Menassa fumed on Facebook last week that she paid £4.80 for chips from a shop in Oban, a port town often called the ‘seafood capital of Scotland’

‘This is scandalous, George St Fish and Chip Shop,’ Menassa said on September 10.

But Oban Fish and Chips owner John Stewart defended the price tag to the regional newspaper The Press and Journal.

Potatoes, frying oil, fish and the fuel needed to keep the chip shop lights on don’t come cheap these days, he said.

‘It is always difficult to get the right price, and we did not do it without thinking about it first,’ he said, adding that the cost of potatoes alone has doubled.

‘We want to keep our staff – and while other businesses might cut staff over the winter, our staff remain with us and we want to make sure we look after them we,’ Stewart said.

Keeping staff on the payroll during the winter is a top priority for him, he added.

‘As anyone working in hospitality will know, it is very difficult to make money in the winter,’ Stewart said.

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Josh Milton

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