Cheap as chips: Average price of scoop below the national average

The survey was concerned with weight and price, not taste, although it was hard to go past chips cooked from locally grown fresh potatoes.

The humble chip has been put under the microscope in a nationwide survey showing a scoop in Horowhenua to be cheaper than the national average.

Thick or thin, skin on or off, soggy or crispy - whatever your preference, the survey was concerned with only two things: price and weight.

Consumer New Zealand recruited 22 chip lovers from one end of New Zealand to the other to buy and weigh a scoop of chips.

Survey results showed costs varied between $2.50 and $4.60 per scoop. The average price ended up being $3.59.

Of the nine fish and chip outlets visited by Horowhenua Chronicle in the Horowhenua region to find a comparison to the survey, the average price locally of $3.46 worked out to be below the national average.

But was it a case of comparing chips with chips? One local fish and chip shop felt they got the rough end of the spud though, as their chips had a distinct point of difference not factored into the survey.

Foxton Fish and Chippery sourced potatoes from local growers before hand washing them and cutting them onsite, leaving the skins on for extra flavour.

Though a scoop of chips from Foxton Fish and Chippery was 20 cents above the national average at $3.80, they did weigh out well per scoop at 430 grams - well above the national average of 365g.

Foxton Fish and Chippery's chips weighed out well at 430 grams per scoop.

Chippery manager Kelvin Daly said the reason the shop made its own chips rather than bought them wholesale was to support local potato growers, and to stay true to tradition.

"It's the way fish and chips always used to be," he said.

Daly said they also cooked only New Zealand-caught fresh fish, like blue cod, gurnard, tarakihi, snapper, trumpeter, flounder fillets, West Coast turbot, and orange roughy when in stock.

"It is cheaper to buy in frozen chips and frozen fish, but having everything fresh is our point of difference," he said.

Daly said the shop had a good local following, although many customers were from neighbouring towns like Levin, willing to travel for their fish and chips fix.

The Consumer NZ survey had the mystery shoppers buy scoops of deep-fried chips in Dunedin, Tasman, Wellington, Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay, Hamilton, Waihi, Auckland and Northland.

The survey found the best value scoop at Moerewa Takeaways in Northland. Once scoop cost $3 and weighed more than half a kilo.

Moerewa Takeaways owner Tiki Pedro estimated the shop went through 10kg of chips per day.

"We don't actually weigh our chips, just scoop them. When people buy bigger orders, we give them extra chips," he said.

The survey found the most expensive scoop of chips cost $4.60. The most expensive regions to buy chips were Auckland and Tasman.

Consumer NZ head of content Caitlin Cherry said it can be hard to know how many chips you'll get when you order a scoop, as it varied from town to town.

"We've found that small towns tended to be more generous with their chips. Not all scoops were created equal with price difference and quantities varying greatly from chip shop to chip shop," she said.

The cheapest scoops locally were Kiwi Grill and Levin Seafoods at $3.