Hot chip lovers in New Plymouth may be feeling a little smug as they carry their parcels of golden goodies home this week.
The city came out on top in Fair Go’s inaugural, viewer-driven and entirely trust-based survey of best value for money at the local chippy.
Viewer Sue sent a picture from Taranaki that looked a little light, but she assures Fair Go she purchased a kilo of chips for $3 at her local.
That’s 333g for a dollar – nearly double the next best effort. Gillian paid $3.50 for 632g from One Tree Hill in Auckland - a unit price of 180g per dollar.
Bronze went to a Kerikeri chip shop owner Rob, who self-reported his $4 portions of 700g - a unit price of 175g per dollar.
Yep, Fair Go got nerdy on the numbers because we had to - there is no standard price for a scoop and very few adhere to the voluntary standard scoop size of 330g.
Is it time Aotearoa got a standardised scoop of the yummy starchy goodness?
Scoops sampled around Christchurch ranged from 400g to half a kilo, but the prices also varied. What was constant was that all wound up selling about 132g of chips per dollar charged.
Compare that with four chip shops Fair Go tried in Auckland’s pricy eastern city bays - they ranged from 100g for a dollar down to 75g for a buck.
The badge for consumer reporting goes to the Venturers at Cockle Bay Scout Group, who set out to find some answers locally in Howick.
“The intrepid Venturers busted three local chippies, and having purchased a scoop of chips from each one, they weighed them, recorded the price and then conducted a 'quality control' test,” says leader Steve.
They found unit prices ranged from 152g down to 108g per dollar charged – and the best value also scored top marks in the highly subjective taste tests.
Fair Go has decided not to name and shame any of the shops involved but urges chip lovers to consume with much greater awareness of the value of their fries. And always in moderation.
SHARE ME