A box of fish and chips on the South Coast is a holiday classic for Canberrans, however chip portions are likely to shrink, as local shops are struggling to keep up with demand due to a potato shortage.
Manager of 3 Fish at Bateman's Bay, Jack Puth, said most suppliers he relies on "don't have any more chips", making this summer period extremely stressful.
"At the moment we still pass by, we still have some chips but I don't know what I'm going to do in the next couple of days," he said.
"I will last maybe one more day today and hopefully something tomorrow coming up but we just tried to use a different chip."
Gluten free chips are popular for shops, as Mr Puth said they are higher quality and more customers can eat them, however he is now resorting to buying "cheap" chips.
"It's all affecting everyone but to be honest I'm going to be really down ... because not yet but I know we're going to be disappointed."
Down South in Narooma, Kylie McGill manages Blue Water Seafoods and has also struggled with the shortage, finding it extremely stressful in the first restriction free summer.
"The caravan park across the road is chokers, there's 5000 people in there, so we're going through I'd say probably 20 boxes [of chips] at a lunch time and probably 20 boxes at a dinner," she said.
"That's 40 boxes of chips when we usually only order 40 a week, like it's crazy."
Ms McGill has been told by suppliers they are "on winter allocation" of chips, meaning the amount she can order is half of what is normal during the summer period.
"I'm running low, so I'm ringing around all our suppliers and I feel sorry for them because they just have none," Ms McGill said.
"We only got 15 boxes today when I usually get 30."
The floods are a big reason for the potato shortage, as farmers in Victoria, NSW and Queensland have yielded about half their usual crops.
Last week, Coles imposed a limit on the sale of frozen potato chips on due to the nationwide supply shortage, limiting customers to two items.
A Coles spokesperson said it would be several weeks before stocks were normalised.
"Poor weather in the eastern states has affected supply of some frozen potato products across the industry," the spokesperson said.
"We thank customers for their patience while we work hard with suppliers to minimise disruption and return stock to normal levels in the coming months."
Manager of Mollymook Beach Hut Cafe, Maria Teresa, said she was very prepared for this to happen after struggling with a chip shortage previously.
"Before November, I was ordering ready for summer, I just buy pallets, I put them in the warehouse and then I'm not worried now," she said.
"It's hard if you're going to run out of chips and you don't know where you're going and that's why I'm ready for it because it already happened [for me] two years ago," she said.
At Shellharbour Village fish shop Santorini by the Sea, owner Burak Ozturk is clever enough to have a range of options, unlike the supermarkets who usually rely on two major companies.
He said potato scallop supplies had been disrupted at one stage, but the chips were good to go.
"I've got about three or four different suppliers, so if one of them doesn't have it I try and go to another one, bounce around," Mr Ozturk said.
"It's not the same pricing ... but you do what you have to do to get through it.
"I wouldn't be able to open the doors [without chips] - I can't sit there and cut potatoes myself."
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