Young people are no longer visiting their local chip shops as they’re “completely hooked on technology”, complained a Leeds fish and chip shop owner.
Craig Fisher is “sad” he sees less young people visiting his chippy and other takeaways.
The 56-year-old grandfather has been running Frying Machine in Selby Road, Halton, for more than 30 years, taking over the shop from his late father Raymond.
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Craig has heard just about “every joke going” about his last name Fisher in that time, he said with a smile.
But he is "sad" that he doesn’t see young people visiting his shop any longer with more delivery drivers in takeaways than customers.
Craig said: “People have changed – not just with lockdown, even before. My children are in their 20s and they never visit a takeaway. They’ll get a takeaway but it will all go through their phones.
“It does make me sad in one sense. I like to talk to people, my girls like to talk to people. They like to see people face to face. A lot of your older customers are like that as well.
“But it’s younger people now, it’s technology. They go home and they don’t think to go back out to the fish shop or get in the car. They’ll get on their phone and order it on their phone.
“They’re completely hooked on technology.”
Craig, who has three children and two grandchildren, currently employs eight staff members at the Frying Machine.
Shop assistant Sarah Pickering added that it was “laziness” on the part of young people who use their phones to order rather than visiting the shop in person.
Craig has had to “adapt” the way he operates in line with modern technology just to keep up with the competition. There is no longer room for a chippy to remain purely traditional.
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He said: “We’re changing. We appreciate now there is so much competition. Everywhere is doing deliveries, there’s now apps for things.
"More and more we’re adopting and changing how we operate.”
He says they’re now also packaging their food in biodegradable boxes to be greener and has been putting more money into advertising.
He’s aiming to get a proper delivery service up and running within the next 12 months.
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