Have chippies gone down hill over the years?

Yes same principal as the fish really, We have been having very long very hot summers interspersed with extremely wet periods which basically screw over potato growth, So spuds come out in both smaller crops and the spuds themselves are also a lot smaller which then obviously effect the price of spuds, Cooking oil prices have also gone up massively over the last few years, due to many factors, but again the weather is playing a large part in messing with oilseed crops, the Russia Ukraine war also not helping due to the fact they were both massive producers of cooking oil and of course before that there was all the supply issues caused by covid. Add that to utility bills going through the roof, electric, gas and water. Drive, get a taxi get a bus whichever applies to you and go and buy a bag of spuds and a bottle of cooking oil from a supermarket and i bet just getting that far costs you more than £3.50, and that is before you have taken the spuds home, prepared the spuds washed the spuds in water, cooked them spuds using gas or electric that same portion of chips is going to cost you at least a fiver but probably closer to a tenner plus your time and effort. Now obviously you do not pay yourself for that time and effort but your chippy has to also pay someone's wages, buy boxes to put your food in, provide you with little wooden forks, salt and vinegar. I think if all you are paying is £3.50 for your chips your doing pretty well.