20p chip day brings young customers back to the counter

A Birmingham fish and chip shop slashed the price of a portion of chips to just 20p in a bid to reconnect with the younger generation.

Hot Spot in Billesley, Birmingham, dropped the price of a cone of chips from £1.50 to 20p for one afternoon last month, giving schoolchildren a taste of 1980s pricing.

The one-day promotion was the idea of owner Nassar Iqbal, better known locally as Uncle Nas, who has run the shop for nearly 22 years. It was available from 3-5pm to anyone in school uniform.

Nassar commented: “It started with a TikTok video showing people how back in the days, we used to eat a bag of chips by opening the pack from the top and they would cost 20p. A lot of the interaction coming back on the comments were saying, ‘This man is not for real, chips could never be 20p’.”

After the video went viral, Nassar decided to turn the nostalgia into a one-off deal. “Being January and being quiet, I thought, you know what, let’s bring that 20p day back for a couple of hours after school. Let’s give the youngsters that little joy.”

The response exceeded anything the business had seen before, with Nassar estimating the shop served around 1,000 portions of 20p chips. In videos posted on social media, Nassar can be seen shaking hands with and chatting to the large queue of customers. He commented: “I never expected it to be that busy. Honestly, it was just mad. What I normally do my whole day with potatoes, I did in about two and a half hours.”

The news quickly spread beyond social media, attracting mainstream press and broadcast coverage. “The local newspapers started covering it and then the big companies. It was all over the media – The Sun, The Sunday Mercury,” said Nassar.

Nassar believes the stunt struck a nerve because the fish and chip trade is struggling to stay relevant with younger customers.

“The main problem is the price of fish and chips. Potatoes, fish, oil – everything has skyrocketed,” he said. “Fish and chip shops are going out of fashion. The youngsters are all going into smashed burgers, fancy shakes, ice creams and desserts. Fish and chips is like an old man’s food. It’s not trendy anymore to go to a chip shop.

“I wanted to do something just to get fish and chip shops on the map and make it trendy again, so someone says, ‘Oh, guess what, I’m going to the chippy.’ And it’s worked, the youngsters are coming back.”

The day also revived another tradition – serving chips in cones. “People in Birmingham, they’ve stopped selling cones,” said Nassar. “I stopped selling cones because everyone wants their chips wrapped, but because I’ve started all this again, people want chips in a cone at the moment.”