Jacket potatoes are having a moment in Sheffield, but instead of feeling defeated by the recent opening of a viral baked potato chain, a long standing Moor market trader is grateful for “a shed load of free advertising”.
The TikTok-famous SpudBros opened on the 12 November at 1pm to queues of 400 people, lasting almost 24 hours, according to the BBC.
But customers took to social media to celebrate a much more established jacket potato trader.
Nick Shepherd, 57, has run The Humble Spud in the Moor Market for 33 years.
He said: “I’m really happy they’ve opened in Sheffield cos it’s given me a shed load of free advertising.”
He posted on Facebook that he would be open an extra day in the lead up to Christmas to Facebook and instead of receiving his usual ‘seen by 600 people’, this post reached 99,000, leading The Humble Spud to live up to its name.
Mr Shepherd said: “It’s really humbling if I’m honest, straight away I looked at the comments, because they said ‘which one would you go for?’
“I kept scrolling down and pretty much every one said The Humble Spud.
“I know I provide a good service, we wouldn’t be here as long as we have done if we didn’t, we’re still serving people today that I was serving back then.
“People used to come here with their parents and now they’re coming here and bringing their children, you know you’re doing something right but then to see it, it really brings it home.”
It is a 10 minute walk across the city centre to SpudBros on Fargate, but Mr Shepherd wishes they had opened in The Moor.
He said: “All their customers would see me and think, you know what, he’s half the price.”
The Humble Spud serves oven cooked potatoes with traditional fillings like beans, cheese, tuna, coleslaw and cottage cheese and charges between £2.70 and £5.20 for a spud, whereas the SpudBros menu ranges from £5 to £10.50.
He said: “I’ve seen in the media SpudBros saying they’re doing ‘unique fillings’ like cheese and tuna and I’m thinking we’ve been doing cheese and tuna for three decades!”
