by AC
Chicken wings for $34? Pent-up inflation driving food costs higher
Consumer prices for food rose 9.4% in April compared with a year earlier, the biggest gain since 1981.
www.ocregister.com/2022/05/18/chicken-wings-for-34-pent-up-inflation-driving-food-costs-higher/
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With a gallon of milk up about 25% since before the pandemic, and retail bacon 35% higher, it’s hard to imagine how US food inflation could get any worse. But evidence suggests that even higher prices are on the horizon.
Consumers have actually been shielded so far from the full brunt of soaring expenses that are facing producers, distributors and small businesses like restaurants. But they can only hold back for so much longer.
Take the case of Jeff Good, who co-founded three restaurants in Jackson, Mississippi. Around 18 months ago, a 40-pound box of chicken wings cost him about $85. Now, it can go as high as roughly $150. Expenses for cooking oil and flour have nearly doubled in the past five months, he said. But it’s not just ingredient prices going up. He’s paying more for labor and services, too. Even the company that maintains his air conditioners has tacked on a $40 fuel charge per visit. To cope, he’s raised menu prices.
A 15-piece order of chicken wings, a signature dish at his Sal and Mookie’s pizzeria, went for $13.95 before Covid hit. Now, wing costs can vary so much they’re labeled at “market price,” like some restaurants do with lobster. At peaks, the menu price can be be about $27.95 — but that represents a barely-there margin — and Good estimates the “real cost” is closer to about $34. He’s trying to decide whether to keep raising prices or take wings off the menu.
“We have never, ever seen anything like what we’re seeing right now,” said Good, who opened his restaurants nearly 30 years ago.
Keep in mind the above article is referrering to a restaurteur from the south – in Mississipi mind you – where chicken grow operations are like f*cking everywhere
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I’ve stopped eating at all restaurants since late last year.
Okay, fine I did take out last week from Popeye’s for a 20-piece bone-in meal for $24.00 (used to be $20.00 before) because I was so hungry…
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I only purchase muh family’s food from:
1. Weekly Loss-Leaders from big chain grocers
2. Restaurant Supply Stores like Cash & Carry (where restaurants buy their shit)
3. Costco/Sam’s
4. Online grocery delivery apps for first time sign-up offer deals only – nothing further afterwards
5. Food Bank
6. Grow your own
7. If none of the above works, LOOT!
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I’ve been eating like a king since.
Learn to cook and learn to double fry your pommes frite!!!
AC