Quote:
https://www.ocregister.com/2022/05/18/chicken-wings-for-34-pent-up-inflation-driving-food-costs-higher/
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.
