In just nine days, two things are set to go down at Super Bowl XLIX. Almost everyone in attendance in Glendale, Arizona and watching at home will scornfully watch as the New England Patriots take the field, and they’ll all be eating chicken wings during said scorning. The thing is, everyone will have to cough up some extra cash for those wings:
…the number of actual chickens slaughtered last year fell, causing a drop of about 50 million wings, government data show. That smaller supply is what’s triggering the pricey part of the equation. The cost of wholesale wings sold by processors in Georgia, which sets the benchmark for the nation, has surged 8.2 percent this month to $1.715 a pound, the biggest jump to start a year since 2012. (Via Bloomberg)
Whether human gluttony, lofty PETA protesters, or poultry’s equivalent to “Roe v. Wade” are to blame, these government-funded numbers don’t lie. We’re just not killing enough chickens to get all the chicken wings we want in time for the Super Bowl. Plus, good ol’ fashioned supply and demand are making it worse:
An increase in restaurants serving wings is also supporting prices. The number of U.S. chicken-wing franchises grew 7 percent to more than 2,000 restaurants in the five years through 2013, according to Arlington, Virginia-based franchise researcher FRANdata. Demand for the meat is also rising as pizza chains including Pizza Hut and Little Caesar’s serve wings, Technomic’s Tristano said. (Via Bloomberg)
Fewer, pricier chicken wings should make everyone reading this sad. In fact, you should all be crying Buffalo sauce-flavored tears of sadness right now.
(Via Bloomberg)
