Flour, Cheese Prices Drop; Pizza Prices Remain High, May Yet Climb

Posted by Adam Kuban, November 17, 2008 at 5:00 PM

A cheap slice to stave off hunger used to be a given. That all changed earlier this year with the skyrocketing price of flour and cheese. But, but ...

Now, not only is the cost of a 50-pound bag of flour half the $36 it cost nine months ago, mozzarella cheese is down 15% from its summer high, and fuel prices, which affect nearly everything, are way down.
Yet most business owners have a million excuses for sticking with menu markups made when wholesale prices were sky high.
Here's how Sal's on Court St. in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, explains its $3 slice, on a note taped to the wall: "Due to increase in price of floor and cheese and all other items."

Our hero in this story from the Daily News is Abu Nasser of 99¢ Fresh Pizza near Grand Central:

... He knows other pizza makers charge up to three times more than he does for slices. He disapproves. "They are hurting the customers," he said.

99¢ Fresh Pizza

151 East 43rd Street, New York NY 10017 (b/n Third and Lexington avenues; map) 212-922-0257

Related: Cheap Pizza Slices in NYC

11 Comments

Tags: 99 Cent Fresh Pizza, New York Daily News, price increases

11 Comments:

Cheese is coming down in price, thank god. We were paying almost $1.90 a pound 2 months ago, it's down to about $1.60. Flour is hovering at about the same price. You can keep up with cheeser prices here: http://www.cheesereporter.com/prices.htm

Prairie at 11:46PM on 11/17/08

And, yeah, it's super shitty people aren't lowering their prices. The street goes both ways.

Prairie at 11:53PM on 11/17/08

You are all forgetting the basic lesson taught in Pizza Pricing 101. If you want the price of a slice to go down you gotta get the NYC MTA to lower the subwsy fare.

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

pauliegee at 5:57AM on 11/18/08

@Paulie: Heh. I was thinking about the subway-fare correlation as I made this post. And was thinking the same thing -- "not until the fares go down."

Adam Kuban at 8:53AM on 11/18/08

Sal's Pizza isn't worth $1 a slice, let alone $3

jakeyd at 1:22PM on 11/18/08

"The price of floor"?

Spanno at 2:15PM on 11/18/08

the subway is still only $2 but i'm sure it will catch back up soon

sloppy at 2:20PM on 11/18/08

Perhaps pizzerias will soon offer a discount for using a Metrocard.

And yes, the NYC Transit fare is going up soon.

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

pauliegee at 3:50PM on 11/18/08

"And yes, the NYC Transit fare is going up soon."

While service goes down: http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/50_less_g_servi.php

Adam Kuban at 3:53PM on 11/18/08

@Slicemeister You couldn't fix my typo???

I love the Gee train. When it was the GeeGee I used to take it to the 1964/65 World's Fair (connecting to the 7). Then to Brooklyn Tech. Yeah, I'm that old.

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

pauliegee at 8:01PM on 11/18/08

@Paulie: Fixed. Now nobody will know what we're talking about here. ;)

Adam Kuban at 8:11PM on 11/18/08

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