Cheap Eats Get a Little Less Cheap

Here’s a true sign of our stagflatastic
times: Despite the fact that the country is slipping into a bona fide recession, the “Recession Special” at Gray’s Papaya in New York is going up in price.

This news is just the tip of a food-cost iceberg. According to a well-researched piece by MSNBC, pizza, hot dogs, bagels, and beer are all going up in cost.

Some of the grim stats:

• Pizza makers have seen their cheese costs soar this year from $1.30 a pound to $1.76 a pound. Even worse, the flour used to make the dough has gone from $3-$7 dollars a bushel to $25 a bushel in less than a year.

• Beer makers have been forced to raise their prices because of
the skyrocketing price of hops — one of the principal ingredients. The price of hops has gone from about $4 a pound in September to $40 a pound. The price of barley, beer’s other main ingredient, has nearly doubled.

MSNBC also says, “Overall, retail food prices rose 4 percent last year — the biggest jump in 17 years.”

How can we cope with the surging rise in prices? Well, just ask the jokesters over at MSNBC: “Makes you want to cry in your beer … if you can afford it.”

Ha!