New York City famous $1 pizza slices are going the way of the dinosaurs, thanks to inflation.
The average price for a slice, not only in the Big Apple but across the United States, has lurched upward with the country’s soaring inflation. From 2019, before the pandemic, to today, the average cost of a slice of cheese pizza has gone up by more than 10.5% in New York City and 13% nationally, according to data collected by the pizza ordering platform Slice.
Abe Nasrallah, head of restaurant transformation at Slice, told the Washington Examiner that the average price of a New York City slice is now $3.14, a 4.14% increase from last year. Nationally, a slice of cheese pizza averages $3.21. The “dollar slice” stores that once were abundant in New York are fading away.
“There are still a very select few places in New York that sell dollar slices. Most of them have increased in some way, shape, or form. Most of your dollar slices have gone up to $1.50,” he said.
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Consumer prices have risen by a mammoth 7.9% for the 12 months ending in February. The price for food away from home increased by 6.8%. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs increased 13% over the last year, and beef rose by 16.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Salvador Khadra is the director of operations for Pizza Boli’s, a Maryland-based franchise company that dishes out pizza, pasta, subs, and wings at its dozens of locations in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.
Khadra told the Washington Examiner that ingredient prices for his company’s pizzas have been through the roof because of inflation.
“We’ve seen more [price] increases this year. Between January and February, we’ve seen a lot of increase,” he said. “And, unfortunately, we don’t see anything coming down soon.”
He said the company had to revise its prices last year in light of the mounting inflation, and certain individual stores, especially those in Washington and its suburbs, had to hike prices even more than what Pizza Boli’s suggested companywide.
Those higher prices are being noticed and felt by consumers, who are already grappling with higher prices for other goods and services across the board.
Collin Zucker lives in New York City’s East Village neighborhood and is into the city’s food scene. He said he has noticed the food prices at his local pizza places climb as of late.
“Recently, the price of what is known as the ‘dollar slice’ increased from a dollar to $1.50, so when you’re talking about a 50% price change, that sort of caught my eye,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Zucker, who is in his 20s, said that around the area he lives, it seemed like it took just a few days for many of the stores to increase their prices “in lockstep.” Despite the price hikes, Zucker said that with COVID-19 waning, he noticed longer lines at the shops, especially for those looking to grab a slice after a late night out.
Nasrallah said that many pizzerias tend to move in tandem with prices. He said that, at least in New York, some of the more popular shops are seen as sort of leaders in the pizza world, and when their prices go up, so do those of their competitors.
“When they move, there is kind of this first mover’s effect, and so people begin to follow suit a little bit,” he said, adding that the commoditization of the input ingredients also causes prices to move as well.
“Pizzerias look to each other, specifically independent pizzerias,” he explained.
The pandemic also played a big role in the successes and failures of pizzerias. Nasrallah said that during the height of the health crisis, when offices were locked down and people were staying inside, shops that sold individual slices and relied on foot traffic ran into serious financial hurdles, while larger chains and those that were geared for delivery saw a boom in sales.
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COVID-19 has rapidly declined since mid-January, when new cases peaked at about 800,000 per day. New cases are now averaging less than 29,000 per day, a 1% decrease from two weeks ago. Hospitalizations and deaths have also declined by 27% and 40%, respectively, during that same time period.
Those factors bode well for consumer demand, and with that demand comes more competition. Khadra said that Pizza Boli’s sales have dipped down a bit as more restaurants reopen, new ones form, and customers have more options for pizza.
