New Yorkers grapple with 24% increase in breakfast ingredients
You can’t make an omelet without breaking the bank.
The most important meal of the day has become one of the most expensive — as prices for normal breakfast items such as eggs, butter, milk, coffee and bacon have soared a combined 24% over the cost last year, according to new government data.
The breakfast price bulge is making it hard for New Yorkers to feel the effect of a small decrease in inflation announced Tuesday — and its leaving local consumers sizzling mad.
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to buy. Everything is so expensive,” said Valerie Barkley, 71, of Fort Greene, as she shopped for groceries Tuesday in Brooklyn.
“It affects me but what am I going to do? You can’t do anything.”
At the Stop and Shop were Barkely was shopping, the price ranged from $4.49 to $8.29 for a dozen eggs — which, nationally, are 49% more expensive than they were last year, according to the latest figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.
Barkley’s stomach was also churning over the price of butter, which is up 34% nationwide compared to last year, according to the new government statistics.
“Over here, this brand [of butter] used to be $3.95. I don’t understand what happened. It’s terrible. They’ve gone crazy,” she said.
At Harlem’s Food Universe, a 60-year-old woman named Marie said the price hikes have been so bad that she had to cut back on home utilities in order to afford groceries.
“I sit at home, don’t put on my heat, I put on extra clothing, sit in the dark, things that don’t need to be plugged in aren’t plugged in,” she said.
“For breakfast say I was going to buy French toast, eggs and ham, that used to be like $7, it’s now almost $20.”
On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Harlem residents Deneshia McIntosh, 38, and her friend Marsha Robinson, 36, were shopping at Trader Joe’s and comparing prices.
“There were things that we wanted to buy today that we put back because the price was just outrageous, specifically eggs,” McIntosh said.
“I was at another store in Yonkers the other day and the price of a medium dozen of white eggs was $5.69 cents. For white eggs. Not even brown.”
Yvonne Daley, a 60-year-old Crown Heights retired legal secretary, told The Post she had been cutting corners as she scoured the shelves at Stop and Shop.
“I cut out the bacon. I used to get salmon sliced that I eat with my bagel, I don’t do that anymore,” Daley said.
“Fish I don’t eat. It’s super expensive. I love salmon. It’s good fat for your body but I can’t afford it so I don’t buy it.”
As the price of ingredients soared, New Yorkers who start their day with the classic city breakfast of a bodega bacon, egg and cheese sandwich were also feeling the pain.
Three delis in Fort Greene were all charging $5 for a BEC on a roll, a noticeable increase from the $3 and change the sandwiches used to cost until recently.
Employees at Roll & X Deli & Grill on Fulton Street said they raised the price again two months ago.
“Before it was $4. Now it’s $5. Bacon went up, eggs went up and the cheese went up,” said Eddie, a deli worker.
The deli once paid $48 for 30 dozen boxes of eggs. Now they pay $110, which he said was the “lowest [price] you find right now.”
A cup of Joe to wash down breakfast was also putting a dent in New Yorker’s pockets. One pound of ground roast coffee was $4.82 a year ago compared to $6.36 today, and bodega owners had no choice but to pass on the increase to customers.
“They always complain,” Eddie said of his customers. “Even if you raise it by 50 cents, the customer always complain.”
The complaints came as investors celebrated a slowed rate of inflation Tuesday, which had increased by only 0.1% last month, according to the Consumer Price Index.
Prices across the board were up 7.1% compared to the same month one year ago, but the increase was less than the 7.3% gain that economists were expected.
Jacob Channel, a Senior Economist at LendingTree, explained that a myriad of factors were affecting the cost of breakfast, including lingering supply chain issues, bad weather in places that are producing the food, and the war in Ukraine, which is one of the world’s major grain producers.
Another potential issue was corporate greed and opportunism, the economist told The Post over the phone Tuesday, confirming Marie from Harlem’s suspicions.
“Food companies are also reporting record profits, and I think there is maybe some argument to be made that they’re probably raising prices a little bit more than what they need to, just because consumers have shown that they’re willing to accept these price increases,” said Channel, 28.
However there was reason to hope that New Yorkers could some bring home more bacon to the breakfast table.
“I think that there is hope for things to turn around,” Channel added.
“As the overall inflation picture starts to come down, I think we’ll start seeing people being less likely to, you know, put up with significant price increases.
“And certainly demand is already falling across the board, in part because of what the Federal Reserve is doing in raising interest rates.”
Inflation was already down from it’s 9.1% June peak, and President Biden celebrated the two point decline Tuesday, while warning that a return to normal rates of around 2% was “going to take time” and that there may be “setbacks along the way.”
Opera singer Roberto DiPelesi, 69, sang an optimistic tune as he stocked up on groceries at Trader Joes on the Upper West Side.
“I love to cook because I come from a family of chefs so I do prepare everything myself. And I don’t buy processed things in general. So that of course is less expensive than buying prepared meals but it’s definitely gone up. But it’s been going up, not just recently, it’s been going up for the past five, six years,” DiPelesi said.
“Whatever we’re experiencing here in this country it’s much worse in other places and people most likely making much less money,” he continued.
“I think it will level off at some point but it’s going to take time.”
