Chicken wings are just as synonymous here in the United States as the Super Bowl. They are a food that has been cooked and served in so many different ways and have made people travel far and wide to find the best ones they can.
While delicious chicken is something many people can agree on, the price for eating them is not. Falcon Pizza in Hamden Connecticut is a popular place for late night pizza, sandwiches, and of course chicken wings. https://www.falconpizza.com/
However, with prices skyrocketing and college students not wanting to pay these inflated prices, the chicken wing sales have gone down.
“A few years ago, you could buy a dozen chicken wings here for about $14. Now, just ten of them cost you almost $16. It’s a shame cause we have some of the best ones around too, but I think the students just don’t want to adapt to these high prices” said Dawn an employee of Falcon Pizza.
She’s been working there since before the pandemic hit and she has noticed quite the difference in how inflation has affected the business. Especially their chicken.
“We’ve been dealing with it, just like everyone else has had to. No one has liked inflation, least of all us, but it’s just something we have to put up with. For example our oil has gone up, so we’re paying over double what we used to- and it was even worse before. So we have to take that into account. Chicken has gone up,especially the wings of the chicken. So just put those two right there. If you wanted to order a dozen chicken wings, you’re going to have to pay more, because the chicken and the oil have both gone up. Those are two pretty important ingredients for chicken wings. So that’s been tough” Dawn said.
Chicken wing prices have been up across the country and white meat specifically has remained high, while dark meat chicken, such as legs and thighs have had lower prices.
“We obviously get more business when classes are in session, ” Dawn explained, “but I do feel like we see less and less students actually in here.
Back before inflation and the pandemic we would always have students coming in here late at night to get pizza or sandwiches after going out. Now, we don’t usually see too many people in here, it’s mostly deliveries.” I think overall we still stay relatively busy, and we certainly still do a lot of deliveries, however, I think we see less people than we once did” said Dawn.
Finance professor at Quinnipiac, Osman Kilic had several thoughts on inflation as a whole, as well as the ways inflation has affected restaurants. He believes that it has definitely affected restaurants and not for the better.
“Inflation has affected restaurants through increases in commodity food prices and labor cost have been causing restaurants to increase their prices which sooner or later will affect demand and profit margin” Kelic said. He believes that “Increasing in commodity prices that is somewhat related to distribution in global supply chain.” is the number one contributing factor for inflation.
Kelic also mentioned how restaurants would have to try and find all different kinds of ways to try and cut their costs. He mentioned that these restaurants “have no choice but to be creative” in terms of finding ways to cut their costs.
Even though pricing has gone down on many things, that doesn’t mean that prices aren’t still higher than they were, not to mention the risk of inflation rising yet again. “April data will show that inflation is persistently high even though FED has raised interest rates to 4-75-5%” Kelic said. Kelic fully recognizes the effects inflation has had on these restaurants and how much of a challenge it has been for them.
Graph from TradingEconomic.com
This is a graph showing what inflation was like for most of 2022 and into the beginning of 2023. And while it has certainly dropped, people are still feeling the effect. The “X” axis represents each month, with the “Y axis” representing the inflation rate in percentage.
Down the street from Falcon’s there’s another pizza place, Tonino’s pizzeria. https://toninospizzahamden.com/ Owner Jay Gino discussed how he has handled inflation.
“We never changed our prices” Gino said, “Even though our profit margins shrank we never changed the prices on the menu” he said.
Gino felt it was important to try and keep menu items at the same price as they had been before, due to the fact that not many other places were doing the same. He felt like by doing this, it would give customers the same feeling that they always had, coming into his store.
“You see a dozen eggs, chicken, oil, all these [things] going up in price, and it’s been tough for everyone. And we use chicken for a lot of things here. Chicken wings, we put it on pizza, on pasta dishes. People love chicken. So we can’t stop selling it or take it off the menu” said Gino.
He noted that business has still been good and that he is appreciative for everyone who has helped his business run.
“We love how we get our usual customers, who come in here all the time and it’s been great to be able to consistently see their faces. And on top of that we are getting loads of new customers as well. I feel like we have had a nice balance with that. That our old customers still want to come back and that there are always new people wanting to give us a try” Gino said.
While pizza places are synonymous with college students, Fresh Greens & Proteins Hamden is a young business that has been attracting lots of customers. https://www.freshgphamden.com/ Fresh Greens & Proteins Hamden first started in 2020, just before the pandemic hit. Manager AJ Cooney talked about how hard that is for a young business, nevermind having to follow that up with inflation. He also spoke about the struggles his store has had with inflation.
“It’s obviously hard, as it is for everyone” Cooney explains, “But what people don’t realize is that it’s not just food that is going up, minimum wage went up as well. So on top of chicken, which we go through fast here, we had to start paying our employees more as well, in addition to business not being normal” Cooney said.
While it may not have been “normal business,” Cooney explains that they still do well and see many faces everyday, both old and new.
“I think it’s great that everyday we see people who come in all the time along with faces we haven’t seen before. We haven’t changed the menu at all, and we would never want to stop selling any of our fan favorite items.” explained Cooney.
He feels like customers would become accustomed to a change of menu prices.
“We’re still a very young business and I actually think that that helps us. We get a lot of students from Quinnipiac, but we also do pretty well in the summer months, even without classes in session. I think we are going to be ok, because people really like it here” said Cooney.
With these restaurants struggling and needing to find ways to become creative, coffee shops were no different. One World Roasters is a small coffee shop in East Haven owned by Christine Ucich. https://www.oneworldroasters.com/#/ Although inflation has affected her shop, she hasn’t let it get in the way of how she has always run her business.
“We haven’t raised our prices yet, but we plan to be doing that very soon. We know that customers appreciate our low prices and we never wanted to change that. You could buy a hot coffee and a muffin for example, and it still might be less than some of the coffees they sell at these other stores” Ucich said.
According to Ucich, this was an important thing for her customers and that they were appreciative of the prices staying the same.
“Our customers really value our prices and I think that is a big reason why people come here, well that and the taste.” With rising prices, our profit margin has shrunk, however, we have managed to get by and we aren’t too worried about it. I mean, it’s been tough for everyone you know? No one likes inflation, least of all us restaurant owners” Ucich said.
While some restaurants who pay minimum wage to their customers have had to see that rise as well, that is not the case at One World Roasters. Uchich explained that several Quinnipiac students have picked up part time jobs, during the fall and spring semesters.
“We actually pay more than minimum wage here” Ucich said, “We start out a little over minimum wage and increase pay depending on how long they’ve worked here. So no, the rise of minimum wage hasn’t hurt us, but inflation of course hurts when you have to make sure you’re keeping your employees happy.”
While chicken wings have gone up in value at Falcon pizza, they make sure that the taste is just as good as it always was.
“We understand inflation is so tough for everyone, so we always want to make sure that the taste matches the price. We know people are probably annoyed that the prices have gone up the amount they have but we always want to do everything we can to make the experience the best it can be” said Dawn.