Super Bowl XLIII is less than a week away, but this year, lovers of the chicken wing — game day's unofficial snack — will be enjoying their poultry on a wing and a prayer. Since few Super Bowl parties are without chicken wings, consumer demand, as it generally is during football season, is sky-high. Unfortunately, the supply for chicken wings is way down. Major wing supplier Pilgrim's Pride of Pittsburgh, TX, recently filed Chapter 11 company reorganization. As a result, the price of wings is soaring nationwide, and in some cases, up to 30 percent in the past three months.
Consumers, restaurants, and distributors are handling the crisis in different ways. Some are setting aside vast quantities of wings for the big game. Other restaurants, feeling the pinch, have doubled the prices of wings on their menu.
In turn, customers, like the wing lovers of Buffalo, NY, the birthplace of the spicy chicken wing, are so fed up with astronomical prices that they've called for a wing boycott. This year I'll be serving buffalo chicken fingers or buffalo chicken cheese dip instead of wings.
Have you noticed an increase in price? Would you be willing to pay more simply to have chicken wings at your Super Bowl celebration?
