The Next Anticipated Shortage: Pepperoni

If you like pizza with pepperoni on it, you might want to get one today.  There's a theory that pepperoni might be our next big shortage.

How many times have you said, "I wish I would have known that (this item) was going to be the next thing that would be in short supply...I would have gotten more when I saw it in the store"?  Well...here's the heads up.

It looks like pepperoni might be in short supply soon.

What??  How could we be in short supply of pepperoni?

Two reasons:

1.  There are fewer people working to process the pork.  According to a report from Bloomberg, the reduced number of people in the meat plants are making it difficult to keep up the supply.

2.  The demand is higher being that people are at home a lot now.  People are ordering out a lot to support small businesses and to avoid having to make meals themselves.

So when supply goes down, and demand goes up...so do prices.

Pizza shops in cities from New York to South Dakota are already saying that prices have gone up almost 50% since the pandemic began.

"At Charlie’s Pizza House in Yankton, South Dakota, manager Nick Johnson has seen prices steadily increase from $2.87 a pound in January 2019 to $4.12 now. At New York City’s Emily, chef and co-owner Matthew Hyland is paying $6 a pound, up from $4 earlier this year." - Bloomberg

One thing to note however, is that the bigger restaurants like Domino's, Papa John's, and Pizza Hut negotiate prices on a yearly basis so the prices do not normally change for them as much throughout the year.