Better Grab Cheap Chicken Wings While You Can
Chicken wing prices lower than they've been in years.
As you've all heard over and over again, the ongoing pandemic has wreaked havoc on the supply chain, resulting in higher prices on grocery staples—and one item that's been hit particularly hard by those issues is chicken wings. Over the past two years, we've seen wing shortages, spikes in chicken wing demand, and even unique replacements for chicken wings when the latter were nowhere to be found. But there's some good news, for the moment at least: chicken wing prices are lower now than they were prior to the pandemic.
NBC News reports that the wholesale price for a pound of chicken wings in July was $1.68, and will be even lower in the month of August. How nice! Nice news is refreshing, isn't it? Well, not so fast.
It's mid-August as we write this, which means we're inching closer to fall, and sports season is ramping up again. There's no better pairing than game day and finger food—and that means wing prices are likely to shoot back up at some point in the near future. If you're hoping to go to town on some newly affordable Buffalo wings, which are extremely easy to make at home (along with some blue cheese dressing), you might want to get your fill now before they break the bank again.
The reason for the current price decrease is simply because of the decrease in overall wing demand. Since we were mainly cooped up (pun intended) at home early in the pandemic, people turned to comfort food like chicken wings to help ease their anxiety—I know I did—and entire ghost kitchens rose seemingly overnight to feed that craving (including Cosmic Wings, which is really just Applebee's in disguise). But that increase in demand coupled with the combination of COVID-related production disruptions meant higher costs and smaller orders, and when the football season spikes demand again this year, there will be inflation-related cost increases to consider, too.
For now, if you see the price of chicken wings at a new low, treat yourself to a few while you can. As soon as the pigskin starts flying across your TV screen again, you'll know that you at least got a deal while it lasted.