Did You See What Else Is “Rising” In Pizzerias?
Friday, August 31st, 2007
Yes things are more expensive now than they were a few years ago. Yes oil prices are out of control which has caused gas prices to go up, up and up! Airlines are charging their customers for everything now. Starting with a snack, headphones (that you can keep), an exit row seat (yes that is more) and of course a surcharge to check your bags in at curbside.
Prices are going up everywhere! Did you know that a block of cheddar cheese a year ago was $1.17 per pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange? Do you know what it is today? Up a whopping 78% to $2.08 per pound. What exactly does that mean? Think about what types of food that use cheese. Think about what type of food has lots of cheese. For me, it’s pizza. I really like pizza. Actually I love pizza! Especially Chicago deep dish pizza.
The pizza business is a 30 billion business that might get to 31 billion with not many more customers. Why you ask? Because if cheese is going up, don’t you think that pizzerias are going to charge more for pizza? Makes sense.
In fact Pizza Hut and Papa John’s International have raised the price of their cheese-only pizzas to the same price as one-topping pizzas at company-owned stores. Papa John’s uses about 100 million pounds of cheese each year, and the cheese typically makes up 35 percent to 40 percent of the food cost in making a pizza. If 35% of the food cost is cheese and cheese costs are up 78% over the past year – logically the cost of pizza has to go up.
I put gas in my car as a necessity. I need to get around and frankly I’m too lazy to walk 12 miles to work. I jump on a plane out of convenience and because I need to be somewhere quickly–again out of necessity.
Buying pizza is a little different. Buying pizza is a choice. I love pizza, I couldn’t do without it. I think I should let Pizza Hut and others in on a little secret. Come closer…a little closer. You could raise your pizza to $35.00 a pie and I for one would still buy it! Others might say no thanks…but not me. I will continue to buy pizza and for me the rising cheese costs, which lead to higher pizza costs, might be a nice benefit – shorter lines!
- Do you love pizza?
- Would you pay anything for a pizza?
- If pizza prices went up 30%, would you stop buying it?
- What’s your favorite pizza restaurant?
I look forward to your thoughts and comments.
We get instructions for so many things. Most of the time there are announcements telling people where to go and what to do and if there aren’t announcements there are signs. Lots of signs! Now they are in multiple languages which clearly will continue in the future.
I am sure most people would say they would like to catch the eye of their CEO. Most people want to be noticed. Yes there are some people who want to fly under the radar screen but I believe more want to be noticed.
There has been a ton of discussion about steroids in baseball. Frankly a week doesn’t go by when it isn’t brought up–whether it is in the newspaper or the leading story on ESPN Sports Center.
Barry Bonds – He had solid stats in his first seven years in Pittsburgh but never hit over 34 home runs in a year. Since he left Pittsburgh he did every year except one during a twelve year stretch in San Francisco. Yes he works out in the gym a ton but he appears to have tons of mood swings not to mention his head size has gotten much bigger – YES he took steroids.
Roger Clemens – Great power pitcher! Fantastic longevity. Lot’s of CY Young’s, lots of records and perhaps the most competitive pitcher I have ever seen take the mound. Never had a lot of injuries but yes he did come to camp out of shape one year with the Red Sox. To me he is the modern day Nolan Ryan. He is that one player that comes along every 20 years that can still throw heat way into his 40’s. Steroids – I don’t believe he took steroids.
Ryan Howard – I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing Ryan play that much. He had 58 home runs last year which has to be a record for a second year player. At 6’ 4” 250+ pounds he is a monster and a great hitter. At almost a .300 hitter the best is yet to come from this young star. Steroids – No way!
Ivan Rodriguez – He started in the majors at 19 years old. He has an MVP award in 1999 and has been an All Star many times. He hit lots of home runs in Texas and looked much bigger. All of a sudden he no longer was in Texas, no longer was hitting home runs and mysteriously looks a lot smaller. I would love to know his secret because I always thought as you got older you put on more weight. In addition, he no longer hangs out with Juan Gonzalez. Sorry, TA – I think my opinion is YES to steroids.
I will admit that sometimes I don’t always listen to the same instructions if I hear them over and over again. I fly almost every week and 99% of the time I have a window exit row seat. When you sit in that row not only do you get the extra legroom that everyone on a plane craves, you get very important instructions.
For those of you who don’t know…I love animals. I love the zoo and in fact was in Florida on business years ago and actually dragged Janet Savoie to Animal Kingdom for one hour to look at a giant anteater. Yes I know that is crazy but if you are a frequent reader of the blog you already knew that.
We have an animal shelter in Texas that takes in orphan animals and once in awhile I am fortunate to get in the cage with a kangaroo. He isn’t that big and since his trainer is there it doesn’t really count.
It seems like my entire life I’ve been going to sporting events. As a youngster I went to a sports camp and always had a passion for sports. Records are part of sports, in fact a big part of sports. I am not sure you can watch an hour of ESPN without someone discussing a record or featuring someone who broke or is approaching a record.
As I said I love records! I love records when they are broken the right way! Al, you left coaching 13 years ago. If you miss the game that much, do it for an entire year…not just one game! Don’t worry…your record won’t ever be broken and 1499 games still sounds great to me.
I have so many fond memories growing up. There were always vacations at Cape Cod, plenty of visits to Fenway Park and of course hours and hours of playing games like tag, red light and hide and seek.
What a great town with grace, charm and the greatest race track in the country. I mean no disrespect to Belmont Park, Churchill Downs or Santa Anita Park, but Saratoga Race Track is the most fan-friendly racetrack in the country and is filled with so much history and beauty.