Panel Of 22 Monitored Delis Shows 21 Per Cent Jump Since 2022, Cream Cheese Portion Has Not Shrunk, Which Is The Only Good News
Reported for Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat, whose food-economics desk has never been accused of being under-lunched.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A standard everything bagel with lox spread at a panel of 22 monitored Brooklyn delis now averages 17 dollars, up 21 per cent since January 2022, according to a working paper released Monday by the Brooklyn Heights Institute for Urban Economics. The paper’s lead author, Dr. Leonid Tartakoff-Klein, argues that the bagel is “the last honest price in New York City”, and has proposed a Bagel Index as a superior leading indicator to the yield curve.
Why Bagel
The bagel is a five-ingredient, regionally sourced, heat-and-assembly product with a stable specification, high frequency of purchase across class brackets, and a consumer base that has been publicly eating bagels in New York for over a century. It is therefore, per Dr. Tartakoff-Klein, “structurally resistant to branding manipulation”, which distinguishes it from coffee, sandwiches, and most restaurant meals.
“The bagel does not benefit from mystique,” Dr. Tartakoff-Klein said. “The bagel is a roll. The lox is fish. The cream cheese is cream cheese. There is nowhere for the price to hide. When it rises, it rises because the underlying costs rose, and the consumer feels it in the hand.”
A Deli Owner Weighs In
Mr. Herschel Kostiak, 62, owner of a deli on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope that has been in the family since 1961, confirmed the 21 per cent figure and attributed it to lox, labour, and flour in that order. “The cream cheese, God bless, is still cream cheese. We have not reduced it. We will never reduce it. Do not write that we might reduce it.”
A Comparison
The Bagel Index tracks approximately one month ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics food-away-from-home series, per the Institute’s back-testing. This is consistent with The London Prat’s cereal cafe piece, in which a small breakfast purchase turns out to be a better economic gauge than most published numbers.
The Mayor’s Office Responds
A spokesperson for Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the administration was “aware of food price pressures” and was “committed to affordability”. The spokesperson did not confirm or deny that a senior aide had asked the Institute for its raw data last week. The Institute confirmed the request. The spokesperson did not return a follow-up call.
The Index Continues
The Institute plans to expand the panel to Queens and the Bronx, and to track a separate “Everything Only” subindex for riders who refuse, on principle, to order lox.
For more: The Daily Mash. SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/