Once seen as a less desirable cut compared to the chicken breast, chicken wings are now getting out-of-control expensive, according to a Washington Post report that should frighten Americans into stockpiling 20-pound bags of party wings in their panic room. The Post explains how the price of chicken wings is, according to one meat wholesaler, at an all-time high. It’s gotten so pricey that Buffalo Wild Wings saw its second quarter profits this year plummet 63 percent. In response, the chain switched their half-priced wings special on Tuesday to a boneless wing promotion, which is bullshit since boneless wings are just breast meat shaped into a vaguely wing-like shape.
The explanation to the cost increase is simple supply/demand theory: more people are eating wings now. Wings are no longer just a sports bar food, the popularity of Korean wings are on the upswing (see: BonChon), and even pizza chains are making chicken wings part of its business model. According to the Post, wings began surpassing the price of chicken breast around 2009, and the price of chicken wings have skyrocketed since then. The Post spoke to a sales rep at Fells Point Wholesale Meat in Baltimore, who said that prices for party wings (the whole wing minus the wing tip) have jumped from $1.37 a pound in February 2011 to $2.85 at current prices.