Why it costs more dough to buy a bagel.
Comment: Sorry about the repeated posts, guys... the system said it couldn't post my comments...
Comment: The idea that they need to raise their bagel prices by ~17% in order to 'make up for' the rising cost of wheat is another case of common knowledge being dead wrong.
In one bagel, there is approximately 1/375th of a bushel of wheat. For those of you following along, that represents about 0.8 cents worth of actual wheat in the bagel when wheat is $3 a bushel. At $24 a bushel (a one-day high; wheat is back down around $9-10 a bushel) there is.... 6.4 cents per bagel worth of wheat. A rise of just over a nickel.
So your 15 cent increase....is 300% of the absolute worse case increase that can be attributed to the cost of wheat.
I'm ashamed of newsweek for not making the effort to debunk a junk statistic, especially since people will read this article, and make the same logical jump that newsweek did. You should be clear that the actual cost of the wheat in any baked product represents such a minor percentage of the total cost, that wide variations in wheat prices have very little effect on the final goods cost.
Comment: The idea that they need to raise their bagel prices by ~17% in order to 'make up for' the rising cost of wheat is another case of common knowledge being dead wrong.
In one bagel, there is approximately 1/375th of a bushel of wheat. For those of you following along, that represents about 0.8 cents worth of actual wheat in the bagel when wheat is $3 a bushel. At $24 a bushel (a one-day high; wheat is back down around $9-10 a bushel) there is.... 6.4 cents per bagel worth of wheat. A rise of just over a nickel.
So your 15 cent increase....is 300% of the absolute worse case increase that can be attributed to the cost of wheat.
I'm ashamed of newsweek for not making the effort to debunk a junk statistic, especially since people will read this article, and make the same logical jump that newsweek did. You should be clear that the actual cost of the wheat in any baked product represents such a minor percentage of the total cost, that wide variations in wheat prices have very little effect on the final goods cost.
Comment: The idea that they need to raise their bagel prices by ~17% in order to 'make up for' the rising cost of wheat is another case of common knowledge being dead wrong.
In one bagel, there is approximately 1/375th of a bushel of wheat. For those of you following along, that represents about 0.8 cents worth of actual wheat in the bagel when wheat is $3 a bushel. At $24 a bushel (a one-day high; wheat is back down around $9-10 a bushel) there is.... 6.4 cents per bagel worth of wheat. A rise of just over a nickel.
So your 15 cent increase....is 300% of the absolute worse case increase that can be attributed to the cost of wheat.
I'm ashamed of newsweek for not making the effort to debunk a junk statistic, especially since people will read this article, and make the same logical jump that newsweek did. You should be clear that the actual cost of the wheat in any baked product represents such a minor percentage of the total cost, that wide variations in wheat prices have very little effect on the final goods cost.
Comment: Nice to read a well-balanced article for a change. Do not underestimate the influence of "Big Money" speculation has on your bagel price. There was a huge rush of money out of securities into commodities, raising the CBOT prices on wheat, rice, corn, beans, etc.
Comment: The US government can turn up the volume of food production, thus reducing commodity prices, by reducing or eliminating farm subsidies that pay farmers to keep land out of production. Farmers would then be more motivated to produce food in order to make a living from their farms. When there is sufficient food for the American people, we can export more food to the world, thus expanding the US economy and improving our balance of trade with the rest of the world. Result: everybody wins.
Comment: There are plenty of us who can't afford food in the USA. Think anybody give a rats ass?
Comment: 'Us'
You have internet, but can't afford food my friend?
Comment: Well, the difference is that in the US, if you can't afford food it's probably your fault. Not ALWAYS, there are some people who truly are in an unfortunate situation. The majority of Americans have the luxury of being able to hold down as many jobs as they want, and our food is plentiful and cheap. We spend far less of our budget, percentage wise, on food than other countries. More importantly, it's available to every citizen very conveniently. We also have food pantries to assist those less fortunate. In many underdeveloped countries, there are no markets on every corner, no food to be had, no jobs. Nothing.
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