Chicken wing prices impact restaurants

FINGER LAKES--If you have visited your favorite chicken wing restaurant recently it is likely the popular menu item price has increased or will soon. While national chicken farmers and wholesalers have said the supposed chicken shortage is being overblown, supply and demand influencing prices say otherwise. Restaurants across the region from Penn Yan to Watkins Glen and beyond are being forced to jack up prices for chicken wings, cancel wing nights and redo their menus.
"Wholesale prices have really gone up very noticeably... we haven't raised prices but we are just breaking even on wings now," said Kiira Winkky, co-owner of Bleachers Bar and Grill in Watkins Glen.
The same issue is being seen in Yates County as well.
"Prices have gone up (for chicken wings), it has been a noticeable increase and we have had to increase our prices as a result," said Hali Spoor, manager for Silverbird Wood Fired in Penn Yan. "We used to do a wing night on Thursdays but now we can't because we wouldn't even be able to break even."
Winkky said she also had to cancel chicken wing night, and that as a result Thursdays are no longer as profitable as they once were.
"They have doubled in price and are impossible to find," Winkky added.
Officials from Dudley Poultry in Yates County confirmed that there is an extreme shortage of chicken wings in western New York. However they said this was not tied to a national shortage, just the outright demand for chicken wings in our part of the state. As a result, what use to be a profitable item that could be bought and sold for cheap has become tantamount to a prime cut.
And it's an issue that customers are starting to notice.
"One customer came in and said they saw one restaurant charging $25 for wings," Winkky stated. "My mom owns a restaurant in Hector and on her menu always wrote as a joke that chicken wings were market price. It's not really a joke anymore."
Beyond the shortage of actual chicken wings, Spoor said she has been informed by her distributor that there is also a shortage in the packaging material required to send chicken wings.
"The reason they say isn't a lack of chicken, it's a lack of boxes that have the special wax coatings, and they don't have the staff to make them," Spoor mentioned. "It's a packing and logistics issue as much as a shortage."
Spoor added that as a result she has been ordering less chicken wings.
"So far it is not hurting the bottom line because we have a diverse enough menu... I wish that we wouldn't have had to raise prices, we would have sold more chicken wings," Spoor said. "But that's the reality for a business that sells food."
Winkky agreed and said while she has heard tidbits she has no idea how long the shortage will last.
Until then residents throughout the Finger Lakes and Western New York will have to pay a premium to get their hot and tangy chicken wing fix.
"They are more expensive now than during football season, hopefully by then it will all be back to normal but you never know," Winkky added. "That's the restaurant business."