Frankly too pricey! NYC hotdog stands and bodegas rocked by inflation
Inflation is the wurst.
Street vendors are jacking up the price of classic New York City hot dogs as simple bodega staples skyrocket throughout the boroughs amid inflation, even as illicit “loosie” cigarettes remain relatively affordable, The Post has learned.
The cost of grab-on-the-go essentials like pretzels, bacon egg and cheese sandwiches, cans of soda and coffee were through the roof in the Big Apple this week — where the famous $1 pizza slice isn’t inflation’s only culinary casualty.
Fathy Ebouelmagd, 29, runs a hotdog stand in Midto♈wn and said he was forced t༒o hike the price of a regular frank from $2 to $3 early last year.
“The customers don’t like it, they say it’s expensive, but everything is costing me more,” said ♈Eb🦂ouelmagd, who operates Best Hotdogs in New York on West 49th Street and Sixth Avenue.
He said office workers once lined up for his beloved dirty water dogs — but now the crowds simply🐭 don’t cut the mustard.
“I used to𒀰 have a line at 10 a.m., but there’s no regular customers now, it’s just tourists,” he said, adding less product turnover made the ♏price bump necessary.
He now sells pretzels for $5, in🅠stead of $3. He charg🎀es $1.75 for coffee, up from $1.25 last year.
The Akeel Deli in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neig𓃲hborhood was fo🌜rced to hike the price of deli sandwiches from $7 to $8 two weeks ago — enraging some shoppers, said manager Ali Muhammed, 50.
One customer got so mad ༺about forking over the extra buck, she ꦡchucked a honey glazed turkey sandwich at Muhammed’s face, he recounted.
“They say everything costs too much and so they just grab it and won’t pay for it. It’s all because of inflation. I always have problems when prices go up,” he said.
He said inflation took a cost-crunching🦩 bite out of ingrediꦺents in the turkey, roast beef, pastrami and chopped cheese sandwiches at the shop.
“Prices are fluctuating wildly,” he said. “Lettuce went up from $20 a case to $110 a caꩵse.”
In ✅Harlem, the De꧋li Grocery on West 136th Street and Amsterdam Avenue raised the price of a BEC from $4.75 to $5 six weeks ago due to the soaring cost of eggs, said bodega manager Abdul Ali, 50.
“The p𒀰rice of everything is going up like crazy,” Ali said. “At the beginning of the year a case of eggꦯs was $27. It’s gone up to $158 now,” he said.
The store also increased a can of soda from $1.75 tওo $2 six weeks ago, he said.
Other shops hiked the ꦐprices of everything from milk to chips and toilet paper.
The price of Lays of potato chips were bumped from $.75 to $1.25 at the The Good Morning Deli in Boerum H🌜ill, Brooklyn, said said store manager Ajeeb A🐽j, 45, of Astoria.
“We had to raise the price of 90% of our products,” Aj siad. “All our costs have gone up. It’s crazy. It’s incredible.”
But one bodega staple that apparently hasn’t fallen victim to inflation is loose cigarettes — likely because they’re usually bought out of state and sold under the table.
At at the Ward Food Market in Brownsville, three Newports went for $2 a piec✤e — or $.66 each — down from.
A smoke shop aptly named “Tobacco Shop” on S🌞te🥀rling and Park places in Crown Heights was also selling three loosies for just $2.
