Jan 22, 2009 7:16 pm US/Eastern
Buffalo Wing Shortage Causing Super Bowl Panic
Texas Poultry Farm's Demise Due To Economy Partly To Blame; Buffalo Residents Call For Wing Boycott
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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It may be pretty hard to stomach, particularly on Super Bowl Sunday, but this year Buffalo wings are in short supply. (file)
CBS
It may be pretty hard to stomach, particularly on Super Bowl Sunday, but this year Buffalo wings are in short supply.
They're spicy but sweet, crispy yet luscious – tasty bits of poultry that no Super Bowl party should ever be without. But chicken wing lovers have a bone to pick, because the price of chicken wings is soaring.
"The price is going up," Atomic Wings owner Adam Lippin says. "The price is going up 30 percent in the last three months."
The demand for wings is way up, but the supply is equally way down. This is partly due to a major source of buffalo wings – a poultry farm in Texas – recently filed for bankruptcy, blamed on the economic downturn.
Now, there may not be enough chicken wings for the year's biggest football game.
"We're going to have to 'wing' it somehow because my buddies can't live without their wings," chicken wing aficionado Allen Porter says. "[Otherwise] Super Bowl will be a bust."
At Atomic Wings in Lower Manhattan, their distributor has set aside 500 cases for the big day, Feb. 1. Because they are a chain, they got the first crack at the tasty little tidbits.
Unfortunately, smaller bars and restaurants may not have enough Buffalo wings to go around – so customers' feathers might be ruffled.
"What's a Super Bowl without a chicken?" wing-lover Dana Gilliam ponders.
Some chicken wing fans up in Buffalo, the home of the chicken wing, are so fed up with rising prices that they're calling for a chicken wing boycott on Jan. 26th. Unfortunately, it's something people don't know anything about.
Not surprisingly, many New Yorkers were furious when they found out.
"Protest – we want our chicken wings" one resident said. "We want our chicken wings!"
So lovers of buffalo chicken wings are hoping on a "wing and a prayer" that there will be enough to go around and they won't have to "wing" it with substitute munchies on Super Bowl Sunday.
At Atomic Wings, which has nine restaurants with take-out in the NYC area, the price of chicken wings hasn't gone up in the last year. However, at other restaurants, they may have doubled – so be on the lookout for higher-than-expected prices for those succulent Buffalo wings.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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