Abdul Muhammad, owner of 99 Cent Fresh Pizza, the eight-location chain in Manhattan, told The Guardian last December that the continued rise in costs may force him to raise his slice prices for the first time since opening in 2001.
"I have to think about it because my customers, many of them unemployed and struggling to make rent, can't afford to pay more," he said.
As Bloomberg reported earlier this month:
The "pizza principle," a mainstay of New York economics for more than four decades, states that a slice of cheese pizza will always be the same price as a subway ride.
The rule has largely held true since first conjectured in the New York Times in 1980, with any increase in pizza prices tending to predict a matching hike in public-transit fares.
Not anymore. Prices for plain slices are soaring above $3 throughout the city along with commodity and labor costs. With the Metropolitan Transportation Authority freezing fares at $2.75, the gap between the price of riding downtown and satisfying late-night hunger pangs is growing quickly.
