"As the MTA prepares to increase the transit fare to $3 on Jan. 4, pizza prices across town are substantially higher than the cost to ride the train. The typical price of a plain slice of pizza in New York City now approaches $4, according to a decadelong survey of hundreds of slice joints conducted by this reporter across the city. Pizzamakers and experts who have followed the rising prices point to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation as the cause of the increasing disparity between the price of a subway ride and that of a regular slice of pizza."
"The average cost of a slice hovered around $2.54 in 2014, when the subway fare was $2.50, the Gothamist analysis shows. And the trend dates back far longer than that, according to Giovanni Lanzo, who opened Luigi's Pizza in Park Slope with his father in 1973. Back then, when the subway fare was 35 cents, Lanzo said a slice at his shop cost 30 cents - but also came with a free Coke."
"Two prices began to diverge around 2022, when rapid inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold in the United States. The median price of a plain slice now hovers at $3.81, according to visits to dozens of slice shops. A plain slice at popular West Village slice shop Joe's was $2.75 in 2014. The same slice now costs $4."
A decade-long citywide survey of hundreds of slice shops shows a growing gap between subway fares and pizza-slice prices. The MTA will raise the transit fare to $3 on Jan. 4 while the typical plain slice now approaches $4 and the median price is about $3.81. Historical examples show slices once cost less than fares, with Park Slope's Luigi's selling 30-cent slices when the subway fare was 35 cents. Rapid inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic-era disruptions are cited as the main drivers of the recent price divergence.
Read at Gothamist
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