Big Take: What a Bacon, Egg and Cheese Teaches Us About the Economy

Summary

Odd Lots: Big Take – What a Bacon, Egg and Cheese Teaches Us About the Economy

Release Date: April 23, 2025
Host: Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway
Episode Title: Big Take: What a Bacon, Egg and Cheese Teaches Us About the Economy

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of Odd Lots, Bloomberg’s Sarah Holder delves into the economics behind the classic American breakfast staple: the bacon, egg, and cheese (BEC) sandwich. By dissecting each key ingredient—bacon, eggs, cheese, bread, and coffee—Holder and her guests explore how rising costs, supply chain disruptions, and trade policies are inflating the price of this beloved morning meal. The discussion not only highlights the complexities of the food supply chain but also serves as a microcosm for broader economic trends affecting consumers across the United States.

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Rising Prices of a Classic Breakfast

Sarah Holder introduces the topic by recounting her personal experience with the escalating costs of her favorite breakfast. She notes the price hike from $3.50 to $5 for an egg and cheese sandwich and $6 for a bacon, egg, and cheese (BEC) sandwich alone, excluding coffee and tips, which brings the total to approximately $7.

Sarah Holder [01:02]: "Their egg and cheese sandwich on a roll went from $3.50 to $5, and their bacon, egg and cheese has reached $6."

Holder explains that Bloomberg tracks these changes through the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Index, which has reached record highs this year, signaling significant inflationary pressures.

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Eggs: A Pulse on the Economy

Eggs have emerged as a primary driver of the BEC price surge. Brian Moschagiri, Vice President at Eggs Unlimited, provides an in-depth analysis of the factors contributing to soaring egg prices.

Brian Moschagiri [04:28]: "Eggs have a weird pulse on the economy."

The surge is largely attributed to a devastating avian influenza outbreak that has decimated egg-laying hens, resulting in a supply loss of approximately 50 million hens since October. This supply shock has nearly doubled the price of eggs, with consumer prices hitting over $6.20 per dozen.

Brian Moschagiri [05:25]: "It's just an unprecedented supply loss. And those prices have been passed along to the consumer."

Additionally, a Department of Justice probe into potential price-fixing among egg sellers and resultant panic buying have exacerbated the shortage.

Brian Moschagiri [05:47]: "It created panic buying and hoarding... which just kind of fed into the shortage a little bit more."

Despite a recent stabilization in wholesale prices, consumers continue to bear the brunt, as indicated by Holder:

Sarah Holder [05:53]: "The second most important part of the bacon, egg and cheese, in my opinion, is the bread."

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Bread: Navigating Supply and Demand

The bread component of the BEC sandwich has also seen prices outpacing inflation since 2019. Pat Clements, a second-generation wheat grower, discusses the volatility in wheat prices influenced by global suppliers like Russia and Ukraine.

Pat Clements [07:22]: "That was one of the last big run ups in the price of wheat."

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, wheat prices spiked but later stabilized as supply chains adapted. However, rising input costs—such as pesticides, fertilizers, and labor—have squeezed farmers' margins, despite a decrease in wheat prices to around $5.40 per bushel.

Pat Clements [07:58]: "Our input costs have risen by, oh, I'd say 25 to 50% depending on which particular item you're talking about."

Trade tensions, particularly under the Trump administration's tariffs, pose further threats to wheat farmers, potentially disrupting exports and inflating domestic prices.

Pat Clements [08:10]: "When you interrupt these markets, someone is waiting to take our place."

Clements emphasizes the minimal impact farmers receive from bread sales:

Pat Clements [09:20]: "A loaf of bread that costs $4 a half the farmer's share of that is 14 cents."

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Cheese: Stability Amid Turbulence

Unlike eggs and bread, cheese prices have remained relatively stable. Eileena Peng, Bloomberg’s agriculture and commodities reporter, attributes this stability to increased cheese production offsetting rising demand.

Eileena Peng [09:38]: "We typically watch Class 3 milk futures. That's like the class of milk that typically goes into cheese."

Despite a cheese craze accelerated by the pandemic, domestic production has kept prices in check. However, potential tariffs on high-grade European cheeses and retaliatory duties from countries like Canada and China could introduce volatility.

Eileena Peng [11:14]: "Mexico is by far the biggest buyer of American dairy products. And so there is concern there that if Mexico were to retaliate by putting tariffs on US cheese, then that would take away a market for US Farmers."

Overall, Peng anticipates cheese prices to remain stable despite ongoing trade uncertainties.

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Bacon: Supply Constraints and Demand Surge

Michael Hertzer, Bloomberg’s commodities reporter, connects bacon prices to the broader beef market. With the U.S. beef cattle herd at its lowest since the 1950s, bacon, derived from pork belly, faces supply constraints.

Michael Hertzer [14:04]: "The US beef cattle herd is the lowest since the 1950s, so beef is in pretty tight supply."

Bacon's versatility and heavy marketing have transformed it from a breakfast side to a staple in various meals, driving up demand. Limited by the finite supply per pig, bacon prices have surged to $7 per pound.

Michael Hertzer [14:17]: "Bacon has a sort of a finite amount of it. Each pig only has one belly."

Trade policies further complicate the bacon market. Potential deportation of immigrant workers can reduce labor availability, while tariffs on pork exports to key markets like Mexico could destabilize prices.

Michael Hertzer [15:01]: "A lot of the folks working inside the meat plants are immigrants. And any sort of deportation efforts could have a tangible impact on just the number of workers that are available."

Hertzer suggests that while tariffs might initially lower domestic pork prices by reducing exports, farmers may eventually reduce pig numbers to restore balance, stabilizing prices.

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Coffee: Volatile Markets and Trade Uncertainties

The final component, coffee, exemplifies the volatility driven by both supply issues and speculative trading. Peter Longo, owner of Porto Rico Importing Company, highlights a near $4 per pound cost for coffee beans, nearly double from the previous year.

Peter Longo [16:28]: "Things that are causing price increases, scarcity, fear of weather, changing of the temperature. Global warming has affected farming a lot."

A drought in Brazil, the world’s top coffee producer, and increased speculative investment have heightened price volatility. Speculative traders, focused on futures contracts, amplify price swings, making it challenging for roasters to manage costs.

Eileena Peng [17:36]: "The traders aren't willing to keep a bunch of coffee on hand unless they know they have a roaster to sell it to."

Trade policies, including a 46% tariff on Vietnam’s coffee (later paused for 90 days) and existing universal tariffs, further destabilize the market. Importers are attempting to pass these costs onto roasters, which may trickle down to consumers.

Peter Longo [19:26]: "There's only a finite point to which you can raise your prices before it affects your sales."

Longo shares creative strategies to cope with rising costs, such as modifying orders to maximize value, reflecting the broader consumer struggle to adapt.

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Broader Economic Implications

The BEC sandwich serves as a lens to understand wider economic phenomena:

1. Inflation: The BEC Index, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, mirrors persistent inflationary trends, though it may lag real-time consumer experiences.

   Jerome Powell [20:15]: "The grocery bill is about past inflation, really."

2. Trade Wars and Tariffs: Tariffs under the Trump administration have introduced uncertainty, affecting everything from wheat and pork exports to coffee imports. These policies have ripple effects across the supply chain, influencing prices and availability.

3. Supply Chain Disruptions: Avian influenza, weather anomalies, and labor shortages highlight the fragility of the food supply chain, making essential commodities more susceptible to price fluctuations.

4. Consumer Behavior: While wholesale prices for some commodities are stabilizing or decreasing, consumer prices remain high due to inflationary lags and price-setting behaviors at the store level.

   Michael Hertzer [21:06]: "From the store level. It's hard to raise prices."

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Impact on Consumers

Consumers face the dual challenge of rising prices and lagging price adjustments. Despite some commodity prices stabilizing, the overall cost of a BEC sandwich remains steep, reflecting broader economic pressures.

Sarah Holder [21:24]: "Or you can get creative like Peter Longo, the coffee roaster."

Strategies to cope include seeking bargains, modifying purchases, or adjusting consumption habits, underscoring the tangible impact of macroeconomic trends on daily life.

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Conclusion

The exploration of the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveals the intricate interplay between supply and demand, global trade dynamics, and inflationary pressures. As tariffs and trade wars continue to influence commodity markets, the cost of everyday items like a BEC sandwich serves as a tangible indicator of broader economic health. While some components like cheese remain stable, others—particularly eggs and coffee—illustrate the volatility and uncertainty consumers face in the current economic landscape.

Jerome Powell [20:49]: "Consumers are still hurting and they're not wrong to be unhappy. That prices went up quite a bit."

As policymakers and industry stakeholders navigate these challenges, the BEC Index remains a useful, albeit backward-looking, tool to gauge inflation and economic sentiment among American consumers.

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Notable Quotes:

• Brian Moschagiri [04:28]: "Eggs have a weird pulse on the economy."
• Pat Clements [08:10]: "When you interrupt these markets, someone is waiting to take our place."
• Jerome Powell [20:15]: "The grocery bill is about past inflation, really."
• Michael Hertzer [21:06]: "From the store level. It's hard to raise prices."
• Jerome Powell [20:49]: "Consumers are still hurting and they're not wrong to be unhappy. That prices went up quite a bit."

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This summary encapsulates the key discussions and insights from the Bloomberg Odd Lots episode on how the economics of a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reflect broader market trends and consumer challenges.

Transcript

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[Sarah Holder]

Bloomberg.

[KPMG Representative]

Audio Studios podcasts Radio News hi, Good morning.

[Brian Moschagiri]

Hello.

[Sarah Holder]

For the last few years, whenever I've needed a little extra morning sustenance, I visited a food cart outside the Bloomberg office. Could I have a egg and cheese sandwich, extra ketchup, salt and pepper, please?

[KPMG Representative]

Egg and cheese is $5 $5 $5.

[Sarah Holder]

It used to be $3.50 for the eggs.

[Michael Hertzer]

It's a pancy.

[Sarah Holder]

The sandwiches go up. It must have been a while since I stopped. Karen Hidalgo and her coworker Francisco told me two months ago they had to raise prices. Their egg and cheese sandwich on a roll went from $3.50 to $5, and their bacon, egg and cheese has reached $6. Add in the cost of a cup of coffee and a tip and my once reliably cheap breakfast just ran me seven bucks. It's not just my beloved breakfast cart. Bloomberg actually tracks the price of the key ingredients in a bacon, egg, and cheese, plus a special bacon, egg, and cheese index. It's updated every month using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the bls, and this year the index has reached record highs.

[Eileena Peng]

Our breakfast foods are very consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsized indicators of inflation.

[Sarah Holder]

Eileena Peng covers agriculture and commodities for Bloomberg.

[Eileena Peng]

Even though economists really like to look at the rate of inflation, as a consumer you tend to think, oh, my coffee cost this much today and my coffee used to cost that much five years ago.

[Sarah Holder]

In March 2019, the commodities that make up an average BEC plus a coffee cost almost $1.90. If you adjusted for inflation, that means the meal should cost nearly $2.40 today. But as of March 2025, it topped $3 $3.23, to be exact. So the story of why these foods have Gotten so expensive isn't just about inflation. It's also about supply and demand.

[Peter Longo]

When my customers complained to me recently, oh, the price of coffee gouging.

[Sarah Holder]

You're gouging global weather patterns and disease.

[Brian Moschagiri]

Experienced veterans would tell me, like, young man, we've seen everything that could possibly happen in the egg market.

[Sarah Holder]

Land wars and trade wars.

[Pat Clements]

We're used to handling the natural barriers, the man made ones. We kind of struggle with them, you.

[Sarah Holder]

Know, the whims of consumers and the complexities of financial markets. Now, as Trump's sweeping tariff orders send shockwaves through the global economy and put new pressures on domestic commodities markets, we wanted to look closer at one sandwich that helps explain it all. Today on the show, we talk to people up and down the bacon, egg and cheese supply chain. From a Kentucky wheat farmer to a VP at an egg brokerage to a coffee roaster in lower Manh. And along the way, Bloomberg's expert commodities reporters helped us make sense of how this sandwich got so expensive and what it says about the American economy. Tariffs, inflation, and more. This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. If you had to pick one ingredient to blame for the rising costs of a breakfast sandwich, it'd probably be eggs.

[Brian Moschagiri]

Eggs have a weird pulse on the economy.

[Sarah Holder]

Brian Moschagiri has worked in the egg industry for over a decade. He's currently a vice president at an egg brokerage called Eggs Unlimited. It also helps farms distribute their eggs to retail customers.

[Brian Moschagiri]

When I got into the egg industry, my mom said, like, somehow you belonged in this industry. You just always loved eggs.

[Sarah Holder]

Right now is a rough time to be an egg lover. As anyone who store recently knows, the price of eggs has been uncomfortably high. The most recent data we have shows that consumer prices in March hit a new record. Over $6.20 a dozen, double what eggs cost a year ago. Most people know or think they know what's behind that high price. Bird flu. Since late last year, a new wave of avian influenza has been tearing through American egg farms, killing off tons of egg laying hens.

[Brian Moschagiri]

50 million of 312 million, you know, since the start of October. It's just an unprecedented supply loss. And those prices have been passed along to the consumer.

[Sarah Holder]

But there may have been other dynamics pushing up the price of eggs. The Department of Justice has opened a probe to investigate potential price fixing by egg sellers. And consumer reactions also had an impact.

[Brian Moschagiri]

It created panic buying and hoarding. And the consumers are maybe buying more eggs than they typically bought, which just kind of fed into the shortage a little bit more.

[Sarah Holder]

But consumers have hit their price ceiling since February. They've stopped buying as many eggs and wholesale prices have started to fall. Consumers just haven't felt that yet. The second most important part of the bacon, egg and cheese, in my opinion, is the bread. Bread has also outpaced inflation since 2019. And to make bread, you need wheat.

[Pat Clements]

If you're flying around the country in the winter and you see something beautiful and green amidst all the brown and gray, that's a wheat field.

[Sarah Holder]

That's Pat Clements, a second generation wheat grower and president of the national association of Wheat Growers. When America's beautiful green wheat fields are thriving, that doesn't always mean America's wheat farmers are making more money. Walk me through how you set prices.

[Pat Clements]

The issue is we don't set them, we take them. Market prices for wheat can vary pretty widely over the course of a year. And from year to year, US Wheat.

[Sarah Holder]

Prices are heavily influenced by two dominant global suppliers, Russia and Ukraine. When those countries are cranking out wheat, the prices US Farmers get are lower. When Russia and Ukraine's supply is strained, growers here can make more. So back in 2022, just after Russia's ground invasion of Ukraine, prices shot up.

[Pat Clements]

That was one of the last big run ups in the price of wheat.

[Sarah Holder]

In January 2022, wheat was trading at about $7.50 a bushel. In March, after Russia's invasion, it spiked, surpassing $13 a bushel. But it was a short lived jump. Russia and Ukraine found ways to keep supplies flowing and that combined with reduced demand in the US has driven down the prices wheat farmers are getting for their product. A bushel of wheat is now trading at around 540.

[Pat Clements]

In the meantime, our input costs have risen by, oh, I'd say 25 to 50% depending on which particular item you're talking about.

[Sarah Holder]

Pat says the costs of pesticides, fertilizers, labor and equipment, they're all up. And farmers fear that squeeze could get even worse depending on how Trump's trade war goes.

[Michael Hertzer]

That's the sort of million dollar question.

[Sarah Holder]

Michael Hertzer covers commodities for Bloomberg.

[Michael Hertzer]

Prices could change pretty dramatically depending on how all these tariff negotiations go.

[Sarah Holder]

Almost half of US Wheat is exported. Mexico is our biggest wheat buyer and right now the country has escaped the worst of Trump's tariffs. But if that changes and if Mexico retaliates, that could hit U.S. wheat producers.

[Pat Clements]

Hard to interrupt the supply to a dependable nearby neighbor. You just can't imagine anything worse for the industry.

[Sarah Holder]

From the ground in Kentucky Pat says farmers are nervous that the trade wars could drive business away.

[Pat Clements]

When you interrupt these markets, someone is waiting to take our place. Perhaps some South American country will ship into Mexico, perhaps it'll be Russia. Perhaps it can come from anywhere in the world.

[Sarah Holder]

Tariffs could also drive up other costs of doing business, not just for wheat farmers, but all the way up the bread supply chain. That's on top of costs that have already been rising and driving up the cost of bread. Labor costs, packaging, transportation, marketing.

[Pat Clements]

A loaf of bread that costs $4 a half the farmer's share of that is 14 cents. So our part isn't moving the needle.

[Sarah Holder]

So we've covered eggs and bread. What about cheese? For that we had to call one of our experts.

[Eileena Peng]

We typically watch Class 3 milk futures. That's like the class of milk that typically goes into cheese.

[Sarah Holder]

That's Bloomberg's Ilina Pang again. She follows the cheese market and she says prices have been relatively stable in recent years. That's despite a cheese craze that started during the pandemic.

[Eileena Peng]

And that trend has just sort of accelerated. And it's really been a boon to like the broader US Dairy industry just because fluid milk is no longer as popular as it once was at its peak. And so now what the dairy industry likes to say is that people are eating their milk instead of drinking it.

[Sarah Holder]

Since the increased demand for cheese has been offset by increased production, the cost of this domestic dairy product has remained relatively low. But we also get some of our fanciest cheeses from the European Union.

[Eileena Peng]

They make a lot of the high grade specialty cheeses that everyone loves.

[Sarah Holder]

I'm not sure most of us order breakfast sandwiches with imported French Brie, but if you are, watch out. The European Union is subject to the US 10% tariff on imports. A more traditional pick might be American cheese produced right here in the U.S. but the U.S. also exports a lot of cheese products. More than half of US dairy exports go to Mexico, Canada and China. Canada has already put retaliatory tariffs of 25% on American cheese, butter and dairy spreads, While China's levied 125% duties on all US imports, which would include dairy products. What if Mexico were to follow?

[Eileena Peng]

Mexico is by far the biggest buyer of American dairy products. And so there is concern there that if Mexico were to retaliate by putting tariffs on US cheese, then that would take away a market for US Farmers.

[Sarah Holder]

Overall, though, Eileena sees domestic cheese prices staying pretty calm amid broader tariff turbulence. So we've tackled eggs, bread and cheese, but what's going on with the last two pieces of this breakfast puzzle. Bacon and coffee. That's coming up.

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KPMG makes the difference by creating value like developing strategic insights that help drive M and A success and embedding AI solutions into your business to sustain competitive advantage or deploying tech enabled audits to deliver more accurate and transparent outcomes. Brighter insights, bolder solutions, better outcomes. It's how KPMG makes the difference every day. KPMG make the difference. Learn more at www.kpmg.us insights.

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[Sarah Holder]

We've been digging into why a classic American breakfast combo, the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich plus a cup of coffee, is getting more expensive in and how those prices could fluctuate further under Trump's trade war. We've covered the bun, the E and the C. Now let's bring home the bacon. Bloomberg commodities reporter Michael Hertzer told me that understanding bacon prices actually starts with beef.

[Michael Hertzer]

The US beef cattle herd is the lowest since the 1950s, so beef is in pretty tight supply. And one of bacon's keys to popularity has been it's always been something of alternative to beef.

[Sarah Holder]

In the past few decades, bacon has been heavily marketed by restaurants and food companies who wanted to sub in pork because beef was so pricey. And all that exposure has helped bacon evolve from strictly a breakfast side to something you see on salads, on burgers, any meal of the day. All this drives up demand, but supply.

[Michael Hertzer]

Bacon is cut from the pork belly and there's sort of a finite amount of it. Each pig only has, you know, one belly. And because it's so popular, bacon has a sort of built in demand base.

[Sarah Holder]

So US Consumers have spent decades driving up the cost of Bacon by buying more. Today, it costs almost $7 a pound. But Trump's policies could change that.

[Michael Hertzer]

A lot of the folks working inside the meat plants are. Are immigrants. And any sort of deportation efforts could have a tangible impact on just the number of workers that are available or the number of workers that are willing to show up if they're in fear of. Of being taken away.

[Sarah Holder]

And once again, tariffs could upend everything.

[Michael Hertzer]

Mexico is the top buyer of US Pork, and them not having a tariff will allow US Pork to continue to go to Mexico. If that changes, theoretically, pork could become cheaper in the US If Mexico is.

[Sarah Holder]

Buying less in the short term, pork prices could drop if the supply of pork exceeds the demand. But Michael thinks farmers would adapt, raise fewer pigs, bringing the price back up in the medium term. So we're down to the last ingredient in our breakfast. Order something to wash it all down. I'll go. Barista's choice. Thank you. Coffee.

[Peter Longo]

These increases over the last six months have been monumental, and they've been fast.

[Sarah Holder]

That's Peter Longo, the owner of Porto Rico Importing Company, a coffee shop and roaster in New York's Greenwich Village. The store has been around since 1907, and Peter took it over from his parents in the 70s. And how much was a cup of coffee at that time?

[Peter Longo]

Oh, man, a cup of coffee was a dime, maybe.

[Sarah Holder]

Yeah, coffee hasn't cost a dime in decades, but in the past year, coffee prices have truly been on a tear. Today, a pound of beans cost Peter about $4. That's nearly double what he was paying last year.

[Peter Longo]

Things that are causing price increases, scarcity, fear of weather, changing of the temperature. Global warming has affected farming a lot.

[Sarah Holder]

A drought in Brazil damaged bean supply in the world's top producing country.

[Peter Longo]

But I think the speculative investment has boosted the price of coffee and made it more volatile.

[Sarah Holder]

Speculative investment. In other words, economic forces beyond supply and demand. To understand how markets influence coffee prices, we had to call back Eileena Peng, the agriculture reporter we heard from earlier. She told me there are two groups of people who get involved in coffee markets. There are commercial traders, people who have.

[Eileena Peng]

A stake in the market. So, like, you're a coffee roaster, you're a coffee producer, you are a coffee trading house.

[Sarah Holder]

And then there are speculative traders, like.

[Eileena Peng]

The hedge funds, and their goal is not to take delivery of beans.

[Sarah Holder]

Instead, they want to play the coffee market, kind of like the stock market, buying futures at a certain price, hoping that they'll be able to sell them for more than they bought. The thing is that Right now, the roasters, the coffee houses, the people who do want to actually buy coffee and actually take delivery of it, they've been cautious, trying to buy just what they absolutely need and nothing more, hoping prices will come down.

[Eileena Peng]

The traders aren't willing to keep a bunch of coffee on hand unless they know they have a roaster to sell it to. And companies like Starbucks and big roasters, who would normally buy a lot in advance, are kind of reluctant to do that.

[Sarah Holder]

And since there are fewer buyers in the market right now, any activity can make prices fluctuate wildly. Tariffs are making the coffee market even more volatile. Last week, the US Hit the world's second biggest grower, Vietnam, with levies of 46%. This week, Trump announced he was pausing that tariff at least for 90 days. But his universal 10% tariff still applies.

[Eileena Peng]

Importers are already trying to get clauses into their contracts so that those costs get passed on to coffee roasters eventually. There is a sense that that would make it to the consumer level.

[Sarah Holder]

Traders are now expecting bean prices to get even higher, so high that consumers might eventually start buying less coffee, which could force prices down. All this weighs on coffee sellers like Peter, who's now selling a pound of beans for $16.99, up a whole dollar since September.

[Peter Longo]

There's only a finite point to which you can raise your prices before it affects affects your sales.

[Sarah Holder]

After all these conversations about all these different commodities, you might be noticing some trends. We did. Bacon, cheese and bread prices are either stable or slightly elevated. But coffee and eggs prices are up a lot. Those two ingredients have been driving a lot of the increases in Bloomberg's bacon, egg and cheese index. And even though market and wholesale prices were expected to decline for those commodities, the relief hasn't hit consumers. And now tariffs have created a whole new level of uncertainty about where these prices are headed next.

[Eileena Peng]

The bacon, egg and cheese index we have is a little bit backwards looking.

[Sarah Holder]

Remember, the index is based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's not a snapshot of where prices are today or tomorrow, but where they were last month. That's the way US Inflation data works too. And why it can sometimes feel like the Fed's latest CPI figures don't perfectly reflect Americans experiences of the economy. And inflation is sticky. That's something Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, acknowledged at February's Fed meeting.

[Jerome Powell]

The grocery bill is about past inflation, really.

[Sarah Holder]

Consumers are still hurting and they're not wrong to be unhappy. That prices went up quite a bit.

[Jerome Powell]

And they're paying a lot for those things.

[Sarah Holder]

And commodities reporter Michael Hertzer says that's because if commodity prices can be highly reactive, the prices consumers pay are not.

[Michael Hertzer]

From the store level. It's hard to raise prices. You know, if you get an opportunity when everyone is talking about inflation and you raise prices, you don't really want to give that back. So for the consumer, you just gotta, I guess, clip the coupons and try to find savings.

[Sarah Holder]

Or you can get creative like Peter Longo, the coffee roaster.

[Peter Longo]

My go to breakfast sandwich is the Egg McMuffin, but I noticed it got very, very expensive. And I was just talking with the girl behind the counter and she said, you gotta buy the sausage McMuffin and throw the sausage away because they had one of those D so you could get two sausage McMuffins for two bucks.

[Sarah Holder]

I guess there's always a deal to be found somewhere. This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. This episode was produced by Julia Press. It was edited by Tracy Samuelson, Millie Munshi and Isis Almeida. It was fact checked by Adriana Tapia and mixed in sound design by Alex Sugiura. Our senior producer is Naomi Shaven. Our senior editor is Elizabeth Ponso. Our deputy executive producer is Julia Weaver. Our executive producer is Nicole Beemsterboer. Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's Head of Podcasts. If you like this episode, make sure to subscribe and review the Big Take. Wherever you listen to podcasts, it helps people find the show. Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week.

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