Your Super Bowl snacks will be more expensive this year, but just barely
You won’t have to reach too much further into your wallet when planning this year’s Super Bowl watch party.
But the numbers behind that price tag for your gathering are a tangled web of wings and nachos.
Super Bowl LIX will kickoff at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, with the Philadelphia Eagles facing off against the Kansas City Chiefs. The pre-game broadcast is probably already playing…somewhere.
But Wells Fargo is out with its annual estimate of the average cost for a Super Bowl party of 10.
This year’s tally comes to $139, a 0.1% increase over last year. That’s assuming a menu of traditional favorites, such as chips and salsa, frozen pizza, veggies and dip, wings and drinks.
The deeper story is that while the price of some snacks have increased appreciably, others have gone down. The bottom line – you’ll save money the healthier your gathering is.
For example, some categories of snacks, such as cherry tomatoes, avocados, red bell peppers and chicken wings have increased in price by anywhere from 12% to 7%.
In fact, fresh avocados are up 11.5% from last year. But strangely enough, prepared guacamole dip is up only 1.5% over the same period. So if you want to save money, you could make your own dip at home.
As for wings, an estimated 1.47 billion chicken wings will be eaten for this year’s Super Bowl, according to data from the National Chicken Council. That’s about 20 million wings more than last year’s game.
To put that in perspective, that’s enough wings to give more than four wings each to every man, woman and child in the U.S.
The price of beer is up 2% over last year, with wine close behind with a 1.8% increase.
Prices have gone down, however, for celery and broccoli – 8.4% and 7.2%, respectively. And you may say, “Who cares?”
But according to Wells Fargo, potato chips are also down 5.1%, shrimp down 4%, and frozen pizza 3.7%. Prices are also down around 1% for tortilla chips, salsa and nacho cheese dip.
And for those who don’t imbibe, shoppers can save on soda by opting for two-liters instead of 12-ounce cans, according to Wells Fargo.