Cheese pricing question?

Pizza Shop Talk The Think Tank
1

Hello all,

I come to this forum from time to time and enjoy reading it and if I have a question need to ask I can find the answer in the search tool. Every so often cheese prices come up and I cant seem to see a reply that fits my question. the one I have is that I use about 180lbs of Stella or house brand of provolone between smoked and unsmoked. the question I have is that should I expect to be paying similar over block price for provolone as I do for mozzarella or more for prov? I paid 3.39 last week and 3.59 the week before when I questioned my sales rep. …at 3.39 am I in the ball park?

Thanks

2

Provolone is a more a expensive cheese then mozzarella. I looked at my provolone prices and they were about $3 a lb for unsliced and about $3.50 for sliced provolone.

3

Yeah block prices are right around $3 for me As well

4

Make sure you have 2 suppliers to keep them honest. Also, see if you can contact the manufacturer. We talk to our Grande rep a couple times a year to make sure our prices are in line

5

yea looking for a second supplier now. about $3 is about what I thought I should be around. I noticed they go up with the market but not so quick on going down.

6

You can see the Cheese Market updated every weekday here: http://www.cheesereporter.com/prices.htm

You might be able to ask your rep to contract you at a set $ amount above “Blocks” depending on your volume used. If not, at least learn how they are arriving at your price. Then you can monitor and keep them honest.

7

I found over the years that I could jump ahead of price increases. I would track the link Brad just gave you. When I would see prices jump I would know that I had a couple of weeks before that price would appear on my pricelist from US or Sysco and I would buy 6 weeks worth of cheese, (Yes, I had a large walkin for the size of my business).

8

Yep same here. If you aren’t doing this you’re killing yourself. Unfortunately the cheese price has been extraordinarily high for quite some time this year so those savings only lasted me for 5 weeks. Been paying $1.98/lb for WM Mozz for 3 weeks and makes me sick!

9

Pin the distributors against each other. Play the game. I have mine around 15 cents over market typically. They both come in at 22-25 cents over market and I pin them against each other to get the best price. It’s all you can do as a new or small shop without a large volume.