"Pizza Price Parity": Where Is Pizza Most And Least Expensive In America?

Via Priceonomics.com,

Between 2007 - 2010, a USDA study estimated that 1 in 8 Americans ate some form of pizza on any given day. That number climbs to about 1 in 4 for males and 1 in 5 for females when looking specifically at Americans age 12 to 19. There’s no escaping it; pizza is engrained in our diets.

Pizza is not only a pillar of the American diet, but also of our culture.

Through saturation of TV, movies, and now the internet, it has entered the zeitgeist. How do you make characters as strange as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles more relatable? Make them love pizza. Right now, you can search on Amazon to find pizza sweatshirts, pizza pool toys, and pizza cologne. Even new disruptive and trendy technological innovations need their connection to pizza. That’s why there’s a pizza cryptocurrency and drone pizza delivery.

We noticed that pizza prices and availability can vary dramatically across the United States. We analyzed data from Priceonomics customer, Datafiniti, a data company that has digitized menus across America. Which states and cities have the most pizzerias? How much can you expect to pay for pizza across the country?

Starting with this business data, we searched for restaurants serving pizza. This data set gave us thousands of different listings to comb through for more detailed location and menu information. To control for differences in price because of toppings and sizes, we needed a standardized item for evaluation, so we found the price of a large plain pizza in each restaurant record. This baseline allowed us to compare prices across cities and states more accurately.

So, where can you find the most places serving pizza? Accounting for population, you can find the most pizza places concentrated in the Northeast, particularly Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. At the city level, the trend is not as clear, with Orlando, FL, Buffalo, NY, and Minneapolis, MN taking the top three spots. 

How much will you pay for a large cheese pie? Median prices range from $7.25 to as much as $15. Despite only looking at plain cheese pizza, there are subtle stylistic differences that likely lead to price variation. The neighborhood family-friendly pizza place and the typical franchise have much lower prices than artisanal wood-fire pizzerias. Other regional differences, like Chicago deep dish, lead to higher prices as well.

And the cities with the most expensive cheese pizzas in America? Buffalo, NY, Nashville, TN, and San Francisco, CA take the top three spots.

Despite those geographical differences, there is one universal truth: no matter where you are, you’ll be able to find pizza.

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To start our investigation, we will want to see how pizza places are distributed across the country. To account for differences in population, our metric of interest will not be absolute number of restaurants, but instead number of restaurants per 100K residents. Controlling for populations makes sure some states, like California, do not dominate the top of our charts.

Data source: Datafiniti

The state with the most restaurants serving pizza is Connecticut, with 13.2 restaurants per capita. Smaller northeastern states with large Italian populations dominate the list, including Massachusetts (11.7), Rhode Island (11.6), and New Jersey (9.6).

New York and Illinois, two states that are known for their distinct styles of pizza, are in the second tier of states, along with areas of West, the upper Midwest, and Florida. 

States in the Deep South have the fewest number of pizza places per capita. We expect this result as these states don’t have distinctive pizza styles. Hawaii, despite having an eponymous pizza (the Hawaiian, which features pineapple and ham), is also in this group.

So looking at these states, what is the cost of the average large plain cheese pie?

Data source: Datafiniti

North Dakota and Wyoming have the most highest median prices. While there is no distinct regional trend, there are some possible explanations for what we see. These states have fewer pizzerias, which tend to be more upscale, artisanal sit-down restaurants. So in cases where you can find pizza, it’s just a more expensive variety. Maine and Alaska have the cheapest pizza options. While that’s not exactly the attribute you want your pizza to be known for, it is a great thing for pizza lovers in these states.

Now we will go one level deeper and take a look at America’s cities. Where can we find the most pizza restaurants per capita? When working with this data, we limited our comparison to the 50 cities with the greatest absolute number of pizza places.

Data source: Datafiniti

Orlando, FL sits at the top of our list with 21.6 restaurants per 100K residents. While Orlando is not known for any pizza tradition, a few things could be causing the abundance of pizza. Florida, in general, is known for tourism, Orlando especially. Pizza is guaranteed to interest tourists no matter where they’re from and it’s a great option for families when traveling. Ft. Lauderdale likely has a similar story.

Number two is a city from New York that is not NYC; it’s Buffalo (20.2). This mid-sized city has a sizable Italian community and its own style of pizza. It’s a medium-thick crust round pie that is somewhere between New York and Chicago pizza styles. 

Our third place city, Minneapolis (21.1), may seem like the odd-man-out at first, but the Midwest also has its own distinct pie. Its square shape and medium-thick crust is similar to the traditional Neapolitan pie that families would bake at home. You’re likely to see this shape of pizza across the Rust Belt, as far east as Detroit.

Now that we know where to find pizza, we should learn more about prices. Again we will look at the median price of a large plain pizza to compare our cities. 

Data source: Datafiniti

The city with the highest median price is Buffalo, NY at $14.79 for a large plain pie. In general, large metropolitan areas or mid-sized eastern cities compose the most expensive cities for pizza. Most likely their prices are just a product of the higher cost of living. 

At $5.99, Lexington, KY has the least expensive median price. Overall these cities are smaller and more often in the center of the country. Two of the cities with the most pizzerias, Orlando and Minneapolis, are also on our list for least expensive plain pies. That’s great news if you are a pizza lover in either of these cities. While we would need much more data to verify this idea, it could be possible that the high number of restaurants leads to greater competition and therefore better prices for customers.

Will Robot Pizzamakers Help Revive American Productivity?

In Silicon Valley, even the coffee shops and pizzerias have chief technology officers. In a recent profile of a Mountain View Calif.-based pizzeria called Zumes that was published in the LA Times, the paper explores how software engineer Josh Goldberg programmed the robots to make a better pie, all through trial and error.

But there’s one angle the profile neglects to explore, and that is this: In a region of the US where the yawning gap between high-income and low-income earners is about as wide as it is anywhere in the world, soon, robots will be the only option available as poor service-industry workers are driven out of the surrounding areas by vaulting property values and rents.

And as we reported earlier this week, software that boosts robots’ powers of artificial perception is making it possible to partially automate food service industry.

“Josh Goldberg, 38, is the chief technology officer of the Mountain View, Calif., pizza joint. Although most pizzerias don’t have an engineering staff, let alone a CTO, Zume prides itself on its use of automation to make operations more efficient.

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It estimates its kitchen can make 10 times more pizzas than a pizzeria with a comparable staff. It has a robot that squirts tomato sauce onto its pies. It has a robot that spreads the sauce, mimicking the movements of Zumes’s head chef. There’s a robot arm (similar to those found in auto manufacturing facilities) that puts the pie in the oven. And, as of this month, there’s a robot that presses the dough into a perfect circle.

Observing operations in the company’s lab-like kitchen, Goldberg watched as the human cooks spun glossy blobs of dough and placed them on the conveyor belt. He watched as a camera hovering above snapped a photo of the dough so it could inform the other robots of the pizza’s size, shape and precise location. Another camera detected the center of the pie and instructed a nozzle to squirt sauce, and a delta robot — the kind used on assembly lines — used a spiral movement to spread it. Humans topped the pizza with pepperoni, fresh basil and cheese.”

For years, Silicon Valley types have been arguing that US schools should incorporate coding into their curriculum. Even the kitchen staff at Zumes ends up handling some of the programming duties.

“That’s why Zumes has a team of 20 software engineers. And its 20-person kitchen staff doesn’t just prep ingredients; many have been trained to work with the robots. Its entire culinary team uses project management tools such as Jira and Kanban, which are typically used by software engineers at tech companies for managing projects and fixing bugs. And other staff, such as delivery drivers and line cooks, are being trained in data science.”

While engineers represent a significant percentage of the restaurants" cost basis, the attendent boost in productivity should make it worthwhile. According to the LAT, its kitchen can make 10 times more pizzas than a pizzeria with a comparable staff.

It has a robot that squirts tomato sauce onto its pies. It has a robot that spreads the sauce, mimicking the movements of Zumes’s head chef. There’s a robot arm (similar with those found in auto manufacturing facilities) that puts the pie in the oven. And, as of this month, there’s a robot that presses the dough into a perfect circle.

The day will soon arrive when Americans will be able to sit down at a pizzeria and eat a meal prepared by a robot, then hop in a self-driving cab that will whisk them away to a bar staffed by robot bartenders.

Which brings us the real question: Will this finally be enough to lift the US’s stagnant productivity numbers?

Thousands Flee Chicago For Safer Areas Of The Country As America’s Third Largest City Becomes A Gang-Infested Wasteland

Did you know that the number of murders increased by almost 60 percent in the city of Chicago last year?  And as you will see below, this year gang violence in the Windy City has risen to a new level of viciousness.  A staggering 9.5 million people live in the Chicago metropolitan area, and it was once known primarily for great pizza, bitter cold and some of the best sports fans on the entire planet.  But now the number one thing that comes to mind for many when they think about the city of Chicago is gang violence.  As it becomes clear that things are not going to turn around any time soon, thousands of residents are leaving the city for safer areas of the nation.  In fact, Cook County lost more people than any other county in America last year by a very wide margin.

When your murder rate goes up by double digits in a single year, you have got a problem.

But when it goes up by close to 60 percent, you have got a catastrophe on your hands…

In 2016, the number of murders in the city jumped nearly 60 percent to over 760, more than New York and Los Angeles combined. There were more than 4,300 shooting victims in the city last year, according to police.

Of course we aren’t supposed to talk about the fact that this is quietly happening in communities all over America.  This is one of the reasons why there is such a disparity in real estate prices these days.  The wealthy are willing to pay a substantial premium to live with other wealthy people in areas that are far away from all the violence.

And the gang violence in Chicago continues to escalate.  For example, check out what happened just yesterday…

Two people were killed and eight others were wounded in an attack at the site of a memorial for a man who was slain earlier Sunday in the Brighton Park neighborhood, police said.

Chicago police First Deputy Superintendent Kevin Navarro told reporters at the Southwest Side scene in the 2600 block of West 46th Place that the attack was “another brazen act of gang violence.”

Navarro said the victims, a mix of men and women, were taking part in a memorial for a man, identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Daniel Cardova, who had been killed at that location earlier in the day when two people fired rifles from a nearby alleyway.

Would you want to raise your children in an area where this was going on?

Thanks to decades of open borders and unrestrained illegal immigration, gang membership has been absolutely soaring in major cities such as Chicago.  Five years ago the Chicago Crime Commission estimated that there were 150,000 gang members living in the metropolitan area, and by this point that number is certainly far higher.

According to Wikipedia, there are currently only 12,244 police officers in Chicago.  That means that the police are outnumbered by at least a 12 to 1 margin.

And according to an article published by the Chicago Sun-Times, some of these gangs have agreed to start using automatic weapons against the police…

The meeting took place Thursday between higher-ups from the Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers, according to an alert issued to department members the day after the meeting.

The Four Corner Hustlers “provided guns” and have “a sniper in place” though authorities do not know where, according to the alert. The Four Corner Hustlers also are supplying the other two gangs with automatic weapons, which all three factions also have agreed to use against police, the alert states.

No wonder the police suicide rate in Chicago is 60 percent higher than the national average.

If I was living in the Chicago metropolitan area, I would be making every effort to relocate, and apparently there are lots and lots of people that see things the same way that I do.

In fact, net domestic migration for the Chicago metropolitan area was a staggering -89,000 during 2016…

One particularly stunning figure: net domestic migration, with an estimated 89,000 more people moving from the Chicago area to other portions of the country in the past year than those who moved in.

Liz Schuh, principal policy analyst for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, said the figures are “of concern for the region’s continued economic success.”

“Residents often choose to stay in or migrate to a region because of economic opportunity and quality of life,” she added.

In particular, wealthy people are living the city in droves.  It has been reported that 3,000 millionaires left the city of Chicago in 2015 alone.  Certainly the ridiculously high taxes are one factor why so many wealthy people are leaving, but of course gang violence is also a major reason for the mass exodus.

If violence in our major cities is starting to spiral out of control while the economy is still relatively stable, what are things going to look like when a complete economic meltdown happens?

It is only a matter of time before widespread rioting, looting and civil unrest becomes commonplace in major cities all over the country.  With Donald Trump in the White House, the deep frustration that has been simmering in our inner cities is now reaching a boiling point.  It certainly isn’t going to take much of a spark to set off a tremendous explosion.

In anticipation of what is coming, large numbers of Americans have already been relocating to less populated portions of the country.  And the good news is that there are lots of areas to pick from.  According to Survival Dan, about half of the U.S. population lives in just 146 counties…

Recent U.S. census data indicates that out of the 3000 counties in the United States, fully 50% of the population lives in just 146. If you want to have any chance of surviving a widespread catastrophic event by avoiding the hordes that will be searching for critical resources in its aftermath, then check out the following map to get a visual reference of the areas you want to stay away from.

Of course it can be quite difficult to find a good job in an area that is not heavily populated, and there are a lot of expenses involved in relocating to a totally different part of the country.

And there is certainly a lot to consider when picking out a new place to live, and so you would want to do a lot of research before making such a move.

But my wife and I did step out in faith and made a decision to relocate to a new area nearly six years ago, and it was one of the best decisions that we have ever made.

He Was Eating Pizza. In The Wrong Place. And Got Arrested

Image source: Pixabay.com

Eating pizza in some locations is now a crime in one American city.

An unidentified elderly man faces a $250 fine for eating in a San Francisco bus shelter earlier this month, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. If he had walked just a few feet outside of the shelter, it would have been permitted.

The man was homeless.

“This is a real waste of police services,” Kelley Cutler of the Coalition on Homelessness complained.

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Eating on mass transit is illegal in the city but the regulation is rarely enforced, Cutler said.

San Francisco’s transit agency, Muni, prohibits eating on buses, trains and trolleys and in stations, spokesman Paul Rose told The Chronicle. But Rose added, “food prohibition doesn’t necessarily extend to bus shelters.”

Eating in the shelter is what is called a quality of life enforcement, Carter said.

“The problem is, whose quality of life are you talking about?” Cutler asked. “The officer can say, ‘Move along, move along.’ The problem is, there’s nowhere to move along to.”

Do you think eating food on public transportation should be illegal? Share your thoughts in the section below:  

Cops Issue Man $250 Ticket Because Eating Pizza at a Bus Stop is Illegal in the Land of the Free

San Francisco, CA — Window tint, smoking a plant in your own home, not wearing your seatbelt, walking across the street, sagging your pants, and even building a sand castle — can and will get you extorted, kidnapped, caged, or even killed — in the land of the free. And now, eating pizza while waiting for the bus can be added to the list.

According to the San Francisco Gate, a man, who also happens to be homeless, was fined $250 for eating pizza while waiting for his bus to arrive. He was waiting at the corner of Market and Seventh street, holding the pizza he’d bought as a birthday treat for a female friend when the temptation to eat a slice was more than he could bear.

While indulging in his piece of the pie, he soon found himself the focus of a police investigation. The homeless man was then cited for eating pizza. Yes, you read that right. He’s was charged with eating pizza in public; more specifically, eating in the bus stop shelter. The law is real, yet according to Kelly Cutler with the Coalition on Homelessness, the violation is rarely enforced. The man needed help with paying the fine, so he sought out the help of a local homeless advocacy group.

“Some people get agitated or upset, but he was being a good sport…He laughed about it. He kept saying he bought the pizza for his friend on her birthday,” Cutler said. He was given a citation on March 5th and was due on court on April 5th, but Cutler said he does have legal recourse. If the man can show he’s seeking help for being homeless, the court will likely dismiss the charges which can carry a hefty fine of $250.

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SFGate wrote, “Homeless outreach workers said Monday that they could not recall a similar instance of pizza prosecution, although another coalition worker did recall that a client of his had been cited some months ago for skateboarding on a Fulton Street sidewalk at 3 a.m., instead of in the street.” Cutler called the ticket a “waste of police services” and doesn’t seem to understand why now, all of a sudden, the police are enforcing laws long overlooked.

The Free Thought Project understands why police go after the homeless. In short, the answer is revenue generation. As TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, there’s a lot of revenue which can be generated when police departments target agencies which help the homeless, as well as the homeless themselves. Those who help the homeless can find themselves on the wrong side of the law. In one

In one such case, a few entrepreneurs sought to reclaim discarded food and provide it to the homeless. They were arrested. In another instance, a homeless woman was arrested and charged with charging her cell phone in public.

While some see the police fines, arrests, and penalties as a war on the homeless, instead of a war on homelessness, others simply see such police actions as revenue generation. At any rate, there’s something to say about an America which doesn’t allow people to eat pizza at a bus stop. So much for being the land of the free!