SF Bay Area restaurant supply chicken breasts prices for 2022 (so far)

Everyone thinks (or at least hopes) they are getting good prices from their distributors on the restaurant supplies. But distributors make comparing prices hard for a reason. The less restaurant owners, GMs, and Chefs know about what other restaurants are paying, the less power they have at the negotiating table

As part of our mission to help restaurants build a better bottom-line, Dashy Dash makes it easy for members to anonymously compare prices on restaurant supplies, arming them with information they can take to the negotiating table. Dashy Dash members submit vendor invoices; We clean, categorize, and anonymize the data, then provide detailed reports on how each member's prices compare to others in their area.

We want to make this data available to all restaurants, so no matter where you're located, please help support other restaurants like you; Sign-up and start submitting invoices and create a powerful network that puts restaurant first (And then tell a friend about Dashy Dash).

The below data is based on restaurants located in the San Francisco Bay Area

What did we learn about Chicken Breast prices over the past 3 months?

After looking at hundreds of Chicken Breasts prices extended to restaurants in the Bay Area we saw a number of trends. In the category of "Completely Unsurprising", prices went up over the course of the first half of the year, and there is a big gap between conventional chicken breasts and premium chicken breasts.

Prices have risen, but price increases have slowed

At the start of 2022, restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area purchasing conventional chicken breasts (chicken breasts without premium attributes like "Pasture-Raised" or "Organic" labels) were paying around $3.00 per lb. But, as of last month, a conventional chicken breast bought at afoodservice distributor was more likely to cost closer to $4.00. That's a 25% increase in cost over just 5 months.

Prices rose aggressively during February, but thankfully pace of price increases slowed at most distributors more recently.

There's a big gap between Premium and Conventional Chicken Breast

Obviously, not all chicken breasts are created equal. When we show display price comparisons to our members for the products they buy, we list a variety of attributes associated with each product that might affect price. These attributes include nutritional claims like organic, or non-GMO, humanitarian claims like pasture raised, preparation attributes like portion sizing, skin-on/skin-off, or fresh/frozen, and packaging attributes.

As you can see in the chart below premium priced chicken breasts were routinely between $5.50/lb and $6.50/lb. The higher priced items frequently carried the Organic label which commanded as much as a 85% per lb price premium over the lowest priced conventional chicken breasts. Over the course of the first half of the year we saw Conventional chicken breast prices as low as $3.05 per lb and Premium chicken breast prices as high as $6.67 per lbs.

Restaurants focused on quality, but looking for savings over organic might look for non-gmo free-range chicken breasts which ww frequently observed selling around half-way between the Premium and Conventional tier chicken breasts.

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Dashy Dash member restaurants get even more detailed reports on restaurant supply prices, including details about specific products and which suppliers are extending each price. We can not guarantee that you'll be able to access the same prices as other members, but the information in our reports should give you a solid starting point to understand the fair prices in your markets.