As if those recession-era shrinking cereal boxes weren't enough of a hindrance to eating an affordable breakfast, the price of milk just refuses to go down. And it has nothing to do with those silly PMS ads. The Daily News today digs into the cost of leche and finds things looking pricey, with no good news on the horizon. Taking inflation into account, the average price of a half-gallon of milk has gone up 11 percent in the city since 2000—while it dipped 2.1 percent in urban areas nationally.
Part of the problem seems to be a lack of dairies delivering to the city. Elmhurst Dairy, the city's largest remaining milk processor, has been threatening since this summer that it may have to shutdown without Starbucks business ,and the News says that the nation's biggest processor, Dean Foods, is not exactly known for playing fair when selling to small businesses. One bodega manager in the Bronx complains to the paper that Dean's Tucsan Dairy charges him $2.80 a gallon, but somehow when they deliver the same milk to the Getty minimart next door and the Rite Aid across the street those businesses are able to sell their milk for $2.50 a half-gallon. Suspicious!
Of course, overpriced milk is nothing new to New York City. Back in 2008 the City Council made a big stink about the price of milk, which led to the abolition of an old government-defined threshold price for a the stuff. But don't expect any quick government response to these latest price bumps until this fight between Elmhurst and Starbucks is sorted out. The former's lawsuit against the latter goes to trial next month.
And anyway, despite there being laws on the books, the state of New York has never prosecuted a retailer for overcharging. Maybe all those human breast milk chefs are on to something?
