Noooooo....

Pizza prices escalating
SLICING PROFITS | Rising cheese costs forcing higher tab for a pie

June 24, 2007
BY BRUCE SCHREINER
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Before the dinnertime rush, Larry Lewis was chewing over business strategy at the Fat Jimmy's pizzeria he manages. The store had absorbed sharply rising cheese prices as long as possible.

It was time to increase the price on pizzas and pass along some of the expense that had been eating into profits the last few months.

Pizza makers are feeling the pinch of escalating costs for an essential ingredient in a hotly competitive, $30 billion-plus industry: cheese.

''We don't really have much choice,'' said Lewis, who competes in a pizza-heavy city that's the corporate home of large chains and features a large selection of pizza restaurants.

Mmmmm.... cold pizza for breakfast.... I'll be back in a few.