Bacon prices got you scared? Join the club.
Bacon of the month clubs let you lock in the price for a full year of gourmet breakfast meat. It's not exactly cheap, however.
What commodity's price rise has hit American pocketbooks hard? Bacon.
Photo illustration/Bildagentur Waldh盲usl/picture-alliance/Newscom
What commodity price rise has hit American pocketbooks hard this year:
Gasoline?
Barely a dent, up only 8 percent compared with a year ago.
Gold?
Up 25 percent, which has cheered investors but forced jewelry buyers to swallow hard. But the commodity that's packed a bigger punch is:
Bacon.
The breakfast meat is selling near record highs, because of a shortage of hogs. In November, the average retail price in the United States was 34 percent higher than a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Which is why dedicated breakfast-meat consumers might want to consider a bacon of the month club.
Sure, the clubs 鈥� there are at least four of them 鈥� offer tempting varieties like Arkansas peppered bacon () and Iowa natural Kurobuta applewood bacon ().
But the real benefit may be locking in the price. The 12-month packages run anywhere from $179 (about a pound a month from ) to $476 (two pounds per month from ).
Such price-protection doesn't exactly come cheap. The clubs' best deals still charge about $15 to $20 a pound. Even with all the price hikes over the past year, the store-bought variety only costs $4.70 a pound.
Still, the gourmet meat doesn't cook down as much as the store-bought stuff.
And hey, how many people can brag they belong to a bacon of the month club?