Pizza Places Across the Country Facing Pepperoni Shortage

Seriously 2020, you've really gone and done it this time. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic,  pizza shops across the country are facing the worst shortage of all...pepperoni!

According to a Bloomberg report, pizza shops around the United States are reporting that pepperoni prices are rising, and the supply is starting to outweigh the demand. Some pizza places are even seeing the price of the favorite topping doubling, which is leading to some trouble for the eateries.

So why is this all happening? Well there seems to be two reasons for pizza lovers to go into crisis mode. First, all those pork processing plants have had to reduce the amount of workers to follow local social distancing guidelines. That is making it more difficult to produce the meat in a timely manner.

The second issue isn't really that big of a surprise. Pizza has be a hot commodity during the pandemic. That was  especially true when many people were sticking close to home for weeks at a time and doing more deliveries and take-outs.

Although  there are a ton of toppings to add to your pizza, pepperoni seems to be the most popular according to YouGov. They found that 53% of people  selected pepperoni as on of their top three favorite pizza toppings.

As of right now the shortage is hitting smaller pizza places the hardest. Larger national chains like Domino's and Little Caesars are often locked into pre-negotiated, long term contracts where prices can't change.

This pandemic has brought some interesting shortages like toilet paper, and just last week last week, Dr. Pepper announced a shortage of its product on store shelves amid the pandemic. Now with adding pepperoni to the list I'm afraid to ask... what's next?