Shortage of cream cheese at NYC bagel shops

Hi- There was an article a few days ago in the NYT about bagel shops in NYC dealing with a shortage of cream cheese. Sorry I can't give a link to the article. Is there a shortage in the Chicago area too?

NFriday wrote:Hi- There was an article a few days ago in the NYT about bagel shops in NYC dealing with a shortage of cream cheese. Sorry I can't give a link to the article. Is there a shortage in the Chicago area too?

No sign of that at Greenwood Deli New York Bagel & Bialy in Niles. The whipped cream cheese is always expensive, I didn't notice it as more than usual (which is only once or twice a year).

How a Cream Cheese Shortage Is Affecting N.Y.C. Bagel Shops
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/nyre ... ticleShare

No problem at the Dempster location of NYB&B in Skokie on Saturday on the way back from farmers market at the church.

When I went back Sunday (it's close enough, that I can be a snob and only eat them fresh), the onion bagel was warm and just flawless. The idea of Kindelsperger omitting their $1 bagels on his recent list of the areas best, in favor of almost entirely $3-4 bagels (something I barely knew existed) seemed comical.

A $3 bagel is like a $3 baguette in France, something to spur public outrage.

CNN has a story about the cream cheese shortage that is not behind a paywall. The initial part is about the impact on a cheesecake manufacturer New Jersey, Junior's Cheesecake, whose product is about 85% cream cheese.

Some more general information is later in the story:

Kraft Heinz (KHC) had been seeing demand for cream cheese rise both in restaurants and grocery stores even before the current holiday season, according to the company. Now, "we are maximizing our production to meet the unprecedented demand," the company told CNN Business in a statement, adding that it's shipping 30-35% more cream cheese to restaurants than it did last year. In retail channels, demand for cream cheese popped 18% in 2020 compared to 2019 and has remained at the level, Kraft noted.

The shortage is spreading rapidly!

=R=

(yeah, sorry about that)

Bloomberg story carried by Crain's Chicago Business: That cream cheese shortage you heard about? Cyberattacks played a part. Hackers shut down the biggest cheese manufacturer—a Wisconsin company with a cream cheese business that rivals Kraft's—during peak demand.

Schreiber Foods in Wisconsin, which makes cheese slices for most of the top burger chains in America and has a cream cheese business rivaling Kraft’s, closed for days in October after hackers compromised its plants and distribution centers. While that may not sound like a long time, the company is big enough that the lost production shook U.S. markets.

Since cream cheese is a fresh product, it cannot be stored for long periods and is particularly vulnerable to supply chain problems. The story notes that government data showed cream cheese production in October fell 6.9% from a year ago, which is material when demand is up and production had been running pretty much at capacity.

ekreider wrote:The initial part is about the impact on a cheesecake manufacturer New Jersey, Junior's Cheesecake, whose product is about 85% cream cheese.

The Glenview Costco had a full supply of Junior's this afternoon. Questioning how scarce cream cheese really is out there.

Here's more on the ransomware facet of this shortage:

gizmodo.com wrote:Following attacks on our hospitals, municipal governments, and fuel supplies, hackers have finally gone too far: They fucked with America’s cream cheese.

There’s been a serious shortage of cream cheese in recent weeks—one of the many seemingly random products that have come into short supply amid widespread supply chain disruption and labor shortages. According to Bloomberg, in this instance, hackers played a role. In mid-October, cheese giant Schreiber Foods (which has a cream cheese unit comparable to industry leader Kraft’s) was forced to close for several days due to a cyber attack. The hack coincided with the annual height of the U.S. cream cheese season—think cheesecakes—on top of demand that was already high due to workers remaining home during the pandemic, Bloomberg wrote.

There’s the additional complication that cream cheese doesn’t stay fresh for all that long compared to regular cheese, which depending on the variety can be stockpiled for months. Andrew Novakovic, an agricultural economist at Cornell University, told Bloomberg other factors include manufacturers having difficulty obtaining sufficient supplies of starch, plastic film, and packing, as well as drivers licensed to truck dairy products. All in all, a cream cheese manufacturer isn’t the worst target for an aspiring hacker right now.

The Bloomberg piece doesn’t get into the specifics of what happened at Schreiber; previously, the company told media it had experienced a “cyber event” that impacted its ability to “receive raw materials, ship product and produce product.” However, cybercriminals have become incredibly bold in the past few years and attacked increasingly large institutions and corporations with ransomware, a type of malware that encrypts targeted systems using powerful cryptography techniques. This renders the systems effectively useless unless, of course, the victim is willing to pay a ransom for the key to unlock them (or obtains it via other methods, such as the key being known from reuse of the exact same ransomware in a previous attack).

Ransomware Jerks Helped Cause the Cream Cheese Shortage

=R=

There’s the additional complication that cream cheese doesn’t stay fresh for all that long compared to regular cheese

This part surprised me. I have often kept unopened blocks of cream cheese in the refrigerator for months at a time with no spoilage events ever, and I wouldn't expect the typical edge-folded-foil-and-thin-cardboard packaging to qualify as a hermetic seal. (Yes, I realize cream cheese is supplied to delis, etc., in bulk rather than in wrapped blocks, but that's all the more reason it seems to me it would be resistant to spoilage.) On the other hand, using only part of a block of cream cheese does seem to invite spoilage sooner. Which is why I never use less than a whole block of cream cheese at a time.

Last week, I was walking down the cheese and butter aisle at Jewel, and I overheard people talking about a shortage of cream cheese. Up to that moment, I had no intention of buying cream cheese, but because of their comment, I immediately picked up a package. Interesting now to see their comments verified.

Tony's Grocery, Saturday, 1/29:

Dutch Farms brand cream cheese 8 oz bricks. 2 for $1.00. Sell by date: July 2022.
They had a mountain of them. I took 8. I've bought into the fad of smoking cream cheese. Way better than I thought it would be.