Expensive Pizza!
$12 for an ordinary-looking cheese pizza! Isn't that a bit steep for 1990?
shareThey looked like they were x-large in size so I guess $12 sounds okay.
share
MovieChat Forums > Home Alone (1990) Discussion > Expensive Pizza!
Probably for a middle class family but, The McCallisters were flying to Paris first class (for the adults) and how many minor tickets did they need? $12 for pizza? I doubt that would put a dent in their budget....if they even had one. I remember growing up back in the '90s on Long Island, you could get a large cheese pie at a decent place for $7.50-$8. I'm sure since they lived in such a nice area, the pizza place took advantage of them and/or they did get toppings.
shareYeah, the affluent setting of their house probably inflated the pizza price. Adjusting for inflation, $12 in 1990 would be $26 now. (source: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/)
shareKeep in mind too I am sure a few pizza restaurants had a "baked in" fee for delivery as well, which may have added $3-4 to the tab.
shareIt’s Chicago , prices are going to be higher
share$12 in 1990 is $28 adjusted for inflation in 2023. Those were indeed some expensive pizzas.
I'm not American, and a pizza here today costs roughly $10-11 at an immigrant-run pizzeria. Similar to what you pay in Oklahoma. They might go up to $20 at a fancier Italian restaurant.
https://www.realsimple.com/how-much-pizza-costs-every-state-7113140
We can get large pizzas around where I am (NE U.S.) for $10, but in the Northeast, there are a LOT of quality pizzerias and they charge accordingly. Mid to high twenties for a quality pizza is not uncommon around here. The busiest pizza places near me all have $25 or more pizzas. The cheap places aren't as busy.
The two places we use would be almost $30 for large pizzas with mozz and one or two extra toppings - our favorites are sausage and mushroom and a white garlic broccoli with ricotta (sp?).
Here in the U.S., there's a nationwide big box wholesale "club" chain (Costco) that has an 18" pizza for $9.95. Lots of people like it, but honestly I think it's a disgusting mess, but it is baked fresh at least and it is cheap. But if I'm going to eat those kind of carbs and calories, it's not going to be Costco pizza.
You could order extra large family size pizzas here that cost something similar to $28. I was thinking that may have been akin to what they had ordered and it would make a bit more sense, but I don't think the pizzas were that big. Some pizzerias where I'm at have seemingly stopped selling family size pizzas, though, because apparently they don't turn enough profit or something.
But maybe it's more common to share a pizza in the US? They did order ten of them for 15 people. Then it's not necessarily so expensive if that's the case. Here you typically eat a whole pizza by yourself. Which I personally think can get too much.
In the Northeast U.S., pizzas are generally sold by small, medium, and large - and pizzas are generally shared. When my boys lived home, we would get two mediums and have leftovers. A typical large pizza would feed two adults till they split and have leftovers.
Now that my wife and I are empty nesters, we would never order two small pizzas, we would order a medium and usually order half the pizza with one topping and the other half with something else.
It costs $30 to deliver a large stuffed crust 3 topping pizza from Pizza Hut where I live in Southern Illinois. According to google $12 is the equivalant of $29 in today's world. But, you have to take in mind that Kevin lives in Chicago where everything is more expensive than it is in rural parts of Illinois. So it probably would be $29 for a large cheese pizza.
Honestly though that google inflation calculator may not be accurate since things are way cheaper in states with lower minimum wage than they are in states like Illinois, California, New York, and Missouri where they raised the minimum wage too high. I'd move from Illinois but I work for Kroger where you have to stay in your region to keep your hours, pay, and seniority. I could transfer to Paducah, Kentucky but the cheapest apartment would be too expensive there.
Honestly though that google inflation calculator may not be accurate since things are way cheaper in states with lower minimum wage than they are in states like Illinois, California, New York, and Missouri
The Google calculator may or may not be accurate, but a buck is a buck whether you're in Chicago or anywhere else in the country. Businesses are welcome to charge whatever they want, but my experience is that a rural gas station pizza will be quite a bit more expensive than a similar one from Dominos. share
Not only that Winnetka where the Home Alone house is located is in one of the most affluent suburbs in the entire US.
shareI dont know about USA but In the UK the pizza pricing system is a complicated marketing minefield of bullshit special offers.
A bit like broadband and sofas.
If you are not using any kind of voucher or offer you will be paying well over double what a pizza is worth , its the customers job to navigate this minefield and locate the correct tokens to power-up , like some kind of fucked up video game.
Well you can get fucked Dominoes, I aint playin.
You know, pizza is one of those thing that ranges in price a lot. $1.25 for a dollar store pizza, $3-9 frozen. Delivered pizza if you ask for the deals or search for them, you can get a large for like $10
Then there is 'fancier' pizza restaurants around here that have a reputation as good/better, and jacked their prices to $20-30 a pizza
You have ones that are not so good that do that too,
And you have restaurants with really, really good pizza at an affordable price of around $11
$12 a pizza per large sounds about right actually, even in 1990
I agree - the price sounds right.
Also, better pizzerias use expensive cheese - good quality mozzarella (like Grande) and real Pecorino Romano is expensive stuff. San Marzano tomatoes aren't cheap either but I've found good quality crushed Italian tomatoes are a good substitute, but never use pizza "sauce" - whatever that is.
There was a pizzeria in the city I grew up in that was renown for excellent pizza. They were in business from the 30s until the early 1990s when the last son sold the business. People today still talk about how great it was. The new owners immediately changed the ingredients of the pizza and almost as quickly the place became a ghost town. I'm sure the owners didn't have a clue what happened.