Listen Now: Cream Cheese Shortage

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The supply chain pain is coming for your bagel. I’m Brian Banmiller on Business.

Toys, toilet paper, Christmas trees, it seems this year there is a shortage of just about everything. And now New York City is about to run out of cream cheese. All over the city bagel makers say the smear shortage is real. In some cases, bagel shops are predicting they have just days before the supply runs dry. And no matter how many calls for help they make; distributors don’t have anything to deliver. According to the New York Times, New York bagel sellers go through thousands of pounds of cream cheese every few weeks. And most shops start their recipes with Philadelphia cream cheese. But not the kinds you buy in the store. According to the times the raw product is unprocessed and unwhipped. That base is then used by bagel makers as part of individual creations. But without that base, it’s not the same. And it’s not just breakfast, cream cheese is used in many baked goods as well. Which means the bad news could be spreading to your dessert menu. Brian Banmiller, CBS News.

About Brian

CBS News Radio national business journalist Brian Banmiller has spent more than 40 years in the news industry, covering business, politics and the economy on television, radio and in print. Currently, his “Banmiller on Business” reports are delivered to an audience of millions nationwide.