3 hours ago
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Like a yellow taxi or the pizza rat, the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich has become a symbol of New York City. You can find a BEC in just about any bodega, or corner store, where it serves as a cheap, filling breakfast, quick lunch or hangover cure.
But with egg prices soaring across the country due to inflation and the worst avian influenza outbreak in history, delis are struggling to keep the price down. It’s been tough since 2022, when the bird flu began, with reports of farmers having to slaughter millions of birds a month. Francisco Marte, a bodega owner in the Bronx and president of the Bodega and Small Business Association, told NY1 that about 50% of delis had to raise prices on BECs to make a profit.
Prices vary across the city, but a few years ago it was easy to find a BEC for $3. Now you’re likely to pay at least $5, with some bodegas charging over $10.
One solution, according to two enterprising vegan food companies: try the faux option.
As first reported in the Daily News, more than 50 New York bodegas rolled out their “Bird Flu Bailout” initiative this week. Dreamed up by Just Egg, a plant-based egg substitute produced by Eat Just, and Plantega, a local vegan deli chain, the stunt encourages New Yorkers to buy BECs – minus the E.
Just Egg uses mung bean, a member of the legume family, to imitate the texture of light, fluffy eggs. The San Francisco-based startup’s product is available in nearly 50,000 grocery stores across North America, though it’s not that much cheaper than a carton of eggs: one 16oz bottle costs $7.50.
Josh Tetrick, the CEO of Eat Just, said that bird flu had been a boon to business. “All the major retailers, from big convenience stores to restaurant chains, are reaching out to us now saying, ‘Hey, what’s up with this plant-based egg?’” he said.
Though Eat Just’s Silicon Valley headquarters are on the opposite coast to New York’s bodegas, Tetrick believes that a presence in corner stores is key. “Bodegas are a cultural symbol of New York,” he said. “We don’t want to be just a northern California egg. We want to introduce Just Eggs to people who think the idea of a plant-based egg is the weirdest thing they’ve ever heard of.”
I love and respect all people and believe that vegans should eat their meat and dairy alternatives freely. Still, the idea of Eat Just, a California-based company using the language of venture capitalism to come for bodegas, doesn’t feel great, either. (Plantega is a New York-based company, and its founder, Nil Zacharias, is a former ad executive and marketing consultant.) I decided to try a faux BEC at a bodega near my apartment in Brooklyn that offers the Plantega/Just Egg version.
I arrived right as the early lunch rush hit, and noticed that my sandwich cost $8, which was just as much as the real thing. That seems to invalidate basically every part of this experiment, but Tetrick says that Just Egg doesn’t control prices at bodegas. According to a “quick survey” from the company, the majority of NYC corner stores sell fake BECs for less than the traditional option. “The ones who go more expensive have just chosen to do that,” he said.
The owner of one Upper East Side bodega told ABC that his vegan options used to be more expensive than the real deal, but that’s changed because of inflation. “It’s cheaper now, because of the price of eggs,” he said. The local outlet New York Groove reported that Plantega sandwiches were still “relatively cheaper” than many egg options, with most coming in at about $10 apiece.
According to Zacharias’s anecdotal knowledge from working with Plantega bodegas, the average price of a regular BEC tends to be between $4.50 and $6.50. “Within the last month or so, many bodegas are adding upcharges of $1 or $2 for regular sandwiches, so in some areas, the price gap between traditional and plant-based has narrowed.”
Right now, however, it seems like it’s still cheaper to get an expensive egg sandwich in most locations than an even more expensive vegan egg one – and the “Bird Flu Bailout” scheme might just be smart marketing, rather than a cheaper alternative.
But most experts predict that egg prices could rise even further, changing those economics. Some bodega owners have used classic NYC creativity to combat rising costs. One in the Bronx garnered headlines last month for selling “loosie” eggs, not unlike single cigarettes, to customers who didn’t want to pay for a full carton.
When I got my sandwich, I noticed it didn’t have the familiar, comfortable heft of a full-on BEC. I took my first bite and thought, oh, this is cute. It tasted close to the real thing with salty bacon, tangy cheese and soft eggs.
I chewed, and chewed, and chewed, because the leather, gummy faux bacon required quite a bit of gnawing. What existed of the cheese – there wasn’t much – lacked the warm, melty consistency that holds a sandwich together. I fear that if I relied on this fake BEC to ease a hangover, I’d be setting myself up for a pretty terrible day.
And what about the egg? That was probably the best part of the vegan BEC, if only because it tasted so unremarkable. I just didn’t notice it that much, which is strange, as it took up most of the sandwich.
Tetrick says Just Egg’s path to breakfast domination comes from infiltrating local joints, “whether that’s a bodega or a biscuit and gravy restaurant in South Carolina”. And they’re not just going after the do-gooders who are vegan or concerned about the climate. Ninety-one per cent of their customers are not vegan or vegetarian. They’re hoping more traditional egg eaters will try their plant-based alternative as prices continue to rise.
