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Comment by burntrelish1273 | Hacker News Reader

Just an FYI: cheese is the most expensive ingredient in/on a pizza, so this makes perfect sense.

Reason: think of all the gallons of milk and processing it takes to make an unit of cheese.

Source: Someone whom worked at a Pizza Hut in South San Jose in high-school.

PS: Another interesting business model (in Texas) is Braum's, which is a large co-op ice cream/restaurant/convenience store chain run on behalf of a consortium of dairy farmers. This cuts out middlemen and is basically direct-to-consumer. The prices are much lower than similar SKUs in local grocery stores and the quality is quite high.

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Don't mean to nitpick but Braum's isn't a co-op/consortium. It's a single family's massively-integrated retail operation. They own and operate basically all of their farms and ranches along with the manufacturing plants for their containers and even their delivery fleet. Braum is the last name of the guy who founded it.

(Oh, and it's not Texan. Braum's is an Okie brand; they don't open up stores more than about 300 miles from their central farms in Oklahoma.)

also interesting they like investing in the commercial real estate they use for the stores, somewhat like McDonald's in that respect

Everything before the word "but" is BS.

I never said it was based in Texas, you read the wikipedia and acted like an expert. It's a vertically-integrated supply-chain.

I worked for Braum's for four years in Fort Worth, Texas. It was my first "real" job after high school. They have a little book that they give employees that describes the company and the history. The company describes itself like I did. Would you like a picture as proof of my bona fides?

Please don't assume malice.

On the internet nobody knows you're an expert.

You got salty quickly. There's quite a distinction between a private family business with a vertically integrated supply chain and a farmers cooperative operating a chain of ice cream shop, and I'm glad he pointed that out.

That explains why I've never seen one anywhere near Houston! I always wondered.

Braum's just cut the size of their burgers and their shakes aren't as good anymore. I'm so disappointed in them.

Always wondered why i couldn't get it outside Texas. The burgers and ice cream are great.

Which is a similar model to UDF (United Dairy Farmers) in Ohio[1].

Sidebar: if you find yourself in southern Ohio near a UDF, go ahead and give the cookie dough ice cream a try. You won't be disappointed.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Dairy_Farmers

Nice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braum's

128 stores in Oklahoma

99 in Texas

27 in Kansas

13 in Arkansas

13 in Missouri

Have also heard good things about Penn State's creamery:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_State_University_Creamery

More dairy companies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dairy_product_companie...

Wawa also started as a dairy farm

| "cheese is the most expensive ingredient in/on a pizza"

I agree. Usually. ;-) Just for fun, I offer the menu for a nearby (Vancouver) pizza joint that includes several triple-digit-dollar 12" pizzas, right up to the $850 Seenay.

http://www.stevestonpizza.com/menu-english/

What a terrible mess and for $850.

> Medley of tiger prawns, lobster ratatouille, smoked steelhead, Russian Osetra caviar, snowed with Italian white truffles $850

It makes other pizzas look more reasonably priced. And I'm sure they sell a few Seenas's too.

Also, from the article:

> Price has long been Leprino's biggest advantage, and a large one since cheese accounts for about 40% of a pizza's cost.

Maybe the US government should stop propping up cheese prices and release cheese from the national stock pile.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/23/pf/government-cheese-surplus...

It would not be the highest priced item on all pizzas, but by volume * price this appears to be true.

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