- A single bottle of Huy Fong Foods' Sriracha sauce is going for as much as $70 on eBay due to a chili pepper shortage.
- The high price of the hot sauce means it's cheaper to invest in some well-known S&P 500 companies.
A shortage of the Sriracha hot sauce has boosted the online price of a single bottle to as much as $70 - and that means it's cheaper to buy blue-chip shares such as Coca-Cola, Bank of America or Pfizer.
Online prices of the popular sauce surged in recent months due to a production crunch. Huy Fong Foods – the company behind one of America's favorite condiments – has been facing a chili pepper shortage over the past year due to extreme weather conditions.
"Unfortunately, this is out of our control and without this essential ingredient we are unable to produce any of our products (Chili Garlic, Sambal Oelek, and Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce)," the company wrote in a letter to customers in 2022.
The squeeze has translated into exorbitant prices for customers who are having to pay $70 for a bottle on eBay, first reported by Yahoo Finance. Shockingly, one seller marked a 28 oz 15-pack for $955.55.
Turn to Amazon and it's no better, as Insider's Lauren Edmonds reports, with a a 17 oz two-pack selling for as much as $129.99 and another is pricing a 28 oz two-pack for $87.
Given that, it's actually cheaper to buy some blue-chip US stocks.
Shares of high-profile S&P 500 companies including Coca-Cola, PayPal, Citigroup, Bank of America, or Pfizer are all priced lower than a single Sriracha bottle. Coca-Cola and Pfizer cost $60.58 and $68.10 apiece, respectively, while Pfizer is substantially reasonable at $36.72 a share. Citi is at $46.74 and Bank of America at $29.2.
That's despite the benchmark share index staging an impressive rally this year on the back of an AI-fueled tech boom, which has seen investor appetite for US stocks balloon in 2023.
So maybe there's a silver lining for Sriracha lovers here: instead of shelling out money on pricey sauce bottles, why not invest it wisely?