Photo: unsplash.com/jkakaroto

It has been irrevocably established that the cost of almost everything has escalated - this includes the classic, simple and unassuming pizza slice... and it has been demonstrated that New Yorker, Liam Quigley, has the data to substantiate this. Commencing his investigation in the year of 2014, Quigley, a journalist, meticulously recorded the price of each slice of pizza he consumed in the city and preserved his revelations on his Instagram profile, which he named NYC Slice. Fast-forwarding eight years into the future and arriving at the conclusion of the calendar year of 2022, he processed all of the prices into a graph, endeavouring to determine if the average cost of the product adhered to any sort of foreseeable trend.

Without further ado, the results of this extensive research are in: in accordance with Quigley's analysis, the mean price of a basic pizza slice in New York City has augmented from $2.52 in 2014 to $3 at the conclusion of 2022, constituting an exponential 16% elevation.

As noted by the investigator himself on his personal website, the computation omits dollar slices and is not in any way designed to function as a grading system for tastiness. Nonetheless, Quigley remarks that "the most conspicuous finding is the decrease in the quantity of sauce employed in slices. I am certain that this is a cost-cutting technique, but the overall calibre of the average slice within the city has undeniably deteriorated."

The correspondent also divulges which of the over 450 slices he partook of were his favourites - in no particular order:

Margherita Pizza, situated at 163-04 Jamaica Avenue in Queens, is priced at $3.75 (this is an increase from $3.00 in 2014)
Ozone Pizzeria, situated at 9615 Liberty Avenue in Queens, is priced at $3.00
Ciro Pizza Cafe, located at 862 Huguenot Avenue in Staten Island, is priced at $2.50
Pizza D’Amore, situated at 208 Beach 116th Street in Queens, is priced at $2.50
Sam’s Pizza, situated at 232 West 231st Street in the Bronx, is priced at $3.00
PG Pizza, located at 904 Morris Avenue in the Bronx, is priced at $2.75
Joe’s Pizza, situated at 7 Carmine Street in Manhattan, is priced at $4.00 (this is an increase from $2.75 in 2014)
Bleecker Street Pizza, situated at 69 7th Avenue South in Manhattan, is priced at $3.64 (this is an increase from $2.75 in 2014)
Pizza Place, located at 4024 White Plains Road in the Bronx, is priced at $3.25
Big John’s Pizza, situated at 219-11 Jamaica Avenue in Queens, is priced at $2.75
Mario’s Pizzeria, situated at 224 DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn, is priced at $3.00
Sunnyside Pizza, situated at 4001 Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside, is priced at $3.50 (this is an increase from $2.50 in 2014)
New Park Pizza, located at 156-71 Cross Bay Boulevard in Queens, is priced at $3.25 (this is an increase from $2.75 in 2014)

And for anyone who was curious, Quigley states that to accomplish his project, he spent a total of $955.09 on basic slices in the course of eight years. We assert that it was money well spent.