National Chicken Wing Day arrived with a simple shift for wing buyers: wholesale whole wing prices are down from a year ago. Restaurants may not pass that drop along on the menu.
Kipper Greist, managing partner of Jumby Bay Island Grill, said the savings are more likely to show up as deals than as permanent price cuts. He said, "Prices fluctuate constantly on every menu item" and added that menu changes are usually too expensive to make for every market move.
Kipper Greist on menu prices
Greist said, "If one item drops, three go up. The cost of reprinting menus is thousands of dollars, so it isn't cost-effective to raise or lower prices when the market changes. We would rather offer specials like our 99-cent wings on Wednesdays and during football season." That points to the playbook many restaurants use when ingredient prices move: lean on limited offers, not a full reprint.
A July market trend report from Performance Foodservice said there was a steady supply available, and the lower prices come as chicken production has outpaced expectations. The U.S. meat-chicken producers boosted domestic production by 2.2% in 2025, aided by lower feed costs, while wholesale wing prices opened in 2025 below $1.00 per pound and rose only modestly to slightly above $1.10 per pound.
Wholesale wing prices and supply
Tom Super, senior vice president of public affairs for the National Chicken Council, said, "Chicken production, including wings, of course, is running ahead of earlier expectations as hatchability and liveability have somewhat surprisingly improved." He added, "That is, the poultry genetists and live-production management have apparently begun to overcome these two challenges."
Super also said, "With the wing supply somewhat fixed, fluctuating consumer demand heavily influences the ups and downs in wholesale prices." When wing prices rise to unattractive levels for food service buyers, he said, they pull back on wing promotions and special price offerings; when prices become much more affordable, they move back into marketing wings more aggressively.
When specials return
Southern Ag Today said the 2025 price level was a 66% decline from the historic pandemic-era high above $3.20 per pound. The National Chicken Council said chicken wings are an affordable protein option, but the route from wholesale relief to a cheaper menu item still runs through restaurant costs, printed menus, and promotion strategy. For diners, the clearest shift may be in specials like 99-cent wings on Wednesdays, not necessarily in the price posted every day.
