Wholesale Bacon Is Currently Cheap as Hell So Stock Up Immediately

Are you one of those *bacon freakz*? You know, the first in line to try whatever Frankensteinian bacon-wrapped something or other appears from the novelty fast food factory? Do you proudly sport photo-print shirts emblazoned with slices of sizzling bacon just so everyone knows how much you enjoy pork fat? Or are you just a run-of-the-mill but devoted BLT enthusiast?

Well, members of all of the above demographics can exchange fist-bumps, because wholesale bacon is hellllaaaaa cheap right now!

At just $4.12 a pound—according to the US Department of Agriculture—bacon is 25 percent cheaper than it was a year ago. And if you want to go (sort of) whole hog—pun intended—you can buy a wholesale pork belly for 45 percent less than what it would have cost you in 2014, at a price that represents a five-year low.

One possible reason for the price dive, according to Bloomberg, could be that when demand for bacon skyrocketed in the past few years, production overloaded the market, and many of the pricier pork bellies that were frozen last year are just now making it to stores and suppliers.

All of those Pinterest links about bacon weaving are finally flexing their power in the marketplace. Apparently "pre-cooked and raw bacon is flying off the slicers," according to processors such as Sugar Creek Packing, which handles some 2 billion rashers annually and is expecting a 15 percent increase in sales this year.

But if you're buying on the small scale, don't necessarily expect to enjoy the same bargains as those purchasing wholesale. The markup from retail to consumer can be as high as sevenfold—largely due the flux of frozen meat infiltrating the market.

For grocery stores and restaurants, why give customers a break when they'll keep ordering bacon on their cheeseburgers and in their milkshakes with or without a lower price? Dennis Smith of Chicago's Archer Financial Services describes it to Bloomberg as "highway robbery … a huge markup."

Now's the time to install that walk-in fridge you've been thinking about knocking out the second bathroom for, or indulging that all-bacon deli business idea you've been kicking around since 2010. These are deals!

Among the most thrilled are likely Paleo worshippers, those guys who cook bacon on the barrels of their assault rifles, and the founders of the United Church of Bacon. Bacon continues to unite and delight.

But beware the bacon barons—a grand of rashers don't come for free.