{"id":74028,"date":"2025-12-30T20:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/74028\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T20:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:47:08","slug":"seafood-sales-steady-for-new-years-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/74028\/","title":{"rendered":"Seafood sales steady for New Year’s Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shrimp and scallops remain in demand as shoppers splurge on seafood for New Year\u2019s Eve celebrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, the staples are shrimp and lobster tails,\u201d said Jim Nixon, vice president and general manager of Valley Seafood on North Washington Street in Wilkes-Barre. \u201cBesides the warm-water lobsters, we carry three different types of cold-water lobster tails\u00a0 \u2014 African, Canadian and Australian. They\u2019re a big, big mover down here, along with scallops and haddock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IanIan Lopera and Matthew Cooper stocks snow crabs at the outdoor seafood market at Cooper\u2019s Seafood House in Scranton Tuesday, December 30, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

Nixon noted the prices of many seafood favorites remained stable since last year with one significant outlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest hassle this year is the price of king crab legs,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re a lot higher than normal \u2014 probably double the price. This year, I believe they\u2019re like $70 a pound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several factors contributed to the substantial increase in the cost of crab legs, Nixon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of everything \u2026 from tariffs to different countries not selling them, to limits on how much they can fish the waters,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not as plentiful as normal this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Cooper, co-owner of Cooper\u2019s Seafood House on North Washington Avenue in Scranton, stressed that customers continue to purchase Alaskan king crab despite the elevated prices.<\/p>\n

\"AA variety of seafood options are for sale at the outdoor seafood market at Cooper\u2019s Seafood House in Scranton Tuesday, December 30, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more expensive, but it\u2019s still selling,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cIt sold much more than I ever thought for Christmas Eve. People wanted it so we got it again for New Year\u2019s Eve, and people are still calling and asking about it. They\u2019re not overly worried about the price; they want quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s sells a 10-pound box with six to nine king crab legs for $90 a pound \u2014 about double the price from last year, Cooper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe profit margin is very small,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m doing it as a convenience for our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Russian embargo drastically drove up king crab prices, Cooper said.<\/p>\n

\"ShrimpShrimp is for sale at the outdoor seafood market at Cooper\u2019s Seafood House in Scranton Tuesday, December 30, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russians fish most of the crab, and the American industry was almost put out of business,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only place to buy king crab was Norway, and their prices were just astronomical because the Japanese buy a ton of live king crab from the Norwegians or anybody they can get it from. That pushed the price through the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Bradigan, director of operations for Gerrity\u2019s Supermarkets, which operates 10 grocery stores throughout Lackawanna, Luzerne and Northampton counties, stated the price for a popular crustacean remained relatively flat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of lobsters \u2014 which are huge for New Year\u2019s \u2014 is about the same as it was last year,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were a little cheaper last year, so our retail prices are the same this year. We\u2019re (even) $1 cheaper on the 4-ounce, cold-water, Canadian tail, which are $5.99 each.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerrity\u2019s opted not to sell king crab legs due to the exorbitant costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very expensive last year and they are ridiculously expensive this year, so we\u2019ve stayed away from them,\u201d Bradigan said. \u201cThere is huge demand and limited supply. We would have to sell the 16-to-20-count red king crab legs for about $50 or $60 a pound. To put that in perspective, 10 years ago, we would sell the six-to-nine or nine-to-12-count king crab, which are the bigger ones, for $30 a pound.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KingKing Crab and Snow Crab legs are for sale at the outdoor seafood market at Cooper\u2019s Seafood House in Scranton Tuesday, December 30, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

Instead, Gerrity\u2019s sells 5-ounce to 8-ounce snow crab clusters for $9.99 a pound, Bradigan said.<\/p>\n

Certain varieties of shrimp and scallops cost more this year, Bradigan added.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, the (shrimp) harvest is a little bit different,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were certain sizes that were still a great value and certain sizes that were a little bit more expensive. Fresh, dry sea scallops are more expensive this year by about $5 a pound \u2014 $30 to $35.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nixon believes the combination of Valley Seafood\u2019s longevity \u2014 nearly 80 years in business \u2014 and reputation, along with family traditions, leads to strong sales around the holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been as busy as usual,\u201d he said. \u201cThe holidays come and people buy whatever they want because they only treat themselves once a year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shrimp and scallops remain in demand as shoppers splurge on seafood for New Year\u2019s Eve celebrations. \u201cThis year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,201,182,803,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-74028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-lackawanna-county","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-luzerne-county","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-scranton","14":"tag-scranton-headlines","15":"tag-scranton-news","16":"tag-top-stories-stt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}