I went out to buy some eggs this afternoon but my local Ralph's didn't have any. Not at any price. Bird flu is hitting hard here in California.
But then I went to my local Gelson's and picked up a dozen eggs for $6.49. Using the rule of thumb that everything at Gelson's is overpriced by about 25%, this suggests that eggs are currently going for about $5.20.
Is this expensive? Indeed so. But how expensive. In addition to bird flu, here in California all our eggs are cage-free by law, so they always cost more than most places. And it turns out the range of prices for eggs is pretty astounding. Here's what the USDA says they cost last week:
These are nationwide averages. The price reported monthly by the BLS is an average of all of these except for organic+free range and pasture raised. They don't say how this is weighted, but their November price was $3.65, which suggests no weighting at all. It's just a straight-up average of five different types. So if you're OK with regular old eggs, you're paying only a bit more than half the headline price that's reported by the BLS and picked up in news reports everywhere.
Price of Eggs at Costco is perfectly reasonable. Organic too
I toured three egg farms in IA & NE.When the bird flu hit in the early 00's they landfilled 24 million birds, about 8 million a piece. Had bio-security precautions - shower in, put on clothes and shoes provided on other side, and shower out. They did build humongous barns for "free range," Held about 100,000 birds. The other 8M in cages w/ feed grain supplied on a screw conveyor.
I'm wondering if some intrusive oppressive profit and business killing regulation of laying hen raising including perhaps not having them all the same breed would cut down on repeated epidemics and mass killings.
How's the EU doing on this?
Also, don't try to buy eggs on Monday. Why? Deliveries don't start until later in the day, And the eggs have been sold to Saturday and Sunday buyers. So low stock on Monday.
And TJ's had eggs today. Not a lot, but they had eggs.
I paid $3.25 here in South Dakota. Of course, come January 20th (the 21st at the latest), they'll be down to $1.49, right?
Gas, too.
Gas near me in Brooklyn is $2.94. I saw $2.49 in the Midwest last month and it's probably lower now, and $3.99 in Los Angeles. The Trump effect has preceeded his actually being President, obviously. Happy days are already here!
Last week Aldi here had no eggs including carton egg whites, but that Aldi is always a complete disaster. Meanwhile the price of the cheapo eggs here are about like the Free Range ones in that chart.
Even if no prices drop, we'll finally be able to again blame poor people, immigrants and gays, and those unjustly persecuted for Jan 6, will now be hailed as patriots. I guess 50% of Americans is fine with that. Living the dream!
Didn’t Costco have a big egg recall….. ah yes, the end of Dec. Those. eggs are still in your fridge. Read the paper and keep up on recalls.
I purchase little to no fresh food from Coctco.
There are lots of eggs where I shop priced at $6 or higher. But there is always one brand that sells for less, usually $2.99 or $3.99 at most. It varies which one. Most stores offer eggs as a loss leader. Just don't buy the high priced ones.
Safeway's eggs here were reasonable all along. About a year ago they switched to all cage-free, and the price doubled, but is still just under what's shown for cage-free here. I will say one thing: 30 dozen later, exactly one crumb of shell has fallen into the bowl, once. I was lucky to make through a dozen before, without a disaster. These are better eggs.
There's some serious gouging going on with the cage free eggs. I can understand a 10% price difference, maybe even 20%, but 100% is grossly disproportional to actual differences in cost.
Maybe it's just supply and demand for each type. All those uncheap kinds of eggs didn't even hardly exist outside a natural food store a few years back.
Well, most (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Utah) of the western states have made cage-free eggs the law, so...
Oh, and the largest price increases have occurred in just the last 2 weeks, so the data won't reflect that for a month or two, so...
don't count your chickens before they hatch?
I bought 18 regular extra large eggs that were the store brand (Food Lion) this weekend here in North Carolina. The price was $7.79. I was shocked! I expect you will see some massive price increases show up in the data soon.
Geez, and that's at Food Lion? I'd be scared to see what Harris Teeter is charging...
I live in west-central Virginia (Augusta County), where prices are typically a little lower than average. I shop carefully for groceries--Walmart and Food Lion for staples at lowest prices, Martin's for special items not carried at the low-price stores. I had to chuckle at Kevin's headline. No, the price of eggs is not lower than I think, since I know EXACTLY what the price is, and what it was last week, and last month. and last year.
This past weekend (January 3) my wife's grocery list had 2 dozen eggs. She likes me to get the Jumbos, but I sometimes balk at the price differential, so I downgrade her to Extra Large. At Food Lion, the Jumbos were $5.50 a dozen, the Extra Large were $5.00, and the Large were $4.00, so I got the Large. That was $2.00 less than the XL for the two dozen, which is borderline insanity. She flinched when she saw I had skipped right over the Extra Large, until I showed her the differential. Then she sighed and said "well, I guess we will be eating smaller eggs for a while." She's sensible.
I recently paid $6 at our local co-op for a dozen x-large, locally raised farm eggs. Not the cheapest, and more than the $4/doz they cost 4-5 years ago, but that goes directly to the farmer instead of some big chain store and a grocery wholesaler who mark up the price up 10x, so I don't mind.
No one marks up any commodity item 10X. Food is a competitive market (mostly) at every level, maybe particularly at the retail level. I have no idea why supermarket prices are mostly noticeably cheaper in for example much higher regulated Germany than the US though.
It was never about the cost of eggs.
I have chickens so my cost of eggs is way higher than you think ;-).
Indeed. That feed and grit aren't nothing, and protection from coyotes and raccoons is pretty critical.
Indeed. That feed and grit aren't cheap, and protection from coyotes and raccoons is pretty critical.
Damn you, Kevin! Why are you bludgeoning talking points with your facts?