Egg Purchase Restrictions Implemented at Major US Grocery Stores
Loss of egg laying chickens is to blame, as over 148 million birds have been put down since the official start of the bird flu pandemic over 3 years ago. Meanwhile, Ohio reports is first case of a bird flu in humans.
Several major US grocery chains have recently implemented limits on egg purchases due to ongoing shortages caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI, aka ‘bird flu’). The outbreak has significantly reduced the laying hen population, leading to supply constraints and rising prices.
A Trader Joe’s representative noted challenges with the supply issue.
A representative for Trader Joe’s confirmed to “Good Morning America” on Monday that “Due to ongoing issues with the supply of eggs, we are currently limiting egg purchases to one dozen per customer, per day, in all Trader Joe’s stores across the country.”
“We hope these limits will help to ensure that as many of our customers who need eggs are able to purchase them when they visit Trader Joe’s,” the statement continued.
Costco, Kroger, and Whole Foods are also limiting egg purchases, and there are no projections for the end of the supply problem.
Amazon-owned Whole Foods posted signs on its shelves notifying customers that customers can only buy three cartons of eggs at one time.
“We are currently experiencing difficulty sourcing eggs that meet our strict animal welfare standards,” a sign posted at one of its stores in New York City read.
Kroger confirmed to FOX Business that some banner divisions are also limiting egg sales. At stores where limits are in place, the company is asking customers to only buy two dozen eggs per trip, a spokesperson told FOX Business.
…Costco also confirmed to CNN that it was limiting customers to three packages of eggs.
Experts have warned that egg shortages will continue as bird flu outbreaks continue to impact the U.S. laying hen flock.
There is hope, however, that the worst of the bird flu loss will pass when spring returns. Over 148 million birds have been put down since the official start of the bird flu pandemic over 3 years ago.
In January alone, the cost of eggs around the U.S. jumped more than 15% from a year ago, five times the overall U.S. inflation rate of 3%, Consumer Price Index data showed on Wednesday. In 2019, consumers could pick up a dozen eggs for around $1.54, but by last year the price had soared to $4.15 — a 170% increase, according to CBS News’ price tracker of everyday goods.
The spike in egg prices last month underscores the devastating impact of avian flu, which killed more than 40 million egg-laying birds last year. Including ducks and chickens, 148 million birds have been ordered euthanized since the current strain of bird flu, H5N1, began spreading around the U.S. in 2022.
If there’s any good news, it’s that egg prices are at least expected to rise more slowly over the course of the year. The January surge “is likely a one-off,” said EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco. But that may come as small consolation for the millions of consumers who continue to grapple with higher food costs both at home and in restaurants due to record-high egg prices.
In more bird flu news, the Ohio Department of Health reports the state’s first probable human case of bird flu.
According to Ohio health officials, a male Mercer County farm worker became infected with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) after coming in contact with “deceased commercial poultry.”
There have been 68 confirmed human cases of HPAI across 11 states since the start of 2024. One person in Louisiana died.
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Comments
Sorry. Thanks to the Covid fraud, I’m viewing this as another manufactured crisis until proven otherwise. That proof cannot come from any government or government-supported entity, since none of them have any credibility any more.
Even if it’s not a manufactured crisis big business will still take advantage of it to keep prices high for as long as they can.
I say… I say, boy! That’s a joke son!
Woops, should have been in reply to nordic prince.
Dangit.
Eggsactly.
(Sorry, I just had to do it. )
And, that’s no yolk!
Hey ! He cracked a joke!
It’s a shell game
We need to do what we need to and resist chickening out. (Heh, heh.)
.
This entire shortage mess began with a CDC warning. That’s it. Not once has the public seen any proof.
The fact that nobody saw it is proof how effective the warnings are.
/s
I doubt chicken producers are eager to cull 20 million birds just to prop up a conspiracy theory.
I wasn’t eager to close my business for one, either… but it wasn’t my choice.
The plight of the common man: prices go up but very rarely do they come back down, especially any significant degree. A year from now I expect we will be lucky to pay $5.00 a dozen and consider that a steal!
prices go down all the time. It’s called competition.
Let price ration it and you can always get all the eggs you want. They can’t take the ignorant hit from the media though, which makes things worse rather than better, as always.
The classic (now) economics lesson on price gouging is Mike Munger on econtalk long ago, not only a lesson in perverse side effects in economics but also entertaining, about surviving a NC hurricane aftermath and the search for ice.
https://youtu.be/8_z-GnhHyGg
Obviously, the grocers don’t want the bad publicity that will come with raising prices to restrict demand. So, what do they do? They resort to a ridiculous, easily evaded quota.
Actually, they’re raising prices to cover costs paid to their supplier. The profit goes to the guy with the hens that aren’t sick, not to the middlemen. Outrageous profit at the hen end is the incentive to bring in hens that aren’t sick even at some cost. Fly them up from Antarctica or something.
Grocers have to raise prices to cover costs, but they aren’t rasing them high enough to reduce demand to the available supply. The “outrageous” profit at the hen end is a consequence of the reduced supply with a relatively unchanging demand (inelastic demand in econ-speak). If the hen-end people did not raise prices, they would have to face a mismatch between supply and demand . I should point out to you as well that many hen-end people have been wiped put by this avian flu, and that those who still have healthy flocks face the very same prospect.
Earlier this week, large eggs in Walmart in SE CT were over $6,50/dozen, extra large were $7.69. At those prices there were plenty on the shelves.
Yet we have the same number of nuisance pigeons in our parks and predatory seagulls at our beaches stealing our french fries! They need to get Benton Harbor on the case! He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere! Bird flu my big a$$!
“We are currently experiencing difficulty sourcing eggs that meet our strict animal welfare standards.”
As usual with idiot progressives, they do not recognize the obvious consequences of their actions. They advocated for and sourced their eggs from government-mandated “cage-free” farms. This needless policy is most obviously demonstrated by pointing out that the chickens in question are still housed in large barns that they cannot (and should not) escape from, i.e., they’re in cages.
But it should be pointed out that the reason they’re in cages, partly, is to sequester them from other avian species that can be vectors of disease such as HPAI.
Whole Foods is what you get when preening, self-congratulatory consumer behavior overrides basic animal husbandry.
Irony is that Free Range Chickens are exposed to wild birds carrying the Virus. That is the main way the Virus spreads through chicken flocks.
The only way to protect the flock is to keep it inside, away from exposed spaces.
It’s a horrible existence for these chickens
Strange, but I haven’t had any problem obtaining my quail eggs.
Interesting. Around here we don’t have restrictions like “Only one dozen per customer.” We have signs saying roughly that there’s a general supply issue with eggs and most people just get that midwest “Oh, there’s only a half-dozen cartons left. I’ll skip them for now.”
OMG you call as many chickens as have been taken out due to bird flu you knew this was coming. Its the clown still voting left and blaming Trump that amaze me.
Any reporter trying to blame inflation on Trump should now be told to go find Biden or Harris and ask about the 100 million chickens killed.
This egg shortage is another example of the fact that the Biden administration was rudderless; in return for their silence about the vacuum at the top activist groups were given control of all aspects of the government.
So you had the intersection of the environmentalists, the animal rights people (NB Domesticated Commercial Animals have no standing with them) and Medicos looking for new virus/crisis combining to kill all the chickens.
It never occurred to any of these people that there would be an economic impact on the nation.
It’s biden’s fault.hahahahahhhahhaha. Thanks for confirming the redhat stereotype.
Hey that worlwide spike in inflation was Biden’s fault too.
one dozen per customer, per day
only buy three cartons of eggs at one time
only buy two dozen eggs per trip
limiting customers to three packages of eggs
I’m laughing at this “rationing.” “Oh my goodness! Panic because you can only buy 3 dozen eggs at once!” And this isn’t even per week – it’s per day or per trip. So you walk in and buy 3 dozen, buy them, take them to your car, then go back in and buy 3 dozen more.
Carter and his odd/even days gas rationing laughs at you from Hades, you pathetic fear-mongers.
I live in a rural farming community that has lots of chicken houses. Eggs are $4 a dozen with no shortages.
Conspiracy Theory of the Day:
Has anybody asked the question what danger the bird flu virus presents to the public who do not eat raw eggs to justify killing of chickens to cause a price increase so the public accepts injecting chickens with the latest mRNA concoction to keep food prices from rising?
You kill the chickens to protect the rest of your flock or other flocks, not to protect humans.
Avian flu (this one) actually kills birds, and you don’t want it spreading. It’s like a fire break.
Shouldn’t the price of chicken meat be about 20 cents a pound?
Laying hens are not the same breed as broilers which are butchered at 8 weeks as opposed to laying breeds which are not butchered at all. I’m not sure broilers have the same susceptibility as layers. I assume the culled laying flocks become pet food, not people food.
Did the Chinese invent avian flu with an assist/s by American Fauci?
At least it will only take 30 weeks for a hatchling to become a prolific egg-layer. This situation should be remedied soon.
I must admit that I haven’t been paying much attention to this. My wife’s chickens never stopped laying eggs.
awwwww- guess those grocery prices aren’t coming down.
President-elect Donald Trump says Americans not being able to afford groceries will be a relic of the past. “They’re going to be affording their groceries very soon,” he said . HAHAHAHAHAHA
The article is talking about eggs specifically, not the overall cost of groceries, asshole.
You DO understand Trump’s only been in office a little over three weeks, right?
What kind of freak laughs are people not being able to afford food? Oh. A typical caring democrat.