Egg rationing is here.<\/p>\n
With prices rising rapidly and showing no signs of slowing anytime soon, some of the nation\u2019s biggest grocery store chains \u2014 including Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Costco \u2014 have begun limiting the amount of eggs individual consumers can buy.<\/p>\n
This time last year, the average price for a dozen eggs was around $3, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By last month, it had risen to around $5.<\/p>\n
And egg prices are expected to climb this year by 20.3 percent, according to the latest outlook from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. <\/p>\n
Market analysts blame the price hikes on the highly infectious bird flu that has decimated the chicken population and reduced egg supplies during the winter holiday season, when the demand is strong. More than 13 million hens have been lost or slaughtered since December as a result of the bird flu outbreak, according to the Agriculture Department\u2019s latest Egg Markets Overview.<\/p>\n
Trader Joe\u2019s is dealing with the shortages by limiting the amount of eggs customers can buy.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue 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\u2019s stores across the country,\u201d a spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cWe 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\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walmart is limiting bulk buyers to two 60-count cartons per purchase \u201cto help ensure more customers can have access to eggs,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough supply is very tight, we\u2019re working with suppliers to try and help meet customer demand, while striving to keep prices as low as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n
There are no restrictions on purchasers of smaller quantities of eggs, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
At Sam\u2019s Club, purchasers are allowed to buy two cartons of each brand of eggs on the shelves, a spokesperson said. <\/p>\n
But at Kroger and Aldi there is a two dozen eggs per trip limit, while Whole Foods and Costco are capping egg purchases at three one-dozen cartons per person in select stores.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the White House found itself taking flak again from Democrats demanding that President Donald Trump fulfill his campaign promise to immediately start reducing the price of groceries. <\/p>\n \u201cOver the last several weeks, you have done nothing to address these rising costs,\u201d the Congressional Dads Caucus said in a letter Thursday to Trump. \u201cMoreover, your flurry of executive actions has hampered the government\u2019s response to effectively address the underlying causes of this crisis. Eggs are a basic necessity for families in our districts, and the financial burden caused by these surging prices must be resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n In some areas of New York, \u201cthe average price of a dozen eggs has reached more than $8 in some stores,\u201d said Tony Hernandez, spokesperson for Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., who leads the group that fired off the letter.<\/p>\n In response to the harsh criticism from congressional Democrats, a White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, blamed the egg crisis on the ‘Biden Administration\u2019s slow and ineffective response to the bird flu outbreak, which began in 2022.’<\/p>\n \u201cMoms and dads across the country gave President Trump a mandate to take every action to drive down costs, and he is delivering,’ Kelly said in emailed statement.<\/p>\n Trump and Brooke Rollins, who is the president\u2019s pick to head the Agriculture Department, ‘will refocus the USDA\u2019s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on its core mission: protecting the health of the United States\u2019 plants, animals, and natural resources,’ Kelly wrote.<\/p>\n In New York City, some bodegas have taken to selling eggs one at a time because their customers can’t afford to shell out $10 or more to buy a dozen eggs, a price that is not unusual in the very expensive city.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people don\u2019t have enough money to buy a dozen eggs, so I have to sell them separately,\u201d Fernando Rodriguez, 62, owner of Pamela\u2019s Green Deli in The Bronx, told the New York Post.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Egg rationing is here. With prices rising rapidly and showing no signs of slowing anytime…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}