Egg Price Profiteering Where You Live Due To Coronovirus?

[gtaus]

I don't charge for my eggs, I just give them to my neighbors. Everyone around us is elderly and they put up with upwards of 30 chickens on our property at times (although we've narrowed it to 17 as of recently. I gave some hens away to families to help with egg shortages and lower my feed cost). However... a carton of 1 dozen brown free range eggs here is around $12 and if you can find them now they're closer to $18 at the moment. I've had neighbors offer me money for our eggs but I've lived in this house 20 years and they've been here the whole time watching me grow up (dh and I live in my childhood home) and i just can't justify taking any money from them. On occasion they'll force my 9 year old to at least take $5 for the ice cream truck that drives around so he and his brothers and sister can get a popsicle... I've told him that's fine as long as it's not everytime and it's no more than $5.

I know island prices are higher than stateside. I was stationed on Guam for a couple of years and everything (except coconut) was more expensive than back home in the mainland states. It's great that you are able to help your elderly neighbors.

 

[21hens-incharge]

First I confess to not reading every post yet.

Second I have no idea what eggs in the store run anymore.

I have sold 18 count packs for $6 for several years. No need to change that as my feed runs the same.

 

[slordaz]

It's peoples greed, I do a local blessings page and all our extra eggs go to to people for free that are in need, most of the time it is the elderly or disabled that are on limited income that could be having to choose between eating and buying their medications. Bit with this damn pandemic we are helping families out too as they can't work. I figure am blessed with my small flock and it doesn't cost me anymore to feed them as they do a lot of moving the lawn, weed eating and catch the bugs plus they are free entertainment as social as they are. Sometimes they bring garden stuff for the chickens or a bag of feed so all works out in the end, I have chickens though for the love of them. though right now they are giving me a headache all wanna go broody at once.

 

[RumneyRoost]

I don’t know what eggs in the store cost or if the price has changed. I did notice they were out last time I went shopping.
There is definitely some hoarding of odd products. No milk last time either.
I did see one report that since more people are stuck at home, they are baking.
I dropped off four dozen eggs at the food bank on Thursday. I usually give them to friends, but I may stick with the food bank from here on out.

 

[gtaus]

I think the shortages are due to both panic hoarding and resultant backup in restocking. Hopefully folks calm the hell down so supply and demand can re-balance. Have seen several edicts against price gouging.

It took a few weeks of restocking toilet paper and paper towels when we could find them to calm Dear Wife down. She is no longer in panic mode. So I no longer have to pay "special pricing" to stock our shelves. I hope we get back to the days when those items are fully stocked on the shelves and we can actually buy them on sale. I think going forward my wife will agree that we should stock up when those non perishable items go on sale.

Have had a couple people who previously turned their noses up at my prices contact me...told them I'd put them on my overflow list, but not to hold their breath. I wanted to say more, but a rare occurrence of diplomacy kept my thoughts to myself.

Dear Wife is resupplying our pre-Coronavirus pandemic customers before selling any eggs to new customers. I think that is only fair. But like I said, we only have 10 chickens so it's not like we have lots of eggs to sell. Our long time customers do appreciate the backyard fresh eggs and I get enough money for the feed. So it's all good for me.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Well, where are all the eggs going? We have a young lady that helps us with barn chores. She’s on our occasional egg list. The other day we offered her a cartoon and she said she had no need. Her stepfather bought five flats of them. To top it off she says they barely use a dozen a month!

I have no idea about store prices, as I haven't shopped for eggs in ages, but with so many people eating at home, and people who bake are baking more for stress relief, that's probably why there is an egg shortage.
There are flour shortages too for those of us who normally bake our own bread, be it for the love of baking or for health reasons. With people not doing nearly the restaurant or drive through business, they are eating at home now and need eggs.
Same with kids and school. No real school meals now so I would imagine lots of pancakes, muffins, or easy fix meals and snacks for kids.

 

[gtaus]

It's peoples greed, I do a local blessings page and all our extra eggs go to to people for free that are in need, most of the time it is the elderly or disabled that are on limited income that could be having to choose between eating and buying their medications. Bit with this damn pandemic we are helping families out too as they can't work. I figure am blessed with my small flock and it doesn't cost me anymore to feed them as they do a lot of moving the lawn, weed eating and catch the bugs plus they are free entertainment as social as they are. Sometimes they bring garden stuff for the chickens or a bag of feed so all works out in the end, I have chickens though for the love of them. though right now they are giving me a headache all wanna go broody at once.

It's great that you can help out those in need. With all the people losing their jobs, our local Food Shelf ran out of food. I give to a local church charity regularly and they distribute their money to a number of other local charities in need. For the time being, Dear Wife and I are still in a financial situation where we can still donate to the church charity. There are many people in tough situations and I hope those who can afford it will help out their local charities and keep their communities alive through these times.

 

[WhiteWaterLady]

Some call it price gouging, others call it the law of supply and demand, or even free enterprise or capitalism. Price controls are integral to socialism and communism and the antithesis of a free market.

Personally, I have not raised my prices in response to the shortages in the store. I have regular customers that buy 18-20 dozen eggs/week total - usually - but 2 weeks ago, after the local grocery store (no big box stores within 65-70 miles) ran out of eggs, I had orders for 25 dozen in 2 days!!! I told a lot of people they were going to have to wait for their eggs, but, got them all filled and even though the store is still out, my orders have dropped back to normal.

As for the cartons, when people bring me their used ones to recycle, I drop a couple of pieces of gravel in several of the egg spots, leave them out in the sun for 2 days, then put them on the bottom of my stack. And, of course, WASH HANDS after touching them.
I wrote a blog post and Op Ed for the local newspaper a couple of days ago on "Eggs and Egg-spences" to try to help people understand why eggs from a local chicken raiser are more expensive than eggs in the store. https://eclecticmusings.blog/2020/03/27/of-eggs-and-egg-spences/

Of course, anyone who is only raising chickens as a hobby can charge whatever they want, but my chickens need to be at least self-sustaining, and preferably add a bit to our rather meager retirement income.

 

[gtaus]

I have no idea about store prices, as I haven't shopped for eggs in ages, but with so many people eating at home, and people who bake are baking more for stress relief, that's probably why there is an egg shortage.
There are flour shortages too for those of us who normally bake our own bread, be it for the love of baking or for health reasons. With people not doing nearly the restaurant or drive through business, they are eating at home now and need eggs.
Same with kids and school. No real school meals now so I would imagine lots of pancakes, muffins, or easy fix meals and snacks for kids.

Good points. I have a brother and sister who are teachers. At their schools, they feed the kids 2 meals per day, sometimes 3 meals everyday. Now that schools are no longer open, I bet there is a big change for many families having to cook food for their kids at home.

When I was a kid in school, the school had a lunch program but mainly their focus was on educating the children. My teacher brother told me that when his school was shutting down, nobody was concerned about the loss of education for the children but ALL the concern was how to feed the children in the community because parents we no longer capable of feeding their kids. And yes, at his school, they provide 3 meals per day and have a summer "education" program where kids get 2 meals per day. I guess I'm really getting old because I was totally unaware of the function of our schools in our communities.

 

[aart]

I guess I'm really getting old because I was totally unaware of the function of our schools in our communities.

Still happening...and was one of the first concerns addressed when the schools shut down here near me. They figured out how to pass those meals out while avoiding large gatherings.