5 ms·

With the obsession over egg prices you’d think everyone is eating two dozen per day or something.

by zeroonetwothree 4y ago

hammock 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index
mc32 4y ago
Lots of things have eggs as an ingredient, from breakfasts, to breads, pastries, ramens and pastas.
- 0xcde4c3db 4y ago
  I doubt this is the main explanation, because liquid egg product prices don't necessarily track whole egg prices. I don't know where to look up the current prices for "breaker eggs", but the supply chains are remarkably bifurcated, and even if e.g. the same bird flu outbreak affected both, the effects might evolve differently across time and location.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    30 pound pail of eggs is $82. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/frozen-whole-liquid-eggs-30-lb-pail/873331015.html https://www.webstaurantstore.com/frozen-whole-liquid-eggs-30... But no idea what they used to be - maybe somewhere someone has printed catalogs.
    - fbdab103 4y ago
      According to the Wayback Machine[0] in 2022-10-09, the price was $126. [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20221009125424/https://www.webstaurantstore.com/frozen-whole-liquid-eggs-30-lb-pail/873331015.html https://web.archive.org/web/20221009125424/https://www.webst...
matwood 4y ago
I go through ~18 eggs/week. I already bought better eggs though, so the price increases have not been as noticeable. Something I will notice is when my local grocery stops selling chicken breasts for $1.99/pound. I'm surprised they haven't upped the price every time I'm in there.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  I assume the price is low because they are culling herds
  - matwood 4y ago
    It's been $1.99 for years. It's my bellweather for price increases.
  - tristor 4y ago
    You cannot sell culled chickens as food.
algoatecorn 4y ago
Yea seriously. The price increase is inconvenient, but hardly relevant in terms of calories/$. I eat 5-6 eggs each morning with some potatoes (my blood work is great btw, so take it easy armchair dietitians). Dietary cholesterol isn't what most people think. I digress. But that means my at-home breakfast went from: (5 eggs * $0.2) + (1 red potato * $0.20) = $1.20 to (5 eggs * $0.5) + (1 red potato * $0.20 = $2.70 I'll survive.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  Your strange breakfast has increased in price by 150%. If this were happening across meals, that would mean that a family who formerly spent $400 a month on groceries is now spending $1000 a month on groceries. edit: assuming a total 20% tax rate and a $15 minimum wage, that $600 represents 50 additional hours of work a month.
  - algoatecorn 4y ago
    It's a very normal breakfast for athletes. But your example isn't our current reality so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. To borrow a saying from the investment world - It's easy to double a small number. I'm not defending the price hike. I'm just pointing out that it's a silly thing to get hung up on and most are not considering that eggs have been, and still are, a caloric and protein dense staple of healthy diets. We take that for granted.
    - pessimizer 4y ago
      Eggs aren't the only grocery item that has risen in price. The reason I used your breakfast as an example is because you used it as an example. I assume that you were using it as an example of an extremely egg-heavy breakfast, and pointing out that the price difference is insignificant to you. I responded by pointing out that if (ideal, fantasy) minimum-wage families ate like you, they would have to work 50 more hours a month in order to deal with the price increase. My implication is that 50 hours of work a month is significant. Salary calculations are usually made with an assumption of 2000 hours a year, and that increase in egg prices of families who had your diet would represent 600 of those hours. I'm disagreeing that the doubling or tripling of the prices of basic foodstuffs such as eggs, flour, milk etc. is a silly thing to get hung up on. Your argument seems to be that eggs are so good, they'd be a bargain at any price?
29083011397778 4y ago
Are you not? When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs every morning to help me get large. And now that I'm grown I eat five dozen eggs (so I'm roughly the size of a barn).
- bombcar 4y ago
  A barn? Should be a barge.
nemo44x 4y ago
If you have a family then there's a good chance you go through them really fast. Imagine making 2-egg omelets for a family of 4. That's 8 eggs right there. Then you bake something with the kids in the afternoon and that's 8 eggs. Then you decide to make pasta for a change and that's 8 more eggs. It's not that difficult to go through a lot of eggs and why places like Costco sell eggs in 2-dozen quantities as well. It's not difficult to go through 4 dozen a week and at $5 more per dozen that's $20/week and $80/month more for eggs. That starts to hit a lot of people's budgets.
mrguyorama 4y ago
I've literally just not purchased a single egg since this started. I'll live. Turns out one can go a substantially long time without eating a very specific single food item. Companies that bulk buy eggs to put into their own products don't seem to be getting as gouged as the normal consumer, so it hasn't affected my grocery shopping much. In fact I've benefited quite a bit from this. Chicken is pretty cheap right now.
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  As a protein they are a unique combination of nutritious, consistent, versatile, easy to cook, and a long refrigerated shelf life. The fact that you replaced them in your diet doesn't make them easy to replace in all diets.
  - eeixlk 4y ago
    I also have stopped buying eggs, but everything you said is correct. Maybe they are still underpriced? I wonder how high the price will go before the average American will buy fewer of them.

With the obsession over egg prices you’d think everyone is eating two dozen per day or something.

hammock 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index

mc32 4y ago

Lots of things have eggs as an ingredient, from breakfasts, to breads, pastries, ramens and pastas.

0xcde4c3db 4y ago
I doubt this is the main explanation, because liquid egg product prices don't necessarily track whole egg prices. I don't know where to look up the current prices for "breaker eggs", but the supply chains are remarkably bifurcated, and even if e.g. the same bird flu outbreak affected both, the effects might evolve differently across time and location.
- bombcar 4y ago
  30 pound pail of eggs is $82. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/frozen-whole-liquid-eggs-30-lb-pail/873331015.html https://www.webstaurantstore.com/frozen-whole-liquid-eggs-30... But no idea what they used to be - maybe somewhere someone has printed catalogs.
  - fbdab103 4y ago
    According to the Wayback Machine[0] in 2022-10-09, the price was $126. [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20221009125424/https://www.webstaurantstore.com/frozen-whole-liquid-eggs-30-lb-pail/873331015.html https://web.archive.org/web/20221009125424/https://www.webst...

matwood 4y ago

I go through ~18 eggs/week. I already bought better eggs though, so the price increases have not been as noticeable. Something I will notice is when my local grocery stops selling chicken breasts for $1.99/pound. I'm surprised they haven't upped the price every time I'm in there.

mrguyorama 4y ago
I assume the price is low because they are culling herds
- matwood 4y ago
  It's been $1.99 for years. It's my bellweather for price increases.
- tristor 4y ago
  You cannot sell culled chickens as food.

algoatecorn 4y ago

Yea seriously. The price increase is inconvenient, but hardly relevant in terms of calories/$. I eat 5-6 eggs each morning with some potatoes (my blood work is great btw, so take it easy armchair dietitians). Dietary cholesterol isn't what most people think. I digress. But that means my at-home breakfast went from: (5 eggs * $0.2) + (1 red potato * $0.20) = $1.20 to (5 eggs * $0.5) + (1 red potato * $0.20 = $2.70 I'll survive.

pessimizer 4y ago
Your strange breakfast has increased in price by 150%. If this were happening across meals, that would mean that a family who formerly spent $400 a month on groceries is now spending $1000 a month on groceries. edit: assuming a total 20% tax rate and a $15 minimum wage, that $600 represents 50 additional hours of work a month.
- algoatecorn 4y ago
  It's a very normal breakfast for athletes. But your example isn't our current reality so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. To borrow a saying from the investment world - It's easy to double a small number. I'm not defending the price hike. I'm just pointing out that it's a silly thing to get hung up on and most are not considering that eggs have been, and still are, a caloric and protein dense staple of healthy diets. We take that for granted.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    Eggs aren't the only grocery item that has risen in price. The reason I used your breakfast as an example is because you used it as an example. I assume that you were using it as an example of an extremely egg-heavy breakfast, and pointing out that the price difference is insignificant to you. I responded by pointing out that if (ideal, fantasy) minimum-wage families ate like you, they would have to work 50 more hours a month in order to deal with the price increase. My implication is that 50 hours of work a month is significant. Salary calculations are usually made with an assumption of 2000 hours a year, and that increase in egg prices of families who had your diet would represent 600 of those hours. I'm disagreeing that the doubling or tripling of the prices of basic foodstuffs such as eggs, flour, milk etc. is a silly thing to get hung up on. Your argument seems to be that eggs are so good, they'd be a bargain at any price?

29083011397778 4y ago

Are you not? When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs every morning to help me get large. And now that I'm grown I eat five dozen eggs (so I'm roughly the size of a barn).

bombcar 4y ago
A barn? Should be a barge.

nemo44x 4y ago

If you have a family then there's a good chance you go through them really fast. Imagine making 2-egg omelets for a family of 4. That's 8 eggs right there. Then you bake something with the kids in the afternoon and that's 8 eggs. Then you decide to make pasta for a change and that's 8 more eggs. It's not that difficult to go through a lot of eggs and why places like Costco sell eggs in 2-dozen quantities as well. It's not difficult to go through 4 dozen a week and at $5 more per dozen that's $20/week and $80/month more for eggs. That starts to hit a lot of people's budgets.

mrguyorama 4y ago

I've literally just not purchased a single egg since this started. I'll live. Turns out one can go a substantially long time without eating a very specific single food item. Companies that bulk buy eggs to put into their own products don't seem to be getting as gouged as the normal consumer, so it hasn't affected my grocery shopping much. In fact I've benefited quite a bit from this. Chicken is pretty cheap right now.

giraffe_lady 4y ago
As a protein they are a unique combination of nutritious, consistent, versatile, easy to cook, and a long refrigerated shelf life. The fact that you replaced them in your diet doesn't make them easy to replace in all diets.
- eeixlk 4y ago
  I also have stopped buying eggs, but everything you said is correct. Maybe they are still underpriced? I wonder how high the price will go before the average American will buy fewer of them.