Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

semafor.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 389 posts

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#21

Post by stevenwoo »

gtk40 wrote: post #13

I'm curious how Costco is weathering the storm better than others. Typically Aldi is the cheapest place for me to buy eggs, but they're almost $5 a dozen for basic eggs. I've seen even more at other grocery stores (Publix was several dollars more a dozen). The cage free eggs were $7/2 dozen ($3.50/dozen) earlier this week at Costco. I'm in the Southeastern US in a suburb of a major city.

I usually go to the Mountain View Costco. From the /r/bayarea subreddit they've only been out of eggs a few busy days since the Covid-19 pandemic started, but prices have risen from under $3 for 2 dozen to $5.99 for 2 dozen over the same time period.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#22

Post by ksherlock »

Lydon Johnson had an answer (via George Will):

In 1966, the price of eggs rose to a level that President Lyndon Johnson judged, God knows how, was too high. There were two culprits – supply and demand – and Johnson’s agriculture secretary told him there was not much that could be done. LBJ, however, was a can-do fellow who directed the US surgeon general to dampen demand by warning the nation about the hazards of cholesterol in eggs.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#23

Post by topkai22 »

nine_zeros wrote: post #2

Genuine question. Does this mean that the average person can start a chicken farm today and earn massive profits? What is stopping an enterprising person from grabbing those profits?

The entire worldwide industry is dealing with a pathogen (bird flu). There is a large upfront capital capital cost to acquire industrial scale chicken raising equipment and facilities, plus time to raise the new chickens (6 months from hatchling to maturity).

In that time we could very well go from scarcity to glut with current producers as bird flu works itself out and they regain capacity. And it’s not like you wouldn’t be subject to your flock(?) of chickens getting the disease.

That’s not too say there isn’t opportunity here (there might be) or that people aren’t reacting to it (my brother in law just repopulated his home coop), but in general agriculture is a highly competitive business with low margin’s and “obvious” profit opportunities are riskier than they appear.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#25

Post by throwaway9870 »

xadhominemx wrote: post #17
josefresco wrote: post #5

Answer: Bird flu and inflation (less so). Although I suspect in short time we'll find out that the price hikes due to "bird flu" and "inflation" become... permanent.

Why would you suspect that? It’s a commodity experiencing a supply disruption. Prices for lumber, shipping, oil etc have all already come down significantly from the peak.

Because bird flu might be a very unpredictable supply disruption.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#26

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

AlanSE wrote: post #7
josefresco wrote: post #5

Answer: Bird flu and inflation (less so). Although I suspect in short time we'll find out that the price hikes due to "bird flu" and "inflation" become... permanent.

Inflation is always permanent.

Means I'm gonna have to interview prep hard next year to jump ship to a better paying company if I can and if the market allows for it, as my current one isn't in a hurry to do any salary adjustments and it hurts.

Food, electricity, heating, all went up from minimum 30% to nearly doubled. Luckily my rent and doctor's bills went up only 10% so thank God about that.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#27

Post by dangus »

gtk40 wrote: post #13

I'm curious how Costco is weathering the storm better than others. Typically Aldi is the cheapest place for me to buy eggs, but they're almost $5 a dozen for basic eggs. I've seen even more at other grocery stores (Publix was several dollars more a dozen). The cage free eggs were $7/2 dozen ($3.50/dozen) earlier this week at Costco. I'm in the Southeastern US in a suburb of a major city.

It’s probably a simple matter of bulk paid-up-front purchasing, similar to how Apple and Toyota were the front of the line for chips.

Let’s pretend Costco needs 100 eggs.

Normally 500 eggs are produced, but this year only 300 were produced.

Costco has a guaranteed contract and receives their 100 eggs. Everyone else who hasn’t paid yet fights over the remaining eggs and prices rise.

Southwest Airlines was also known for fuel agreements that hedged against sudden price increases.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#29

Post by voisin »

It would be nice to see more people allowed to keep backyard chickens (hens at least, since roosters can be noisy). Since getting some at our place I’ve been surprised how fun they are to have around and easy to care for. Our compost from the kitchen goes to them too, which could help people divert scraps from the landfill or from being picked up (big gas usage) for municipal composting. Their waste is also great fertilizer for gardens.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#30

Post by amelius »

voisin wrote: post #29

It would be nice to see more people allowed to keep backyard chickens (hens at least, since roosters can be noisy). Since getting some at our place I’ve been surprised how fun they are to have around and easy to care for. Our compost from the kitchen goes to them too, which could help people divert scraps from the landfill or from being picked up (big gas usage) for municipal composting. Their waste is also great fer…

It's less fun with bird flu.
Post reply on HN