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The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

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Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#251

Post by jfil »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #83
Taronar wrote: post #8

Things like this mainly occur in markets with little competition, killing of small business causes issues like this. Much of our grievances are caused by our high level of market concentration.

I'm not typically a fan of government intervention in markets but Canada's marketing boards do stop this sort of concentration, so while we have higher average prices we do not get massive swings in prices, nor the physical conditions that come directly out of production consolidation that lead to events (or justifications) like avian flu at the same scale.

A free market with functioning anti-monopoly enforcement is a simple solution. Why trust in a government enforced Supply Management system when the same government can't manage to punish a clear criminal conspiracy to price-fix?

Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#252

Post by nyanmatt »

culi wrote: post #200
autoexec wrote: post #175

I've known about Cal-Maine's scammy practices for years. It's difficult to know which brands are associated with a group like Cal-Maine, but I did my best at one point to get a list which I still check before buying eggs. The brands I've been avoiding are: 4Grain Cage Free Egglands Best Farmhouse Eggs Land O'Lakes Fassio Egg Farms Southwest Specialty Eggs LLC Rocky Mountain Eggs Meadowcreek Foods Specialty Eggs LLC R…

Cornucopia Egg Scorecard focuses on ethical treatment of hens but is sometimes a bit more expansive than that too. A convenient list of good eggs https://www.cornucopia.org/scorecard/eggs/ All the brands you listed that I could find on their list seem to have the lowest scores.

Ethical treatment of hens doesn't exist in the egg industry.

Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#253

Post by culi »

nyanmatt wrote: post #252
culi wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cornucopia Egg Scorecard focuses on ethical treatment of hens but is sometimes a bit more expansive than that too. A convenient list of good eggs https://www.cornucopia.org/scorecard/eggs/ All the brands you listed that I could find on their list seem to have the lowest scores.

Ethical treatment of hens doesn't exist in the egg industry.

For example, Eight Mile Creek based in NY:

- uses flocks of 60 in mobile houses that allow the chickens to feed on grass and bugs outdoors without over stressing a particular plot of land.

- Hens have ample indoor and outdoor space.

- Chicks are allowed outdoors as early as 2 weeks old.

- Hens are provided enrichment and toys.

- Beak trimming is not practiced.

- Death rates are less than 2% and hens reach their natural lifespans.

- They are also allowed to molt naturally.

Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#254

Post by chrisandchris »

autoexec wrote: post #175

I've known about Cal-Maine's scammy practices for years. It's difficult to know which brands are associated with a group like Cal-Maine, but I did my best at one point to get a list which I still check before buying eggs. The brands I've been avoiding are: 4Grain Cage Free Egglands Best Farmhouse Eggs Land O'Lakes Fassio Egg Farms Southwest Specialty Eggs LLC Rocky Mountain Eggs Meadowcreek Foods Specialty Eggs LLC R…

Dpending on where you live, it light be easier to just get your eggs from a local farmer instead.

Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#255

Post by xnx »

endemic wrote: post #152
JKCalhoun wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was 100% due to Biden. (Or so I was told. Might even be the reason we have Trump 2.0?)

Yeah, he's definitely the cause of all our past and current problems.

Don't forget the future problems he will be responsible for. /s

Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#256

Post by Obscurity4340 »

culi wrote: post #253
nyanmatt wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethical treatment of hens doesn't exist in the egg industry.

For example, Eight Mile Creek based in NY: - uses flocks of 60 in mobile houses that allow the chickens to feed on grass and bugs outdoors without over stressing a particular plot of land. - Hens have ample indoor and outdoor space. - Chicks are allowed outdoors as early as 2 weeks old. - Hens are provided enrichment and toys. - Beak trimming is not practiced. - Death rates are less than 2% and hens reach their natur…

Its disgusting that, under Capitalism, all these parameters are seen as optional or luxury when they are the normal.

Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#257

Post by Obscurity4340 »

SlightlyLeftPad wrote: post #220
culi wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cornucopia Egg Scorecard focuses on ethical treatment of hens but is sometimes a bit more expansive than that too. A convenient list of good eggs https://www.cornucopia.org/scorecard/eggs/ All the brands you listed that I could find on their list seem to have the lowest scores.

I’ll stick with Kirkland Signature which is supplied by Wilcox. I don’t really think Costco ever raised their egg prices afaik. Edit: it is a bit opaque but their main supply network allegedly includes Wilcox and Handsome Brook which are rated decently

Has Costco ever commented on its suppliers/sustainabillity or ethicality in this context?

Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#258

Post by kilotaras »

autoexec wrote: post #190
decimalenough wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On its face, this is a normal market response: if demand is unchanged and overall supply goes down, prices go up. The criminal conspiracy part here was manipulating the index prices in tandem so that everybody raised prices in lockstep.

> if demand is unchanged and overall supply goes down, prices go up. How much did supply go down considering that Cal-Maine Foods, Inc is (or at least was) the single largest supplier of eggs in the country? Ultimately their profits increased 718% ( https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-main... ) which seems unlikely to be explained away by reduced supply. They were price gouging and fixing prices w…

Eggs demand is rather inelastic[0]: price has to go up by a lot for demand to go down. Per your link Cal-Maine Food doubled the revenue while selling roughly the same amount of eggs. Expenditure wouldn't double and so you would expect a drastic increase in profit.

> small egg producers may have had issues with avian flu keeping their fairly priced products off the shelves.

They didn't had the product though! This is main part of the reason price went up in 2022. It's either that or no eggs on the shelves.

[0]https://agdatanews.substack.com/p/americans-really-like-eggs

Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#259

Post by mdnahas »

Economist and former trader here. I did a quick skim and this market is badly structured. According to Claude, the method use to compute the prices for large sales is based on experts who use the activity on a small spot market, the details of some larger off market transactions that they find out about, and don’t publish their method. The wholesaler buyers using that price for their large contracts are … stupid. I’m not surprised that egg producers placed lots of non-trading bid - it is a common manipulation in markets. I’m shocked that wholesaler buyers accepted a system where it could have a large effect.

I would expect a small settlement because it is hard to compute the fraud’s effect on prices. The “experts” at Urner Barry who set the price don’t publish their method. Thus, prosecutors would have to be conservative about what they could prove in court.

Re: The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing

#260

Post by readthenotes1 »

wat10000 wrote: post #9
readthenotes1 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"naked conspiracy to manipulate the price of eggs from 2022-2025. " Who was in charge during this time period?

Surely the relevant question is who was in charge when the punishment was decided, not who was in charge when the misbehavior occurred.

So you give a pass to those who have a job to stop naked conspiracies on price control but don't?
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