With fewer shells on shelves, customers are scrambling for new ways to get their egg fix.
Due to the bird flu outbreak, there are millions fewer hens, meaning way fewer eggs. Frustrated shoppers across the country have even started posting videos of empty shelves where eggs once lay.
“Eggs were gone in less than 10 minutes! Costco!” one TikTok user wrote.
“My Costco didn’t even have eggs to buy yesterday,” an X user groaned.
Another posted a video of empty shelves at a Florida Whole Foods: “The great egg shortage continues…”
More than 13 million hens were lost to the virus in December alone, according to the USDA’s latest Egg Markets Overview.
Bird flu aside, the price of a dozen large grade-A eggs has been on the rise for almost a year and a half, doubling from September 2023 to December 2024, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Currently, the average price of a dozen eggs is about $4.16, according to the American Egg Board.
The Agriculture Department predicted egg prices would climb another 20 percent this year.
“These two forces combined — tight supply and high demand — are directly causing the spike in wholesale prices we’ve seen recently, as well as the intermittent shortages of eggs at some retail locations and in different parts of the country,” American Egg Board CEO Emily Metz previously told The Independent in a statement.
But there’s another problem that seems to be falling through the cracks: shoppers appear to be stockpiling eggs.
The trend has been captured on social media, with users uploading videos of fellow shoppers taking more than their fair share.
One TikTok user sarcastically wrote: “Are eggs missing in your area?” alongside a video of people stacking cartons on cartons in their grocery carts.
@dealzwithzee Here we go again 😱 The egg shortage is getting crazy! A dozen eggs is now $7.99 in our area and the shelves are almost empty 😭😭 Is this happening where you live? #eggs #eggshortage #costco #costcodoesitagain
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"Egg prices are going up because of the avian flu, but that’s driving people to buy more eggs than they usually do because they’re anticipating higher prices and reduced grocery store supply," Saloni Vastani, an associate professor of marketing at Emory University, told USA Today.
Others have noticed that savvy shop owners are reacting to the trend by rationing their customers.
“My local grocery store is rationing sales at 1 carton per person *even at the price of $9 to $11 per dozen,” one user wrote.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary blamed another scapegoat: former President Joe Biden.
At her first official press briefing last week, she was asked about the skyrocketing prices of eggs. Leavitt replied: “Because there is a lot of reporting out there that is putting the onus on this White House for the increased cost of eggs. I would like to point out to each and every one of you that, in 2024, when Joe Biden was in the Oval Office — or upstairs in the residence sleeping; I’m not so sure — egg prices increased 65 percent in this country.”
Regardless of who is to blame, restaurants and shoppers have been left to grapple with the soaring costs and shortage. Waffle House responded to the scarcity by slapping a “temporary targeted surcharge” on dishes, which will cost diners an extra 50 cents per-egg.
“While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived, we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” Waffle House has said. “We are continuously monitoring egg prices and will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow.”
Eggs have become such a hot commodity that thieves in Pennsylvania stole 100,000 of them — worth $40,000 — from an egg supplier last weekend. While police are still investigating the motive behind the theft, a state police spokesperson told the New York Times: “With the extreme increased price of eggs, someone may have thought they could sell them.”
Back in October I had a feeling there would be an egg shortage so I water glassed a month's supply of eggs. This month we finally started going through them. At first my husband thought I was crazy but now he is grateful because the stores around us have been out of eggs. pic.twitter.com/ou4sjK2PFP
— Emmie 🦎 (@SullivanStar221) February 6, 2025
One X user shared a novel solution for the shortage that she claims she saw coming. “Back in October I had a feeling there would be an egg shortage so I water glassed a month's supply of eggs,” the user wrote, posting a photo of roughly 30 eggs sitting in a clear jar.
But the solution isn’t perfect; she warned that the eggs’ consistency started changing after four months.
