Due to the avian flu causing a shortage of eggs in the United States, national supermarket chains such as the warehouse-style store Costco and Whole Foods are currently restricting the quantity of eggs that customers can purchase at one time. A video shows that at a Costco store in California, eggs were sold out in less than 10 minutes after being placed on the shelves.
Costco confirmed to CNN that they are limiting customers to purchasing three packs of eggs, typically sold in cartons of two or four dozen. The egg section at a California Costco store also has a notice indicating purchase limits.
A spokesperson for Kroger supermarket also confirmed to CNN that while the company has not issued a nationwide purchasing restriction, some stores are “choosing to do so based on supply”, allowing customers to buy only two dozen eggs per purchase.
Whole Foods, owned by Amazon, has signs on its shelves indicating that customers are limited to buying three cartons of eggs at a time. A notice at a Whole Foods store in New York City stated, “We are currently struggling to find eggs that meet our strict animal welfare standards.”
Last week, customers nationwide took to social media to comment on Trader Joe’s new policy of limiting egg purchases. Trader Joe’s spokesperson Nakia Rohde informed KOIN, “Due to ongoing egg supply issues, we are currently restricting egg purchases at all Trader Joe’s stores nationwide to one dozen per customer per day.”
Trader Joe’s has approximately 600 stores across the United States, and the supermarket’s website shows that a dozen large brown farm-raised eggs are priced at around $5.
Videos on platforms like X also show people flocking to buy and stockpile eggs. A video released by Fox News shows a customer at a Costco store in Montclair, California documenting shoppers clearing out the eggs within 10 minutes, leaving the shelves empty.
A Chinese customer in the Bay Area of California mentioned going to Trader Joe’s yesterday afternoon to buy eggs, only to find the shelves empty; they managed to purchase a dozen eggs on Tuesday morning.
Experts are warning that as the avian flu outbreak continues to impact egg-laying hen populations in the United States, egg shortages are expected to persist.
Bernt Nelson, an economist with the USDA’s Agricultural Department, told Fox Business Channel that since 2022, over 136 million chickens have been affected by the avian flu. In December of last year, more than 18 million egg-laying hens were affected.
This situation has led to empty egg shelves in some areas and a widespread increase in egg prices.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, avian flu has infected approximately 150 million poultry across 50 states. Due to the spread of the virus, infected hens are selectively culled nationwide, sometimes resulting in millions of egg-laying hens being culled in one location.
According to the latest Egg Market Overview from the USDA, over 13 million hens have been culled. Since December of last year, the average culling and loss rates of egg-laying hens in the United States have reached historic highs.
Based on data from the NielsenIQ Consumer Research Group as reported by NBC, the average price of a dozen eggs at the end of January was $5.29, compared to around $3.50 during the same period last year.
According to the USDA, egg prices in December 2024 were 36.8% higher than a year before, but still lower than the peak prices in January 2023.
In 2025, the USDA predicts that egg prices will increase by over 20%, with significant monthly variations in egg prices.