A low groan escapes me as I stand in front of the cooler at the grocery store while chilled air sends goosebumps across my skin.
“How are eggs so much?” I say to the man next to me, who stares, then walks away.
“Twenty-one dollars for five dozen eggs. Oofta!”
Not long ago, I had paid under five dollars for five dozen eggs.
My family loves eggs. In the voice of Bubba from Forest Gump, “Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, eggs benedict, poached eggs, boiled eggs, omelets….” I could go on.
Sometimes we crammed ten dozen eggs into our fridge to keep from running out.
-But now! We have significantly reduced our egg consumption.
Why have egg prices skyrocketed? Yes, the economy has driven up the price of gas and everything else, but it cannot take the blame for eggs seemingly costing the price of gold.
The culprit- The Avian Flu.
The deadly Avian Flu virus kills 90 to 100% of egg-laying hens within 48 hours of exposure. The virus is estimated to have already killed 60 million birds, naturally spreading among wild aquatic birds worldwide and infecting domestic poultry and other bird and animal species. With diminishing egg production, the retail demand cannot keep up with production (Wiener-Bronner, 2022).
In mid-November, the average national price for eggs was$3.42 for a dozen Grade A (Iacurci, 2022).
When the Avian Flu moves onto a poultry farm, the farmers must kill the remaining birds as the federal rule demands to prevent the further spread of the flu (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.).
The flu has not affected chickens raised for food, as attributed to a shorter life cycle and a different chicken bread (Tencer, 2022).
I hope egg prices will eventually drop as the flu dissipates and poultry can rise from the grasp of the horrible virus.
As I walk away from the egg section of the grocery store, I scan the job board. Perhaps I will take out a second job to once again fill our shelves with eggs.
References:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n.d.). Information on bird flu. CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/index.htm
Iacurci, G. (2022). Why egg prices are surging — but chicken prices are falling: It’s an ‘act of God’ event, says trade strategist. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/11/why-egg-prices-are-surging-but-chicken-prices-are-falling.html
Tencer, E. (2022). Cost of eggs, chicken at highest point yet in Utah. Fox 12 Salt Lake City. https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/cost-of-eggs-chicken-at-highest-point-yet-in-utah
Wiener-Bronner, D. (2022). Why eggs have been so expensive this year. CNN Business News. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/business/egg-prices/index.html
What if you spent several thousand dollars on tickets and lodging for the Super Bowl and missed it because your flight was delayed or canceled? How do you prepare for this? You could fly out several days early, but you must invest more money into lodging, which can supersede the flight price and possibly make the Super Bowl experience unaffordable.
Sweeney (2022) claim that we have a higher pilot shortage than ever before in history, impacting millions of consumers annually. As half of the pilots will retire within the next fifteen years, airlines are swooping in and stealing pilots from each other. The airline industry took a temporary stall during Covid, which diminished the number of employees and consumer confidence. Once most Americans became vaccinated, the airlines released more flight schedules that they could not staff (Sweeney, 2022).
Chung et al. (2017) showed that staffing shortages led to flight delays, cancellations, or disruptions. The US Department of Transportation (DOT) and some airlines have created incentive programs to reward airlines and employees for arriving at their flights no more than fifteen minutes late (Forbes et al., 2015).
AirHelp. (n.d.) claims that airlines have legal and financial accountability to the air traveler when disruptions within the airline happen, stating that 85% of airline passengers are unaware of their rights. In contrast to AirHelp’s declaration, DOT states that airlines are not financially beholden to their schedule since many factors are out of their control, such as mechanical issues, bad weather, and air traffic delays. For flight delays, DOT encourages passengers to ask their airline for food or hotel accommodations, although the airline is not required to provide them. However, if your flight is canceled, Airlines are legally required to refund money if they do not rebook you (U.S. Department of Transportation., n.d.).
As you prepare to travel in 2023, how will you handle the inconsistency of flights? Perhaps it is better to drive to your destination, but who has time for that?
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References:
AirHelp. (n.d.) Air passenger rights introduction: compensation and beyond. AirHelp. Retrieved on December 27, 2022, from https://www.airhelp.com/en/air-passenger-rights/
· Chung, S.H., Ma, H. L., & Chan, H. K. (2017). Cascading delay risk of airline workforce deployments with crew pairing and schedule optimization: Cascading delay risk of airline workforce deployments. Risk Analysis, 37(8), 1443–1458. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12746
· Forbes, S.J., Lederman, M., & Tombe, T. (2015). Quality disclosure programs and internal organizational practices: Evidence from airline flight delays. American Economic Journal. Microeconomics, 7(2), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1257/mic.20130164
· Sweeney, S. (2022). The airline pilot shortage is real and will cost all of us. ABCNEWS. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/airline-pilot-shortage-real-cost-us-brace-impact/story?id=84176369.
· U.S. Department of Transportation. (n.d.) Flight delays & cancellations. U.S. Department of Transportation. Retrieved on December 27, 2022, from https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/flight-delays-cancellations
