Why it’s so hard to find eggs in SLO County now — and why they cost so much when you do
Shoppers are scrambling to find eggs at grocery stores across San Luis Obispo County — and it looks like the shortage won’t be over easy.
National supply problems, coupled with some uniquely California factors, have left the shelves of popular local supermarkets bare in recent weeks. Even when they can find them, San Luis Obispo County residents reported having to shell out more than they expected for the grocery staple — sometimes upwards of $10 for a carton of a dozen eggs.
“We usually go through a lot of eggs in our family,” San Luis Obispo resident Krista Feyma told The Tribune on Tuesday. “We haven’t been able to buy any since the new year. Costco was completely out of eggs the first week of January! Everywhere else has doubled the price of eggs and still somehow sells out.”
“I’m not going to pay $8 for a dozen eggs,” Feyma added, “so for now we are just doing without.”
She’s not alone.
A Tribune post on social media app Nextdoor asking about the local impacts of the egg shortage garnered more than 140 comments as of Thursday, with many bemoaning their difficulties finding the food staple, while others questioned what was to blame.
According to Cal Poly agribusiness professor Dan Scheitrum, it comes down to issues within the poultry industry as well as some specifically California challenges.
“The layman’s explanation is there is a national run-up in the price of eggs, which is even more pronounced here in California than in other parts of the country,” he told The Tribune on Wednesday.
What caused the egg shortage?
The first major factor comes with the passing of Proposition 12, which went into effect in 2022. That law required all eggs sold in the state to come from cage-free hens, Scheitrum said.
Fast forward to the end of 2024, and a massive national outbreak of avian flu threatened chickens throughout the United States, with millions of egg-laying hens dying or being destroyed as part of culls when infection reaches flocks.
“We had a reduction in a large number of birds — millions of birds just in December 2024,” Scheitrum said.
Cage-free hens were hit particularly hard, he said, with about 22 million lost to bird flu in 2024.
That added up to roughly half of the birds lost last year, even though cage-free flocks are only about a third of the total population in the United States, Scheitrum said.
This left the supply of eggs that California relies upon severely depleted right in the middle of the holiday season when egg demand typically skyrockets for their use in baking, cooking and other seasonal treats.
Scheitrum himself said he ran into issues while trying to prepare a popular Yuletide beverage: eggnog.
“Eggs are a type of food that there’s really no good substitute,” he said. “I paid a dollar an egg to get eggs for the eggnog because you can’t make it with anything else.”
The whole debacle has been further complicated after Michigan and Colorado laws went into effect Jan. 1 mandating they also only sell cage-free eggs, he said.
With those additions, more states were vying for an already drastically reduced supply — creating the perfect conditions for egg shortages and price hikes throughout California.
How much do eggs cost in SLO County right now?
Though he had not gone egg shopping since his expensive eggnog endeavor, Scheitrum said that when he recently polled his students, multiple reported not being able to find eggs on local shelves at all — and one said when she did, it cost her $13 for a dozen.
As of Jan. 10, the average price for a carton of a dozen eggs in California was $8.97, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly egg market report. That was well up from the average price of $5.88 on Dec. 6, according to the report.
In San Luis Obispo County, the prices varied widely this week, with many grocery stores coping with empty shelves or carton limits in light of the egg shortages.
The egg case at Trader Joe’s in San Luis Obispo was mostly full at noon on Wednesday — but just a few hours later, the shelves had been stripped bare.
The grocery store was among the cheapest spots to grab a carton of eggs as of Wednesday, charging $3.99 a dozen, though it limited customers to only two cartons.
Meanwhile, Costco, another grocery store many on Nextdoor recommended checking, was selling 24-packs of eggs at a price of $7.69 for Kirkland Signature Grade AA large eggs and $7.89 for Kirkland Signature Organic free-range eggs as of Wednesday.
The members-only retailer also had a sign advertising crates of five dozen, or 60, eggs for sale for $18.69, though those were all sold out.
Prices were significantly higher at Grocery Outlet in San Luis Obispo, where a dozen eggs cost $8.49 as of Wednesday, while a carton of 18 ran $10.99 and a crate of 60 cost $34.99.
Sprouts in San Luis Obispo meanwhile had a large availability of different brands of eggs in varying prices, ranging from $3.99 for a dozen of its store-brand eggs to $6.99 for a pack of 18.
Signs posted on the door of the refrigerated egg case read, “due to supply shortages, availability may be limited in the coming weeks,” and restricted customers to buying only up to four dozen eggs at a time.
Early in the week, Vons was charging $6.99 for a carton of a dozen Lucerne brand eggs and $10.49 for an 18-pack.
Will prices keep going up? Will eggs stay difficult to find? Expert weighs in
Scheitrum said it will take some time before the price and availability of eggs could stabilize — though it will all depend on whether officials can get the outbreak of bird flu under control.
“Improvement in terms of the state of the egg market will take some time to rebuild flocks of layer hens, and that can take months to do so,” he said. “But we still have bird flu circulating in the country.”
Scheitrum said that could “certainly prolong improvement” over the coming months if the industry continues to have to struggle with the deaths of flocks.
If the outbreaks diminish, prices could “recover to levels before the price spike,” he said.
If they don’t?
“If bird flu keeps circulating,” he said, “it might not improve.”
This story was originally published January 17, 2025 at 9:56 AM.
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