Over Easy or Overpriced? How Consumers Are Coping With the Egg Shortage

Egg prices hit a high in February, while consumers rate grocery prices as their top concern about the economy

Egg prices have increased quite a bit: In February, year-over-year egg inflation was 58.8%. Prices increased 10.4% from January alone, with a dozen grade A large eggs costing $5.90 on average, an all-time high.

In the last few years, as the cost of living has soared, grocery prices have become a significant pain point for consumers – in fact, every time we’ve asked consumers to rank their concerns about the economy since late 2023, “grocery prices” have topped the list. Consumers are usually more attuned to the price changes in groceries, similar to gas, as it is an essential purchase that most people make regularly. Eggs, in particular, are seen as an essential grocery purchase by many households. As a result, rapid price increases or shortages are more apparent to a large portion of the population. 

We’ve already seen this appear in our data: grocery prices and shortages have caught consumers' attention, driving up Morning Consult’s supply chain and price surprise indexes, most likely due to eggs. The amount of news coverage and political conversation centered around egg prices could be exacerbating this. Because the egg shortage/price shock has become so salient in consumers' minds, we decided to ask consumers directly about their recent experiences with all things eggs.

4 out of 5 consumers have noticed the price of eggs has increased, and more than 50% report noticing shortages

While some grocery stores like Trader Joe’s and Aldi’s have been able to limit price increases for eggs (through shorter supply chains via private labeling and by restricting customers to one/two dozen each), most grocery stores have had to adapt by raising their prices substantially. This comes through in the data – 80% of consumers noticed that egg prices have increased. A smaller share, but still over a majority, of consumers have noticed egg shortages. Even grocery stores that have implemented price increases have struggled with keeping up an entire stock, with particular brands being unavailable. More consumers than not observing heightened egg prices and stockouts highlight the saliency of this disruption in consumers’ minds, which is further exacerbated by the news coverage on this topic.

80% of consumers have seen, read, or heard something about price increases/shortages

Four out of five consumers say they have seen, read, or heard something about egg price increases and/or shortages—over two in five say they have heard “a lot.” So, not only are consumers experiencing it for themselves week after week in the grocery store, but most are also hearing about it in other ways, highlighting just how inescapable this topic has become recently.

Respondents blame Trump 10 percentage points more than Biden, but a greater share blame other causes

Although experts largely agree that the current shortage resulted from an avian influenza outbreak, this topic has been highly politicized by both political parties. 60% of consumers think President Trump’s policies are at least somewhat to blame for the current egg crisis, 10 percentage points more than they blame former President Biden, although he was still in power when the avian flu outbreak and price increases began. However, most consumers said overall inflation impacted the current price increases, followed by grocery stores “price gouging” at 70% – 10 percentage points more than Trump and 20 percentage points more than Biden. So while this topic has been a focus among politicians and the political media sphere, consumers are more likely to blame other causes. Avian flu, the largest contributor to the current shortage, was in third place according to respondents, but it was tied with “overall inflation,” with the largest share who thought it had a “major” impact (52%) on current prices/shortages.

Nearly 2 in 5 consumers are buying fewer eggs as a result of current shortages/price increases

When asked what changes consumers were making due to the current shortage/price increases, the modal option was “buying fewer eggs” at 38%, followed by “eating eggs less often/rationing eggs” at 26%. A non-negligible amount of respondents are making no changes at all (20%), and none of the options elicited a majority of respondents to say they were making that change. The least popular choice was “buying egg alternatives” at only 2% – the lack of popularity for egg substitutes highlights how consumers see eggs as irreplaceable.

In other words, while many consumers are noticing price increases and shortages, a smaller share is actually changing their behavior as a result. Eggs seem to be a category of highly price-inelastic goods; in other words, large changes in price do not equate to large changes in behavior.

Most consumers said the maximum they would pay for a dozen eggs would be around $5 or $6, right around the nationwide average last month. Despite consumers’ price inelasticity for eggs, only 30% would shell out $7 or more for a dozen – in other words, if prices continued to rise, we could see a greater share of consumers forgoing egg purchases.

Like most purchases, preferences vary by annual household income. While only 26% of higher income adults would pay $10 or more for a dozen eggs, that’s around twice the share of middle- and low-income adults who said the same. On the other side of the spectrum, nearly half of lower income adults said they would not pay more than $5 for a dozen.

Consumers are expecting several more months of elevated prices, but egg prices have already started easing in recent weeks

When asked how long they think current egg shortages and price increases will last, 78% of consumers said it would be at least three months or longer. Some may be pleasantly surprised in the coming weeks, as egg prices have already declined around 15% in the past couple of weeks, according to the USDA, thanks to relief on the bird flu outbreak improving supply. 

While egg prices may return to earth, other grocery prices could increase in the coming months if proposed tariffs on top trading partners of agricultural goods go into effect in April as planned. More inflation at the grocery store is likely to frustrate already very price sensitive consumers, who could continue to place large blame on grocery stores as they do now with eggs.