A Walmart Is Selling $2 Cartons Of Eggs And Customers Are Pleasantly Astonished
What was once an everyday sight has caused a massive stir online. Newsweek reports that a display of $2 egg cartons in Kentucky has pleasantly surprised local customers, and left everyone else feeling nostalgic for the good old days.
There was a time when seeing a carton of eggs around this price wouldn't have been so shocking. Egg fans boasted about the 101 ways to cook an egg, and how to use them as a source of affordable nutrition. Egg prices have skyrocketed in the last year. Most stores are selling eggs for twice what they cost last year. Prices have nearly tripled in areas like California that have seen the worst of the egg shortage.
This increase in egg prices is due to multiple factors. The largest contributor is a sweeping outbreak of avian flu that has killed more than 50 million U.S. birds. This has deeply affected the supply of eggs across the country and forced many suppliers to raise their prices. Farming and agriculture NGO Farm Action has also accused egg wholesalers of price gouging. It claimed that the same companies who say they were forced to raise prices by the spread of avian flu have also seen record profits in the same period.
Because of these raised prices, shoppers were shocked to find an 18-count carton of eggs being sold at a price they haven't seen in a year.
An egg-ceptional discount
The initial sighting of the $2 egg cartons was initially shared to a Harrodsburg community Facebook page but was met with such astonishment that the post made it onto the local news. CNBC affiliate station WLEX in nearby Lexington, KY shared the photo as well. At this time, there are no claims that these were eggs close to their expiration date or damaged. While a representative from Walmart did give a comment, it did not explain the egg's affordable origins.
"We're committed to providing the best prices so our customers can save money and live better," the statement read. "What happened involving the shipment of eggs to the Harrodsburg store demonstrates our ability to take advantage of these unique opportunities and quickly pass on those savings."
But just as quickly as these affordable prices appeared, they seem to have already vanished. The current price for the same carton of eggs is listed at $4.56 according to the store's website. There is a chance that this may also be a preview of what's to come as wholesale egg prices have begun to drop; though retailers haven't started to see these savings yet.