Some grocery retailers are beginning to place limits on how many cartons of eggs customers can buy as the ongoing bird flu outbreak impacts supply across the U.S.
Signs posted at one Costco location in Ohio limit customers to three cartons of eggs. Scripps News has reached out to Costco to confirm whether or not this policy is nationwide at their store locations.
Trader Joe's has limited customers to one carton of a dozen eggs at their store locations.
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"Due to ongoing issues with the supply of eggs, we are currently limiting egg purchases to one dozen per customer, per day, in all Trader Joe’s stores across the country," a spokesperson for Trader Joe's tells Scripps News. "We hope these limits will help to ensure that as many of our customers who need eggs are able to purchase them when they visit Trader Joe’s."
The purchase limits may frustrate some customers but for weeks — even months in some states — store shelves that once held eggs were barren.
This comes as the latest consumer price index, the top measure for inflation in the U.S., shows egg prices increased 15.2% throughout the month, and ended January 53% more expensive than last year.
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For comparison, general food prices increased by 0.4% in January, and 2.5% year-over-year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted average egg prices will increase by more than 20% this year.
