MANCHESTER, N.H. — Egg prices are still soaring and businesses and shoppers at the grocery store are feeling the burn.
The national price for a dozen eggs one year ago was about $1.75. In November, that number went up to $3.59.
“Honestly, I don’t even look at it when I buy it,” said Bo Widmark, of Manchester.
Egg prices are hitting the wallets of consumers at all levels.
“My family and I tend to eat a lot of eggs, we have a couple of younger ones it’s one of the few things that’s high in protein, high in healthy vitamins and minerals and stuff like that so I’m definitely feeling it, we’re all feeling it,” said Giuseppe DiMarca, of Manchester.
Businesses are feeling the pressure, too. The Red Arrow Diner shells out 20,000 eggs a week across their four locations, and with the price of eggs doubling, they’ve had to talk about how to move forward.
“We talked about adding a surcharge and we haven’t done that because were extremely grateful for the fact that we don’t have a supply chain issue and were sensitive to the customers and the price that they have to pay so we’re holding on to that,” said Amanda Wihby, chief operations officer and co-owner of the Red Arrow diner.
Egg prices are flying higher than other foods like chicken or turkey because egg farmers were hit harder by the bird flu — 43 million of the 58 million birds slaughtered over the past year to control the virus were egg-laying chickens.
That, combined with the rising cost of everything else, makes for a sky-high price on the shelf.
“We keep rolling with the punches and we have to pivot and turn when these things come up,” Wihby said.
“You’ve got to learn how to balance your budget I guess and choose some things over others, eggs, milk and bread are the go-tos for everybody,” DiMarco said.
The Red Arrow said they hope to keep the cost for the customers the same for as long as they can and hope the problematic prices come down soon.