betef Shell Shocked: How Small Eateries Are Dealing With Record Egg Prices

data de lançamento:2025-03-29 14:28    tempo visitado:100

“Making It Work” is a series about small-business owners striving to endure hard times.

Bird flu outbreaks that wiped out about 15 percent of the nation’s egg-laying chickens and drove wholesale egg prices to a peak of more than $8.50 a dozen in February have vexed grocery shoppers and prompted big breakfast chains to add surcharges to diners’ checks. But for owners of small eateries, paying double or triple for an ingredient they crack by the hundreds each day could potentially put them out of business.

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These business owners are getting creative: changing recipes; using liquid or powdered eggs, which haven’t gotten as expensive as quickly; and selling whatever items they can that don’t include eggs — things like falafel or packaged snacks or even fresh flowers.

Prices have come down in recent weeks but remain historically high, and worry about new outbreaks is keeping business owners on edge. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted on Tuesday that egg prices would climb nearly 58 percent this year. Food trends like all-day breakfast menus and protein-heavy diets are keeping demand — and therefore prices — high, according to analysts at CoBank, a bank that lends to farmers.

Eggs are too perishable to be stockpiled and small businesses generally don’t have extra cash for refrigerator space to keep extra eggs even for brief periods, said Rob Handfield, a professor and the director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative at North Carolina State University.

“It’s not like you can stock up on a month’s worth of eggs,” he said. “You really rely on those weekly or daily deliveries of eggs if you’re a small business.”

Expense20242025Weekly egg usage (in dozens)210210Price of a dozen eggs$2.33$8Weekly spending on eggs$490$1680 Expense20242025Weekly egg usage (in dozens)120105Price of a dozen eggs$1.07$4.47Weekly spending on eggs$128$469 66jogo Expense20242025Weekly egg usage (in dozens)10530Price of a dozen eggs$5.67$10Weekly spending on eggs$595$300 Expense20242025Weekly egg usage (in dozens)140120Price of a dozen eggs$4.33$12.73Weekly spending on eggs$607$1528

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The new indictment is still sealed and awaiting Mr. Weinstein’s recovery so he can be arraigned, prosecutors said.

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