That’s $3 for 15 eggs. Sadly not free-range, only cage-free.

Not sure if this is the best community for this post, does anyone have a better suggestion?

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    1 day ago

    Chickens go from egg to laying in about 6 months. So maybe I’ll believe you if prices are still high ($4+/dz) at EOY. I’m guessing we’ll be <$3/dz by then (at my local Costco, that is).

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        21 hours ago

        The U.S. grocery sector—dominated by Kroger, Walmart, and a handful of other major companies—profited hugely during the Covid-19 pandemic as corporate giants exploited supply chain disruptions to aggressively jack up prices.

        The underlying problem here was limited supply, and when supply drops, prices go up. When supply returned to normal, prices returned to normal (plus inflation). People were mad because Kroger (and others, but especially Kroger) acted exactly as you’d expect by making as much as they could from their limited supply. Look at Kroger’s revenue, which grew pretty naturally, which means they offset reduced volume with higher margins.

        So I absolutely expect the same thing to happen again, because it’s a very similar situation. Prices will return to normal once supply returns to normal. The first companies to create supply get the most profit, and then prices stabilize.

        This isn’t some AG conspiracy or anything, just individual companies making greedy decisions, an which eventually will even out to the previous status quo. Kroger does not (yet) have a monopoly, so their prices are capped at whatever is the tipping point at which people will go to a competitor or go without. It’s not nice, but it’s also not surprising.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            20 hours ago

            I don’t see anything about price fixing in that article, I just see “price gouging.” My increment understanding is that companies can set their prices however they choose, unless they’re a monopoly (obviously varies by jurisdiction).

            Price fixing (colluding with other companies on setting prices) is illegal, price gouging (increasing prices unnecessarily) isn’t.

            I’m not making a value statement here, in fact I’m trying very hard to keep personal opinions out of it. I’m merely saying that this looks just like every other time supply has been disrupted, and like every other time, prices will come back down.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              1·
              11 hours ago

              You know how people can not say things but those things are still true?

              Price gouging is similar to profiteering but can be distinguished by being short-term and localized and by being restricted to essentials such as food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and equipment needed to preserve life and property.

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_gouging

              This was not localized or short-term.

              But apparently you are very big on “hail corporate” capitalism, so I clearly will not be able to convince you that corporations may possibly not have your best interests in mind.

              • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
                1·
                4 hours ago

                corporations may possibly not have your best interests in mind.

                I 100% agree with that, but that doesn’t make then evil in much the same way that a bear isn’t evil even though it wants to maul you.

                Corporations are greedy and exist to maximize profit. They can sometimes appear to align with your interests, but that’s not because some corporations are “good” and others are “evil,” but because their selfish incentives happen to align with your selfish incentives.

                In other words, if a corporation is abusing the system, we need to fix the system, not the corporation. Price gouging shouldn’t be illegal, it should be unprofitable. Making it illegal means trusting politicians and judges to be incorruptible, whereas making it unprofitable fixes itself. That’s hard, but it’ll be a lot more effective.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  3 hours ago

                  Your idea to use capitalism to fight capitalism is noted.

                  Something tells me it’s already been tried. Over and over. For around three centuries.

                  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
                    1·
                    3 hours ago

                    And it has worked reasonably well, on net, for those centuries. As Winston Churchill popularized:

                    it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time

                    The same can be said for capitalism. Politicians think the answer lies in regulation, but that leads to cronyism, which is to blame for most of the crap we deal with.

                    Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying “deregulate all the things,” I’m saying we need to be arresting and jailing execs instead of fining companies (and increasing fines), busting up monopolies, etc. If that means we need to remove some regulations and whatnot, fine, but dramatically increase the penalties for breaking the law. Government needs to be as separate as possible from the market to be effective, just like a coach can’t be a good referee when their team is on the field.