Johnstown, PA — The price of eggs has nearly tripled over the last year which is causing some shoppers to abandon the grocery store as they look for alternate avenues to get eggs.
Channel 6 went to Ken’s BiLo in Northern Cambria County Monday where the manager says many customers are now getting their eggs directly from farmers, but they're doing everything they can to get the prices as low as possible.
“It definitely is a big issue" says Kenneth Gibson the Manager of Ken’s BiLo Food’s, "I mean whenever you have families that can’t afford to buy a dozen of eggs because they're more than five dollars a dozen, I say that’s a pretty big issue.”
Gibson says he's watched the price of eggs increase over the last year and “about the middle of last year we saw an extreme increase in the price of eggs. I even looked up the price of eggs last year in January, we were at like two dollars a dozen. Now, we're at like six almost seven dollars a dozen.”
Gibson adds the price of eggs has increased so much because of the Bird Flu.
“It’s very transmissible between chickens," says Gibson. "Once its into a farm, its basically the whole farm is done. So, it’s a very, it’s a very bad thing that has been happening to the chicken industry. The farms in America lost, I forget how many millions of chickens due to this flu and a lot of the larger farms were working at twenty percent.”
Gibson says some of the customers can recall when a dozen of eggs cost less than a dollar and now even half a dozen of large eggs cost almost four dollars.
“So, when they come in and they see that these prices of eggs are through the roof it does shock them and you know they are vocal about it so we have heard the complaints,” says Gibson.
“These egg prices are crazy,” says Cheryl Keith, a shopper at Ken's BiLo Food's. "They’ve risen what maybe three times what they used to cost, and I don’t like it.”
And many can relate to Keith because, “It’s like everything else and I’m going to use them anyway. It’s your dessert, it’s your breakfast, sometimes we need them for what I make for dinner, it’s just, their all around you need them.”
Keith says she knows a few people who have their own chickens and she would use their eggs, but she is not always lucky enough to get some so she says she’ll continue to turn to the grocery store.
Gibson adds, “Over the last week and a half we have seen a decrease in the cost per dozen about a dollar and fifty cents. So, we are hopeful that, that trend continues.”
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