Think Eggs Are Expensive? Try Buying 2,700 of Them Each Week.

Looking for something good? Don’t crack an egg. There is nothing but bad news these days, which is true for almost any topic but especially for eggs. Prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic — the cost of a dozen eggs has more than doubled since 2019 — and as a result Americans are eating (and buying) fewer. But “cutting back” isn’t exactly an option for businesses that depend on eggs to feed their customers, like B&H Dairy in the East Village. In keeping with kosher dietary law, the lunch counter serves dairy but no meat, which means lots of challah and other eggy foods.

“Our business depends on eggs,” says Ola Abdelwahed, who owns B&H with her husband, Fawzy. “For ten cases” — each of which is 180 eggs — “we pay almost $1,400. That’s really too much, and that’s not even enough for one week,” she explains. That’s more than double the “$600 or $700” she used to pay for the same number. It adds up quickly because she usually goes through 15 cases — 2,700 eggs — in a week.

Abdelwahed says that she’s been told the price could drop, but she doesn’t believe it. “I received the eggs last week, and nothing has changed,” she says. “This is for at least three or four months.” When the price does drop, she says, “it’s because they give us small eggs.”

Egg prices have been steadily rising since the summer. Blame bird flu. The New York Times reports that 10 percent of the country’s flock has been culled over the past three months. In January alone, 13 million chickens have been infected or culled. One industry analyst tells Business Insider that “it seems as bad as it has ever been.”

By December, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of a dozen eggs had risen to $4.416, more than double the cost in 2019. It’s not uncommon to see grocery-store prices for a dozen eggs top $9. Consumers are being told to brace for more eggflation, and the possibility that prices could rise an additional 20 percent this year.

“What kind of chicken is this — like a golden chicken egg?” Abdelwahed says. “Everywhere, the prices go up.”

One place where the prices can’t keep going up is Abdelwahed’s restaurant: B&H is an affordable refuge in downtown Manhattan and its customers include many seniors on fixed incomes. Since the pandemic, Abdelwahed has been forced to raise the price of a single egg from $1 to $2.50, but she knows she can’t go much higher. “The regular people, they get hurt. We have old people who come for breakfast. Sometimes they can’t afford it.” She says she now has to charge $10.50 for an omelette. “It’s too much. Two people, 20 dollars? It’s crazy.”

For now, Abdelwahed says she has no choice but to wait and see what happens: “We have a lot of students, a lot of older customers, I know they don’t have money. I cannot grab from them the last of their money. They already don’t have enough.” And if the prices do go up, as expected? “What am I going to do? I’m not greedy for money. I have to realize that — there has to be at least something for us, for the restaurant.”

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