No idea.
I think this is similar to that thread on the Strad violins. People can’t really tell the difference between an old Strad and a quality new violin. Let’s do blind taste tests of eggs next!
Local pasture raised at a different Mennonite store $5 a dozen yesterday, no apparent limit.
It’s a lower traffic store; mostly it’s a butcher shop, with only a few other things besides meats. I didn’t check the price at other places.
As near as I can tell:
Because for quite a few years all the standard factory-produced eggs were white eggs; because the marketing people thought that was preferred, and because the breed of chickens which can (or maybe which could) be gotten to produce the most eggs under factory conditions happened to lay white eggs.
Therefore, during those years, brown eggs came from small producers who were more likely to be treating their hens better and/or to be feeding for flavor and nutrition instead of just sheer quantity.
Therefore some people – not lots, but some – started buying brown eggs, even though they often had to pay a bit extra for them.
Eventually the factory producers noticed that there were people willing to pay extra for brown eggs. So they got some brown-egg-laying chickens that would produce nearly as well, or maybe as well, under factory conditions and started selling brown eggs at a premium.
So now the original reason for buying brown eggs has gone away. You might want to pay attention to who’s producing them and what claims they’re making and which of those claims seem to be backed by anything (or maybe you only care or can only afford to care about the price, in which case you don’t want to pay such attention); but the color of the eggs doesn’t tell you anything useful.
I used to buy brown eggs all the time. I knew they’re the same as white eggs, but my wife wanted brown eggs. They were usually cheaper than white eggs. I prefer Jumbo eggs, and Jumbo eggs only come in white; so that’s what I buy. (Jumbo eggs also used to be cheaper than Large eggs.)
I think many people see brown eggs as more “natural” than the bleach white “factory” eggs despite both colors (and others) being perfectly normal. In the case of Costco, their “organic” labeled eggs are brown which is why I was surprised to see them for less money than the standard whites.
Yesterday our regular 12ct was up to $5.92, so I took a look in the store computer to find out what we’re actually making off of egg sales.
Turns out our cost per package is $9.32. We’re actually losing about $3.40 on every dozen eggs we sell and we only make any money on them at all from people who go over the quantity limit and have to pay the higher price.
That’s one hell of a loss leader.
A lot of retailers are losing money on eggs right now.
Thanks for that info. I’m amazed that a retailer is paying $9.32 per dozen. Though now I’m wondering what the retail price would be with the standard retail markup.
About $11. Eggs are one of those items where most retailers target a “penny profit” per unit (dozen) rather than a percentage markup.
If cost is $2, retail will be $3.49, if cost is $5, retail is $6.49, if cost is $9.50, retail is $10.99.
Similar logic for milk and gasoline. High volume commodities with volatile costs. Though the volatility in egg prices is unprecedented.
Two actor friends were chatting before a performance. I distinctly heard them say to: “Break an egg” instead of the usual, “Break a leg.” 
That explains why their seems to have been a “breath-holding contest” aspect to local egg prices – that is, going from “hey, that’s a great deal!” pricing to sudden doublings and triplings of the former “great deal” price.
Our stores apparently haven’t been competing on egg prices, per se. They’ve been competing on loss-lead depth. I guess it’s still “prices”, but coming from a different perspective.
I have a slightly different data point than raw eggs: that Lenten special looked forward to the rest of the year, the pepper-and-egg sandwich. I don’t know if they’re a thing outside Chicago, but here Italian beef places will sell, only on Fridays during Lent, scrambled eggs with peppers (sweet or hot) mixed in on the same kind of bread as an Italian beef sandwich.
Last year, at my favored source for pepper-n-egg, Portillo’s, the small sandwich was $5.99 and the large $7.99. This year, for my first delicious purchase of the too-short season, I paid one dollar more for each: $6.99 for a small and $8.99 for a large.
Aldi today was $5.92 (or very similar…ninety something), which is the highest I’ve seen it there. My usual store for groceries (where I never buy eggs or milk) was $7.99 for the cheapest dozen (all gone), and $8.99/doz for the next cheapest (plenty available.)
On one hand I can see the Trump administration doing this investigation for political reasons; on the other hand it wouldn’t surprise me if egg producers were doing this.
I was at a Big Y supermarket today. Eggs seemed to be about $9.50 per dozen. More for the six pack and slightly less for the 18 count package. But I was surprised to find a display of Paas egg dye kits near the eggs. Are people still going to dye eggs this year?
Artificial eggs for dyeing have been around a while … but at $3.00 for 12 artificial eggs plus dye, I’ll bet their sales smash records this year.
$5.79 per dozen
Yeah, we’re dying eggs. How many eggs do you dye? We might do eighteen at the most. So we’re paying an extra few bucks. In terms of the household budget, it’s a drop in the bucket. It’s like six or seven bucks more than it may have cost in the past. Yeah they’re expensive compared to what they used to be, but it’s like the cost of a Starbucks drink or something else I could do without were money tight.
You can dye eggs and still eat them. Or at least we did when I was a kid.
Oops, duplicate for below.