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Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods... Which Grocery Stores Have The Cheapest Egg Prices?

As supply struggles to keep up with demand amid a major egg shortage in the United States, consumers are being left with skyrocketing prices.

Shoppers around the country are even reporting having to pay prices climbing towards the $10 mark for a dozen regular eggs at some stores, sparking a nationwide scramble to find the most affordable deals.

According to the U.S.'s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average price of a dozen Grade A large eggs in America increased by nearly 100% between January and December 2024, from $2.14 to $4.15. And as 2025 progresses, this upward curve appears to show few signs of flattening out - the average price is now reported to have surpassed $5 - amid warnings that there won't be a quick fix to the U.S.'s supply-demand issue. In addition to grocery store shoppers, diners at restaurants in the U.S. Are also feeling the impact of higher egg prices. For example, the popular chain Waffle House has announced a 50-cent per-egg surcharge on all egg dishes.

Those hoping relief is on the way will find little comfort in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's price forecasts for 2025, which estimate that egg prices could jump an additional 20.3% by the end of the year.

Where might you find cheaper eggs in the U.S.?

The price will vary from city to city. Many major supermarket chains allow customers to place orders online. This service can double as a mechanism to compare prices in your area.

On the East Coast, the Democrat and Chronicle compared prices in Rochester, New York, where a dozen eggs can cost anywhere between $3.49 and $8.49, with Trader Joe's on Monroe Ave in Pittsford selling them at the best price.

Consumers are also being urged to join a food co-op - a grocery store owned and operated by its customers - to get lower prices. Epicenter NYC notes that New York's Park Slope Food Co-op has been selling certain eggs at as low as a third of their price in other establishments, highlighting the direct benefit for their members as this price crunch continues. One must consider these possible savings against the initial cost of joining such co-ops. Members of the Park Slope co-op, for example, are charged a $25 joining fee plus a $100 equity investment.

NJ.Com, meanwhile, says East Coasters should try the grocery chain Wegmans as a place to pick up more affordable eggs.

In California, the Los Angeles media outlet KTLA5 has cited Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Trader Joe's as stores where Americans have been able to get a dozen eggs for under $4.

For families that consume a large amount of eggs, Tasting Table's Darkish Cosby recommends seeking out savings by taking advantage of bulk deals on offer at major chains such as Costco and Walmart. In the case of Costco, shoppers will have to decide whether they can afford the annual membership fee, which is $65.

What has caused the supply-demand rise in egg prices?

Egg supply in the U.S. Has been severely impacted by an outbreak of bird flu, which has decimated the country's populations of egg-laying chickens.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Egg Markets Overview, bird flu led to the nationwide loss of 13.2 million egg-laying chickens in December 2024 and was set to continue killing at a breakneck rate in January. In total, per CBS, around 145 million birds have died since the outbreak began last year. Such a reduction in egg-laying chicken populations has made it much harder for the industry to keep up with the demand for eggs among U.S. Consumers. As the Investopedia finance journalist Leslie Kramer notes: "When demand is greater than supply, prices rise."

The close proximity of birds in hen houses can increase the risk of a major outbreak, leading to the culling of so many hens. Canada, on the other hand, has not faced the same price increases as their eggs, with their egg farms housing far fewer birds. Though production costs in the Canadian system may be higher, the supply chain is better able to maintain production during supply chain shocks like the avian flu.

Industry leaders are warning that consumers could face higher egg prices "for a while," as explained by the president and CEO of the American Egg Board, Emily Metz. Metz told CNN late last month that prices would remain elevated "until we have time without a detection" of bird flu.

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7 Potential Bidders, A Call To Amazon, And An Ultimatum: How The Whole Foods Deal Went Down

Thomson Reuters

Amazon played hardball with Whole Foods and won.

Whole Foods courted seven separate potential deal partners.

The company read a news story about Amazon's interest and reached out after feeling the heat from activist investors.

Amazon played hardball, demanding secrecy and nearly walking away after Whole Foods made a $45-per-share counteroffer.

The day that Amazon and Whole Foods announced their $13.7 billion merger that shook the grocery industry, a giddy John Mackey couldn't hide his enthusiasm.

The grocer's CEO regaled a crowd of his employees with a tale of "love at first sight," describing the moment the two companies met on a "blind date" six weeks earlier.

But in reality, the deal was far from inevitable, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing detailing how the merger went down.

In all, seven suitors were vying for Whole Foods. And though Amazon may have been the preferred deal partner, tough negotiations ensued, and the e-commerce behemoth came close to walking away from the deal.

Amazon arrived as a bidder in unusual fashion. Whole Foods read a news story from April suggesting the tech giant had been interested in acquiring Whole Foods but ultimately decided against it.

The organic-food retailer's management had since late 2016 been actively discussing strategies to improve Whole Foods' disappointing stock price, which had steadily declined along with profit in recent years.

Pressure to right the ship heightened in early April when the activist hedge fund Jana Partners announced it had acquired a nearly 9% stake in the company and was angling for a big shake-up in the top ranks.

Whole Foods' top brass had no desire to relinquish their control of the company without a fight, and a week later Mackey and his team hired a top defense banker from Evercore with more than a decade of experience battling activist and hostile investors.

Seven suitors

On April 18, inquiries started to trickle in. One industry competitor wrote a letter expressing interest in a deal, followed in subsequent days by inquiries from four private-equity firms.

That week, as interest from potential acquirers began to simmer, Whole Foods' management and an outside consultant mulled over a recent media report indicating Amazon had entertained the idea of buying up their company.

The Whole Foods consultant that Friday called Jay Carney, a former Obama administration spokesman who is now a senior vice president of corporate affairs for Amazon, to see if the tech giant might still be interested in pursuing the grocer. The next Monday, Amazon told the consultant it would be open to a meeting.

Meanwhile, pressure from Jana Partners intensified. That week, the hedge fund met with Whole Foods execs and made various demands, particularly insisting on an overhaul of the board of directors.

The Whole Foods board met that Friday, April 28, to discuss how it would respond to Jana. That's when Mackey informed members that he and other top executives were planning to jet off to Seattle to gauge Amazon's interest in acquiring the company.

They wasted little time, flying to Amazon's headquarters that Sunday for a meeting that Mackey later said lasted 2.5 hours and was "love at first sight."

"I think we coulda talked for 10 hours. And - when we huddled together, it was like we just had - we just had these big grins on our faces, like, 'These guys are amazing. They're so smart. They're so authentic,'" Mackey later told employees in a company town-hall meeting. "They say what's on their mind. They're not playin' a bunch of BS games. And it was like, 'This is gonna be so incredible.'"

But despite Mackey's optimism, a deal was far from certain, and Jana was breathing down his neck.

Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey juggled seven suitors but was smitten with Amazon from the start.

Whole Foods tried to placate Jana the next week by offering up two board seats in exchange for the activist investor's retracting its claws and giving the company 18 months to pursue strategic measures to revive itself.

Jana declined the offer, but Whole Foods nonetheless shook up its board, appointing five new directors on May 10.

Amazon emerges

Over the following weeks, Whole Foods' management continued to weigh its options. One competing grocery retailer suggested a "merger of equals," while another competitor proposed a commercial agreement, such as a supply-chain arrangement.

Then, on May 23, Amazon sent a written offer to buy Whole Foods for $41 per share, valuing the company at $13.1 billion - well above the $35 it was trading at. The tech giant communicated that it felt its bid was very competitive, and it demanded secrecy during the transactions. Any leak or rumor of a deal, and Amazon would be willing to terminate discussions.

Amazon was aggressive about the last point: protecting the secrecy of the "highly sensitive" negotiation. Goldman Sachs, representing Amazon in the transaction, separately called up Whole Foods' banker at Evercore two days later to reiterate: Confidentiality was crucial to a deal, and they would have no part in a multiparty bidding war.

Whole Foods' board met to discuss its options on May 30. It now had six suitors in addition to Amazon: two industry competitors and four private-equity firms.

Evercore advised the board that the buyout shops were unlikely to be able to top Amazon's price. And according to the SEC filing, the bank reminded the directors "that Amazon.Com had re-emphasized in multiple communications that Amazon.Com would not be willing to further engage with the Company in the event of a rumor or leak of a potential transaction."

Whole Foods decided to pursue Amazon, but it wanted to sweeten the deal. It made a counteroffer of $45 per share, or nearly $14.4 billion. Amazon wasn't pleased.

From the SEC filing:

"The Goldman Sachs representatives expressed their disappointment at the price specified in the Company's counter proposal as they had previously informed the Evercore representatives that Amazon.Com believed that it had made a very strong bid."

The next day, Goldman Sachs told Whole Foods that Amazon was now looking at other opportunities - and it was considering whether to reply to the counterproposal or just walk away.

As a last-ditch effort, Amazon offered $42 per share, emphasizing that this was its best and final offer. The tech giant was clear: It wanted a swift response, and it didn't want any other bidders meddling in the process.

From the filing (emphasis added):

"Goldman Sachs also made it clear again to the representatives from Evercore that Amazon.Com would disengage from its efforts to acquire the Company and pursue other alternatives and initiatives if the $42.00 per share price were not accepted and that Amazon.Com expected that the Company would not approach other potential bidders while the Company was negotiating with Amazon.Com (although they understood that the Company's board of directors would have a customary fiduciary out in the merger agreement), and requested that the Company promptly give a yes or no response to the $42.00 offer.

"They signaled Amazon.Com's willingness to move forward on the transaction quickly if the Company responded favorably to the offer as well as Amazon.Com's resolve in discontinuing discussions with the Company if the Company did not find the revised offer to be attractive."

Whole Foods adhered to Amazon's demands. The companies spent the next two weeks quietly performing due diligence on the deal before approving a merger on June 15 at Amazon's final offer price of $42 per share - $13.7 billion including debt.

With the whole process successfully kept secret in accordance with Amazon's request, the deal, announced the next day, sent tremors across multiple industries and sapped billions from the market caps of grocery stores and pharmacy companies.

Not long after, shares of Whole Foods surged above the deal price, suggesting investors thought - or hoped - that a rival bidder would emerge. But in reality, six other companies had already inquired about Whole Foods, and Amazon had made clear it would under no circumstances engage in a bidding war or exceed a price of $42 per share.

Whole Foods sealed its marriage with Amazon, and this week shares shot back down toward the deal price as investors confronted the realization that the tech giant had won and no competing bid would emerge.

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