Eggs have become too expensive for the dollar tree.
Dollar Tree, which sells most products for $1.25 and a small selection of items for $3 or $5, will stop selling eggs in stores because the company can’t make money by offering them at fixed prices.
Egg prices have skyrocketed due to supply shortages caused by the deadly bird flu, rising production costs and increasing profits for egg producers.
Egg costs jumped 38% for annual producers in February and 55% for shoppers, even though eggs are starting to decline. The average price for a dozen large first-class eggs was $4.21 in February, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Most retailers have priced eggs up for customers to adjust to higher costs, but Dollar Tree doesn’t have as much flexibility to raise prices.
“Our base price point on the Dollar Tree is $1.25. The cost of eggs is very high right now,” said company spokesman Randy Geller. Dollar Tree, which has about 9,000 stores in the United States, will return the eggs when “costs are more in line with historical levels.”
But it probably won’t be in time for the main egg-buying holiday, Easter, on April 9 this year.
Reuters first reported that Dollar Tree would stop selling eggs. The Family Dollar Company, which is owned by the Dollar Tree, will continue to sell the eggs.
Shoppers on tight budgets have increasingly turned to dollar food stores.
Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar General, the largest of the three chains, have mushroomed in recent years and added more food staples, though the fresh and healthy options are limited. Dollar stores are the fastest growing food retailer in America, according to a Tufts University study released this year.
Dollar Tree used to sell cartons of eight or six eggs for one dollar. In 2021, Dollar Tree announced that it would raise prices to $1.25 because selling everything for $1 was stressing business.
David D’Arezzo, a former executive at Dollar General and other retailers who now works as an industry consultant, said Dollar Tree also made the decision to pull eggs because it has a poor hiring model for stores. He said workers who change egg price tags every week to account for wild fluctuations in the market will be an added strain on the store’s operations.
D’Arezzo said the chain caters to low- and middle-income customers and doesn’t want to offer eggs at sticker shock prices to damage its price reputation with shoppers.
CNN Wire
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