As egg prices rise nationwide, local business owners are finding ways to adapt to increased costs. The change in egg prices is largely due to an increase in avian influenza outbreaks, and the Michigan Cage-Free Egg Law enacted Dec. 31, 2024.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Georgia Panos, manager of Village Kitchen of Ann Arbor, said she was met with an unexpected response when the carrier could not fill her order.
“There was a shortage on Friday, February 14, where we ordered eggs, and the deliverer dropped three cases,” Panos said. “Then when I asked him, ‘can you bring me three cases back?’ he said, ‘we don’t have any more eggs’.”
LSA sophomore Ivan Dashkevich, vice president of projects for APEX Consulting, told The Daily he predicts general food costs will increase long-term due to the Cage-Free Law.
“(The Cage-Free Law is) going to be here to stay, and I think that’s going to be a fixed cost,” Dashkevich said. “For businesses within the Ann Arbor space, I think we’d see pastries going up in price, because you need the eggs to actually hold everything together. Some bread is probably going to be more expensive as well, and overall, I don’t think we’ll go back to that low egg price.”
Dashkavich lives in a house with four other roommates and said the recent increase in egg prices have caused him to reconsider his shopping habits.
“(The Cage-Free Law) was a little bit of a hit,” Dashkavich said. “I think we ended up scaling back our purchases from the 36 pack down to a 24 pack for that time. I think last time we went, it was closer to $7 or $8 and the price nearly doubled, so we just didn’t buy eggs.”
In an interview with The Daily, Iggy’s Eggies owner Eli Boyer said he based his business model around eggs as a low-cost staple and worries that a long-term increase in prices could negatively impact his business and increase the cost of living.
“The low and stable price of eggs is one of the reasons I got into this business,” Boyer said. “That’s my business case — working with an item that you can count on being a certain price forever, almost. Eggs are something that determine different cost of living metrics in our country, so it’s definitely going to have some impact on that when such a staple item is fluctuating to such a great degree.”
In an interview with The Daily, Panos said increased egg prices have forced her to haggle with food distributors in an effort to save money.
“I have Sysco, Gordon Foods and Miceli that I order food from once a week, and I have to negotiate with them,” Panos said. “There’s bidding wars. Yesterday, I had to wait to order the eggs until 4 p.m. because Sysco was trying to lower the prices, so I got the eggs for $79 per case, whereas Miceli had them for $110 per case.”
Panos also said she is going to raise prices for menu items to compensate for high egg prices. Because she is cautious of upsetting customers, Panos said she is struggling to balance customer satisfaction and the best choice for her business.
“You really can’t do what Waffle House is doing where they’re gonna charge you $0.50 per egg —it doesn’t go here in a small restaurant, people are gonna get angry,” Panos said. “I have a new menu coming out next week. I added $1 to each breakfast item.”
Boyer is currently working with Nexecon Consulting Group, a student-run consulting organization through the Ross School of Business that works with a wide variety of businesses to improve sales and revenue. Boyer said he hopes to create a consistent relationship with an egg producer in the future to ensure a fixed price of eggs.
“There is a certain point where your guest is going to become very price sensitive, and we’re conscious of that,” Boyer said. “We’re trying not to overreact. We’re trying to play the long game. We’re trying to focus on finding a partnership with somebody in the state of Michigan, whether a collective or an egg farm, to be a dedicated partner, so creating more of a relationship there rather than your typical restaurant and vendor.”
Daily Staff Reporter Delilah Dakis can be reached at delilahd@umich.edu.
