KROGER'S CEO has issued a warning to shoppers after a nationwide shortage forced stores to limit the sale of eggs.
The price of eggs began to rocket in the US late last year, with shelves left bare following an outbreak of avian flu.
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Stores like Kroger and Lidl began restricting the number of eggs customers can buy as a result, with Kroger's limit currently standing at three boxes per shop.
Now, Kroger's CEO Rodney McMullen has warned grocery inflation is likely to remain relatively high in the first part of the year - before easing down the line.
“There are some CPG [companies] that continue to pass cost increases through,” He told CNBC Wednesday.
“Hopefully, there’s not another avian flu outbreak, and assuming there’s not, you would expect in the next several months the new chicks will be hatched and producing."
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Egg prices reportedly rose 11.1 percent between November and December due to a severe avian flu outbreak that killed off a massive amount of the hen population.
The late-year rise is in addition to egg prices going up nearly 60 percent overall in the last 12 months.
"Due to high demand, some types of products currently have quantity restrictions," a warning on Kroger’s website says.
Consumers have also been taking to social media to document the different outrageous egg prices they discover at their grocery stores.
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One person tweeted: "A dozen eggs is like $7 in my Kroger right now. Either people are starving or stealing. Ain't no way."
Another wrote: “Eggs is $8 now. the price on chickens did not go up so please tell me why eggs that use to cost a dollar and some change is now EIGHT DOLLARS!"
On January 6, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report confirming that a dozen large eggs could cost anyone nationwide anywhere from $4.43 to $7.37 right now.
Other grocery stores have resorted to similar tactics as the demand for eggs literally does not “crack.”
Costco, Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, Safeway, Trader Joe's, and Fred Meyer all now have similar policies at some locations, Best Life reported.
A Lidl spokesman explained the restriction was necessary because “in periods of high demand relative to product supply, as retailers nationally see today with eggs, our stores may place temporary quantity limits on high-demand products.”
Some other popular grocery items that have also seen drastic increases in price are grains, flour/four mixes, butter/margarine, dairy products, and lettuce.
For the year, the price of grains went up 20 percent, flour went up 23.4 percent, butter went up 35.3 percent, dairy went up 21.4 percent and lettuce went up 24.9 percent, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report.
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