Forgot to look at TJs when I picked up eggs and milk earlier, but at Whole Foods just now, 6 eggs are available in 2 brands, both organic, 3.99 and 5.29. Neither brand has a dozen eggs, they only do 6-packs.
A dozen eggs, also organic, but different brands (store and another) are 4.39 and up. So cheaper than the 5.29 brand, and barely more than the 3.99 for 6 more eggs, but a different brand.
A dozen XL organic eggs are cheaper at 4.39 than the same brand’s L organic eggs at 4.49 and 4.99.
A dozen non-organic eggs go from 3.39 and up (XL cost 10c more than L in this case for the same earlier brand where they were 10c cheaper).
Brown and white are sometimes priced differently, sometimes the same, for the same brand.
My only takeaway over time has been that egg pricing is not logical. Or there is some elaborate supply-demand data driving the pricing.
Such as: enough people out there buy 6 eggs at a premium to 12 that there are brands who can cater solely to them.
I buy eggs from a local seller, but a big one. Hers are brown. The only difference I see is in making hard boiled eggs. The thicker shelled brown guys are much tougher to peel, often, even with age. But, I’ve found that if, instead of boiling, I steam them 15 minutes on low, I can peel them.
If you have no fridge or a small fridge, I will posit that you are more price sensitive and are not going to buy less of something for a higher cost. Speaking from past experience.
Yes, with little to no storage space, and if I wanted eggs, I would buy less of it at a higher per unit price, just to satiate my appetite for eggs.
It’s the same rationale people have when they buy watered down beer at the ballpark when they could easily wait 2-3 hours after the game ends and go home and drink bottled craft beer.
Same for people who order PB&J at a restaurant, when one could easily make it at home for a 1/10th of the price.
My response was that in this day and the cities we are talking about, if you have no fridge or a small fridge, you are also price sensitive and will not be making the kind of a buying decision that results in less product for more money.
Not a ballpark watered down beer analogy. A who’s the demographic living with no fridge question.
Just speaking from personal experience, one of my friend’s son is in college (in a major metro city in Southern CA), dorms with 3 other roommates and he will buy 6 pack eggs and half loaf of bread routinely, simply because of space, or lack thereof.
6 eggs is more expensive than a dozen (sometime in whole, and certainly on a per unit basis), and will buy half loaf of bread (16 oz) versus a full loaf (20 oz) of the same bread at a higher cost.
It is what it is.
Most of us who live in houses with multiple rooms and spacious kitchens and fridges often lose sight of the fact that not everyone lives like that, even in large metropolitan urban areas.
Someone living alone in a small Manhattan studio may have just an under counter fridge. This doesn’t mean they are in a situation to worry too much about price, just that they chose to live in a small place in a big city.
Alternatively, 6 eggs may be all someone can use before they spoil.
I’m pretty sure the only people that do this are people caring for small children who suddenly decide that today is the day they DON’T want chicken fingers and and an $8 pb&j is what it will take to keep them fed and quiet.
Same here… NYC born and raised. I’ve had my fair share of tiny apartment kitchens and the options available at bodegas and small markets like C-Town and Key Food.
