Joe Warne of San Francisco took one look at the empty shelves on Saturday and all but cracked up: “There’s no freakin’ eggs!”
Not at the Safeway on Monterey Boulevard where Warne hoped to find them, nor at the Trader Joe’s on nearby Winston Drive.
“That’s crazy!” Meghan Berry said as she stared at the barren counters at Trader Joe’s where the eggs were supposed to be. She had hoped to stock up after returning from a trip to Missouri and Florida for the holidays. But what lay before her were just a few open cartons, smeared with cracked contents.
In fact, customers all over California are scrambling to find eggs, and the problem has gotten worse in the last week or so. It’s as if they’ve all been poached.
Meghan Berry of San Francisco was hoping to stock up on eggs at Trader Joe’s on Winston Dr. No such luck.
Nanette Asimov“Due to a nationwide shortage of eggs and to support all customers, we are limiting egg purchases to 2 cartons per customer,” said a notice at the Whole Foods on 20th Avenue in San Francisco. The store had cartons for sale, but the shelves looked like an understuffed omelet, with empty spots.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that nearly every state was hit by at least one avian flu outbreak throughout the year, with hundreds of cases affecting nearly 58 million wild and domestic birds.
On Saturday, representatives from Whole Foods, Safeway and Trader Joe’s did not return requests for comment.
In San Francisco, a Trader Joe’s customer named Tom stared at shelves as empty as a henhouse at feeding time. A reporter said the avian flu was the apparent cause of the missing eggs, but Tom called that an exaggeration.
Actually, he said, “it’s a pretext for killing chickens.”
Why would chicken farmers want to kill their chickens?
“That’s the trillion-dollar question,” Tom said, declining to give his last name “because of the political situation.” He compared the egg shortage to the war in Ukraine and the pandemic. His girlfriend gave him a look indicating it was time to go.
“We
did
want to buy eggs,” Tom added, as he looked longingly at the sign touting extra large, cage-free eggs for $3.99. “I’ll probably go to Whole Foods, where they’ll be triple the price.”
Not quite. They were $10.49.
Gian Lopez of Daly City loaded his permitted two cartons into a cart.
“Eggs,” he explained, “are part of a healthy diet.”
The Whole Foods on 20th Avenue in San Francisco is limiting egg sales to two cartons per customer.
Nanette AsimovBut Lopez wasn’t about to brood over the shortage. “Things happen,” he shrugged. “They’ll eventually bounce back and get it right. That’s their job.”
It wasn’t clear whether he meant the farmers or the hens.
Over at Safeway, Melissa Le Biavant of San Francisco said she and her husband enjoy eating eggs in the morning, and she’s been thwarted twice recently when trying to buy them.
It’s not only inconvenient, she said, but scary, when you consider the bird flu. “It makes me want to get my own chickens.”
Whole Foods, on 20th Avenue in San Francisco, is limiting egg sales to two cartons per customer.
Nanette AsimovMost stores, Safeway included, had egg substitutes for sale, like “Just Egg.” The yolk-colored container said it was “made from plants.” Its ingredients include mung bean protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, salt and sugar.
Warne, who had been shopping for a late breakfast, said he wouldn’t shell out a dime for that product.
“Fake eggs? No, thank you,” he said. “I guess I’ll just get some wine, instead.”
Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com