Posted on 04/19/2025 6:47:12 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The humble egg is one of those foods that pops up just about everywhere. An egg can be cooked in dozens, if not hundreds, of different preparations, and just like any other commodity, the price has really fluctuated over the years.
Tracking down the retail price of a dozen Grade A eggs over the decades wasn't an easy task, as prices have varied from store to store over the years, and supermarkets haven't kept track of prices for decades on end. So in order to get an annual retail price that we could stand behind, we worked with the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which provided documents from the Consumer Price Index with annual average prices for a dozen Grade A eggs dating back to 1890. As these are the government's figures, compiled by visiting businesses that sell eggs and collecting price quotes on a monthly basis (so going beyond just flipping through the prices in old supermarket circulars), these are as close to "official" prices as we're likely to find.
Egg prices have gone up and down over the past 80 years, but on the whole, a dozen eggs have gotten a lot less expensive than they used to be, once we adjust for inflation. So if you took any trips to the grocery store with a parent when you were a baby, read on to learn how much they would have paid for a dozen eggs each year between 1937 and 2005.
I don’t like trips “down memory lane.” Too depressing on multiple levels.
Horse no kau kau cow kau kau — Cow kau kau cow kau kau!
Yeah, I noticed that too.
We used to let our chickens run.
They would go into the barn yard and pick the corn out of the cow manure. I suppose that wasnt to be allowed either.
These critters know all by themselves what to eat and not.
BTW, I’ve read that grass isnt good for chickens.
Let em do what they do. They’ll know all by themselves.
Okay, Luke.
Advertisement in WW2 newspaper April 1945 Eggs 48 cents a dozen.
Adjusted for inflation that’s $8.15 a dozen.
That’s the real number you need to see
I remember when they were a nickel!
A nickel!
“1940: 33 cents”
That was very expensive, given that the average factory worker back in 1940 made 45c/hr.
Steak (per pound) was cheaper than eggs in a lot of ads in WW2. (because of the Office of Price Administration put a ceiling price on rationed items). I quickly looked through the ads for Washington DC for April so I could post an example, but I couldn’t. There was almost no meat in any of the ads. DC was in a meat crisis.
Congress was investigating why. Black market was rampant. 90% of the (good) meat sold in NYC was black market.
Fish and Game Dept suggested that if the meat crisis continues, people should raise rabbits in their back yard.
Aldi had a dozen for 89 cents just before the pandemic. 1970 prices. A triumph of American farming, handling and transportation as well.
I enjoyed the old-time photos more than the rest of the info in this piece.
Didn’t cost much for my early family life but the price of raising a chicken and rooster. Lived on a ranch with chickens besides citris and we had eggs throughout a lot of the year, fresh. Only time we bought them ws when the chickens were not laying after we harvested them for food and new ones had to be bought and housed. And in many cases we raised many from some of the eggs so the average cost of the whole process was cheaper. But with the increase in town growth and the ease of buying them, both chickens and their eggs are not raised as much but sold in large ranching conditions. It was simpler, easier then...and cheaper.
wy69
And they have not gone down much at all. 6 bucks at walmart yesterday for a dozen common eggs.
Yep. If you’re 20 or younger, you cannot play. ;)
We are in the same boat! We got chicks last Spring and have 11 right now; lost one the being egg-bound.
‘The Girls’ are laying 7-10 eggs a day - and it’s just the two of us. I am taking 4 dozen with me tomorrow to Easter Dinner to share the love. An abundance of riches these days!
I posted the 1940 price as an example.
I was born in 1960. I’ll be 65 in July, so you still have plenty of time to mail me my ticket to Hawaii! ;)
However, I’m HOPING to be 85 one day, LOL!
“We would take a 12 Dozen crate of Eggs to the Grocery store and trade them for the food we didn’t raise on the farm. Our Eggs kept us fed.”
Hi, FRiend! *SMOOCH* :)
Yeah, my Grandma always had chickens and she sold her eggs, too. We didn’t buy a lot from the grocery store either when I was a kid; baked our own bread, made sausage, gardened, butchered the hens when they stopped laying, etc. But in the 1960’s we had a few more ‘luxuries’ afforded us than you probably had as a kid! (Oleo/Margarine for one - HA!)
In the mid-90’s I raised laying hens big time - usually had 50 hens at a time. I sold the eggs to a local Deli. I had clear cartons, fancy labels, tied with raffia ribbon. He gave me $2.50 per dozen and turned around and sold them for $5/dozen...and customers were yelling for more!
This was before everyone and their brother could keep a few laying hens in the back yard in the Madison area. What goes around comes around. ;)
That’s nice of you! Having hens myself, I have to constantly choose if scraps go ‘to the girls’ or into the compost pile.
I NEED both! ;)
Daydream Believer was the Billboard #1 hit the month I was born. Eggs cost .42 a dozen. And the 70’s and 80’s rocked, wish life was like it was back then.
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