FAYETTE, Utah — Sticker shock is usually an emotion reserved for the gas pump, but Utahns, along with most Americans, have been feeling it while at the grocery store.
"My son came and stole all my eggs and so we had to go to the grocery store and they were 14.99! Which was insane!" shared Fayette resident Krista Martindale.
The eggs Martindale's son "stole" were the ones her own chickens hatched.
These days, something as simple as frying up an egg for breakfast could soon be seen as a luxury, but Martindale loves raising the chickens right in her own backyard. Now more than ever.
"I love having farm-fresh eggs," she said. "I’ve always had them. I grew up with chickens."
Growing up in the Sevier Valley, Martindale now lives just a little further up the road and has had her own chickens for about a year. She currently has about a dozen but wishes she had even more.
"Everybody’s asking me for eggs and they’re precious. Eggs are precious," Martindale explained.
Here's how egg prices are impacting local restaurants:
Right now, Martindale is not concerned about the current spread of avian bird flu.
"I know that it’s going around but I guess if they catch it, it will go through the flock and I think that we’ll be okay," she said, knowing that’s the cause behind the price increase of eggs across the state.
Over in Gunnison, Paige Conover laughs about the egg-flation because otherwise, she says, it would bring her to tears.
"They were marked lower and I was like, 'Oh, that’s a good deal,' and I went to check out and they were ringing up as $24.99 and I was like, ‘No, thank you!" said Conover.
A mother of three who used to raise chickens, Conover is considering a jump back into the chicken game because she can’t afford to keep buying eggs at the Gunnison grocery, shelling out more than 3 or 4 times more than usual the last time she bought a dozen.
"I did bite the bullet and I did pay the price, but I was like, 'Enjoy the eggs, kids, because these are the last ones for a while!'"
Shoppers aren't the only ones feeling the egg price sticker shock:
Commiserating over a grocery store receipt from Tuesday, Conover sees how the cost of everything, not just eggs, seems to be going up.
"So five of us, our grocery bill used to be $500 a month and now it’s definitely $1300 or more," she explained. "Insane! So, it’s been a struggle for sure, and definitely impacts our daily life."
Back in Fayette, Martindale is seeing her backyard flock continuing to grow.
"We went and got more chickens from my dad so we could have a few more eggs," she said, "but prices right now are pretty crazy."
