Joe Warne of San Francisco took one look at the empty shelves Saturday and all but cracked up: “There are no weird eggs!”
Not at Safeway on Monterey Boulevard, where Warne expected to find them, nor at Trader Joe’s on nearby Winston Drive.
“He is mad!” Megan Berry staring at the barren counters at Trader Joe’s, where the eggs should have been. She was expected to stock up after returning from a trip to Missouri and Florida for the holidays. But what lay before him were only a few open cans with cracks lying on them.
In fact, customers all over California are scrambling to find eggs, and the problem has gotten worse over the past week. It seems like they have all been hunted.
Meghan Berry of San Francisco was hoping to stock up on eggs at Trader Joe’s on Winston Dr. No such luck.
Nanette AsimovA notice at Whole Foods on Twentieth Avenue in San Francisco said, “Due to the nationwide shortage of eggs and to support all customers, we are limiting egg purchases to 2 cartons per customer.” The store had cartons for sale, but the shelves looked like an under-filled omelet with empty spaces.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that nearly every state has had at least one avian flu outbreak throughout the year, with hundreds of cases affecting some 58 million wild and domestic birds.
Representatives for Whole Foods, Safeway and Trader Joe’s did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
In San Francisco, a Trader Joe’s customer named Tom noticed the shelves as empty as a chicken coop at dinner time. A reporter said that avian flu was the apparent cause of the missing eggs, but Tom called this an exaggeration.
Indeed, he said, “It’s an excuse to kill chickens.”
Why would chicken farmers want to kill their chickens?
“It’s a trillion-dollar question,” said Tom, who declined to give his last name “because of the political situation.” He compared the egg shortage to the war and pandemic in Ukraine. His girlfriend looked at him and signaled that it was time to leave.
“we
did
Want to buy eggs,” said Tom, as he gazed longingly at the sign for extra large, cage-free eggs for $3.99. “I’ll probably go to Whole Foods, where they triple the price.”
not enough. They were $10.49.
Daly City’s Gian Lopez loaded his allowed two boxes into a car.
“Eggs,” he explained, “are part of a healthy diet.”
Whole Foods on 20th Avenue in San Francisco is limiting the sale of eggs to two cartons per customer.
Nanette AsimovBut Lopez wasn’t about to worry about the shortage. “Things happen,” he shrugged. “They’ll eventually bounce back and make it right. That’s their job.
It was not clear whether he meant farmers or chickens.
At Safeway, Melissa Le Biavant of San Francisco said she and her husband enjoy eating eggs in the morning, and she was turned down twice recently when trying to buy them.
That said, it is not only inconvenient, but also scary, when you think about bird flu. “It makes me want to get my chickens.”
Whole Foods on 20th Avenue in San Francisco is limiting the sale of eggs to two cartons per customer.
Nanette AsimovMost stores, Safeway included, had egg substitutes for sale, such as “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 was late shopping for a snack, said he would not spend a single penny for that product.
“Fake eggs? No thanks,” he said. “I think I’ll just have some wine instead.”
Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com