Eggs are so expensive that Dollar Tree has just given up stocking them

• Dollar Tree said Tuesday it will stop selling eggs because of soaring prices, Reuters reported.
• The dollar store chain plans to bring add eggs back to its stores this fall.
• Avian influenza has ravaged chicken flocks for over a year, pushing egg prices higher.

Eggs have become so expensive that one of the largest dollar store chains has decided not to carry them.

Dollar Tree will hold off on stocking the grocery staple until this fall, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday. The decision will remove eggs from the grocery sections of about 8,000 Dollar Tree stores across the US and Canada.

The chain made the deccison ahead of the Easter and Passover holidays. Both represent key sales times for eggs. 

Egg prices have soared, and supplies remained constrained over the last year. The culprit is avian flu, which has ravaged egg-laying chicken flocks in the US since February 2022 and shows little sign of going away anytime soon. 

The price of a dozen eggs rose as much as 60% last fall, and in January, the average price was close to $5 a dozen, according to Reuters. Prices rose the most in upper Midwestern states that are major egg producers, such as Iowa, according to data that grocery delivery service Instacart shared in January.

At the end of last year, prices for a dozen regular eggs surpassed those for organic and free-range eggs in some markets.

Dollar stores have expanded their grocery offerings in recent years in a bid to capture more of consumers' food budgets.

Dollar Tree is planning to launch hundreds of its own-brand products and has added other basic grocery items, such as ice and bread, to attract shoppers, industry publication Winsight Grocery Business reported earlier this month.