BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – The cost of a dozen eggs has risen, along with many other items in the grocery store, and it’s costing small businesses.
At the Flour Shop bakery in Brentwood, recipes don't need to be written down. Lately baker Debbie Johnson wishes that things that do need to be written down could be erased.
Back in April, the small bakery spent $50 a week on eggs. Now they're spending closer to $100 a week.
And it's not like they have a choice.
Eggs are in the cakes, the breads and the cookies. Like a poorly made cake, their profits have slowly deflated as time has passed through the last three months.
The problem is an egg shortage caused by an outbreak of the bird flu. Some 47 million chickens have died nationwide. Production has slowly decreased but demand has stayed the same.
Now consumers and bakeries are feeling the pinch as egg prices have nearly tripled since April.
“Things get up so high and we're such a small company, you know and we can't go up on our prices all the time,” said Deborah Johnson with the Flour Shop Bakery.
Fair or not, it is the price they have to pay.
The price increase comes even as agriculture officials believe the outbreak is slowing.
Experts expect egg production to increase over the next five months as newly hatched hens are able to lay their own eggs.
