PHOENIX β The prices on two grocery staples are finally returning to normal in Arizona.
Shoppers for the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation found they can now buy eggs for $1.69 a dozen. Thatβs pretty much half of what it cost just a year earlier.
And a gallon whole milk, which was running close to $3 a gallon a year ago, now is, on average, running about a dollar less.
So what gives?
Some of it is the price of gasoline and diesel, according to Peggy Jo Goodfellow.
βThe cost of transportation is down because fuel costs are down,β said the organizationβs marketing manager.
She said it starts with the cost of getting things like feed to the producers. And for dairy, thereβs the cost of transporting the milk itself from individual farmers to the processors.
But thereβs something else, too.
The price of eggs skyrocketed last year amid the avian flu scare, with producers, particularly in the Midwest, killing tens of millions of laying hens.
Fewer chickens translated to fewer eggs. And, supply and demand being what it is, those who still wanted them had to dig a little deeper into their wallets.
And some people simply decided they didnβt need them, at least not at that price.
βIt made me not make egg salad for quite a while,β Goodfellow said.
Overall, the market basket of 16 typical items the federation prices on a quarterly basis came in at $49.26. That is down $1.62 from the same time a year earlier.
Beef prices are a bit higher than they were a year ago. But they actually have been higher in the interim and have dropped back a bit from where they were even three months ago.
More noticeable is the cost of chicken, which is up sharply, with boneless breasts up more than a dollar a pound in the past year. Goodfellow said she had no good explanation for that.
The prices in the survey are based on what federation shoppers find at markets throughout the state. They include whatever weekly specials are available, but do not take into account coupons or discounts that are available to those with any chainβs affinity cards.
