Flint, MI – Unique Callaway, 19, just recently started grocery shopping on her own. She receives SNAP benefits and food stamps, which she uses at the Save A Lot on the corner of Flushing and Ballenger Road.
“I’m only 19, like, and when my mom used to grocery shop for us and stuff, and I used to come to the store with her, nothing was ever really this high,” she said, holding up a container of butter that cost $1.59.
She said the current prices make it difficult to get what she needs every week.
At the Save A Lot Callaway shops at, a dozen large eggs cost $3.49 on March 30, 2023. Although this is one of the lowest costs for eggs in Flint, it’s still higher than the national average of $2.52 just two weeks ago.
“I don’t even receive a lot in SNAP. So for this to be this much, I can’t get everything that I want. I have to budget,” she said.
For many people throughout the country, the cost of eggs has fluctuated wildly so far in 2023, with national news outlets using the measure to track the country’s inflation.
According to a report from the United States Department of Agriculture, the average cost of one dozen large, white eggs on March 24, 2023, was $4.94. Comparably, the cost of eggs the week before that was $2.52, down 51 cents from a month earlier on Feb. 17, when eggs cost $3.03.
However, in Flint, the cost of eggs is mostly lower than the March 24 national average, but throughout the city Flint Beat found that egg prices still fluctuated between stores.
As of Thursday, March 30, 2023, the cheapest dozen large, white eggs Flint Beat found in grocery stores was $3.49 at the Save a Lot where Callaway shops, as well as at Lucky Star Food Market on the corner of Court and Tacken Street.
Both stores are located in southwest Flint.
However, places like Royal Fresh Marketplace at the corner of Franklin and Illinois Avenue, Hutchinson Food and Drug at the corner of Saginaw Street and Lorado Avenue and Landmark Food Center at the corner of Fenton and Hemphill Road in north Flint were selling eggs for a bit more –$4.79 per dozen, to be exact.
Additionally, Midway Market, at the corner of Dupont Street and Mackin Road, and Woodcroft Market at the corner of Miller Road and Knight Avenue, both sold eggs for $3.99.
Downtown, Bushels and Peck’s Produce, located inside the Flint Farmers’ Market, sells its eggs for $5 per dozen.
Clinton Peck, the owner, said he sets his prices based on market rates, noting his farm-fresh eggs are mixed in color, though.
“They’re beautiful egg quality,” he told Flint Beat.
Peck said his eggs have been $5 for a dozen since he started selling them a year and a half ago.
The highest cost for eggs that Flint Beat encountered on March 30 was at the Grainery Organic Foods store at the corner of Court and Church Street, one of the only other places to get groceries downtown.
The store’s $6.35 price per dozen was not wholly comparable to national averages, however, as the Grainery only sells organic eggs.
For Earlene Love, who usually shops at north Flint’s Mr. B’s Foodland or Hutchinson Food and Drug, eggs were $4.59 on March 30.
“Prices are ridiculous,” she told Flint Beat, adding that she’s been buying items in bulk to try to combat rising costs.
For example, she noted the chicken wings at Mr. B’s were $3.69 per pound during this particular visit, saying that’s “way higher” than what they normally cost for her.
“Whenever the price is a little bit lower, I try to get, like, a big bag so I can divide them up into meals. Because it’s crazy,” she said.