Egg prices continue to crack household budgets, and many shoppers have become accustomed to the run-up in prices. Shoppers might take some solace in knowing that they could be paying even more for their omelets if they lived elsewhere, and a new interactive map showing egg prices at Walmart stores across the country highlights the highs and lows.
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Marketing executive Sacha Fournier created the map as a guide to egg prices at Walmart stores — and updates the site regularly. Consumers can view the map on eggspensive.net where they will find color-coded dots scattered across states showing which areas have the highest and lowest prices for a dozen eggs. So, if you're feeling the pain of paying $3 a dozen in Minnesota, prices near $7 in California might bring you a slight bit of relief. And if you live in California, well, the map might just sour your attitude toward the price of eggs even further.
As for how reliable the guide is, Fournier told The Takeout website that he "built a custom scraper that essentially ‘browses’ the Walmart website and views the eggs category for each store. Prices are extracted, and then I have some code that cleans and triple-checks the data for any anomalies.” Not every Walmart store is shown on the map, Fournier said, but he has plans to add more locations.
Tracking the fluctuation in egg prices may keep Fournier busy, as a forecast from the Department of Agriculture calls for the cost of dozen eggs to drop 30% this year.