We went to the Saturday Farmer’s Market here in Newport because we were told that the egg farmer sells out too quickly and they need more eggs.  I try to stick to Tuesday nights because there isn’t a lot of farmers on that night and on Saturday there is usually 2 other egg sellers.

Unfortunately, due to the devastatingly low prices the other main egg farmer sells his eggs for – 3 for $4, I am no longer able to sell many eggs at our market.   I asked him when he started at the market this year, “How much does it cost for you to PRODUCE a dozen eggs?” and his reply was that he had NO IDEA, and they were just retired people doing this for fun.  I explained to him that it costs me between $1 and $1.50 to produce eggs PLUS the cost of the carton, and he didn’t want to believe that, or rather my guess is he didn’t want to do the responsible math to arrive at a proper calculation on his own farm.

He continued to undervalue his eggs and sell out each day.  Even worse, now that he’s run out of “extra stock” I guess he accumulated over the winter in his fridge, he can not keep up with the demand he created for cheap eggs.  He’s only able to bring a few dozen now each market day.  Now, people come for cheap eggs, and there either isn’t any left because he sells out immediately and doesn’t stay around.  Or they view my Free Range Rainbow eggs as “overpriced”, even though they cost less than Cage Free eggs at ALL of our local markets.

So now, even though he did really well getting rid of extra supply early on in the market season, he’s priced himself of making any profit at all.  Furthermore, now our regular shoppers have come to expect a seriously low price tag, a STEAL of a price really and I can not compete with that unless I TOO want to not make any profit.  For nearly 2 years I’ve been selling my eggs for $3 per dozen and had no such issues with perceived values.  Now, one farmer comes along with no regard to the rest of the established markets example, refused to make a profit for himself and now NEITHER of us can make much money.  Such a shame how one’s actions can affect an entire market.

It’s discouraging now that I won’t be able to make much money for the next couple of months on egg sales, however, I will not be lowering my prices, because in doing so, I would be doing a disservice to myself and any other egg farmers who might come along.  It’s also no surprise that the low priced egg farmer in this equation has decided that NEXT season, he’ll have to increase his prices.

The 2 morals of this story are:

“When you undervalue your hard work, time & energy; you subsequently undervalue your neighbors, friends & in general humanity.”

and

“It’s important to remember, that the consequences of your actions are sometimes hidden to you, but not to others.”