They’re taking a crack at making eggs affordable!
New York City bodegas are selling “loosie”-style eggs — à la notorious single cigarettes — as bird flu shortages send the prices of cartons skyrocketing, The Post has learned.
Fernando Rodriguez, 62, owner of Pamela’s Green Deli in the Bronx said many of his customers simply can’t shell out $10.99 for a full carton of the beloved breakfast food.
“These people don’t have enough money to buy a dozen eggs, so I have to sell them separately,” said Rodriguez, 62. “When I saw how high the price of eggs has become, we decided to break it down into small bags.”
Before the recent price spike, Rodriguez would typically sell a dozen large eggs for $2.49. He now offers three large Nelms brand “grade A” eggs in a plastic bag for $2.99 at the shop on East 166th Street and Third Avenue in Morrisania.
Roughly a third of his customers — many of whom are low-income — opt for the three loosies instead of a carton, he said.
Rodriguez, who hails from the Dominican Republic, said he hatched the plan after seeing how huevos are hawked in his homeland.
“We used to sell single eggs in Dominican Republic,” he said. “I know how difficult it is for families to afford eggs and milk.”
Plenty of other Big Apple-based bodegas are also following the loose egg trend, said Fernando Mateo, a spokesman for United Bodegas of America.
“This is not a choice — it’s a necessity,” Mateo said. “We know our customers. We know their struggles.”
While slinging loose cigarettes is illegal, selling individual eggs may be in more of a legal gray area, industry sources said.
“At times, bodega owners may bend the rules without breaking them — walking the fine line between regulatory expectations and human compassion,” Mateo said.
However, bodega owners could still run “a fowl” of the law because New York State requires eggs to be sold in packages labeled with grade, count and size.
On Wednesday, some omelet-loving shoppers said they initially thought the bags of three were a joke — no eggs-agerating.
“I thought it was a prank,” Ashley James, 45, a self-proclaimed “breakfast girl” from Morrisania.
“I’ve never seen that before, never. But it is good for the community,” she said.“I don’t have $13 for a dozen eggs.”
Before the egg shortage, she ate eggs with cheese, grits or pancakes every day — but has scaled back to only weekends due to soaring prices.
Shopper Frankie Vasquez, 75, said he bought a bag of three eggs to feed four people.
“I used to give everybody two eggs for breakfast but now I will scramble these three eggs for my two sons, me and my brother to all share,” he said.
“Something has to be done about the price of eggs,” he added. “It’s crazy living in America, where we should have everything we need.”
The US egg shortage — caused by a massive culling due to bird flu — caused the price of eggs to spike by more than 15 % in January, up from 55 % from the previous year, a US Bureau of Labor Statistics report said Wednesday.