Business

Piggly Wiggly pulls eggs over massive markup

PARKERSBURG -- With the buying habits affected by the COVID-19 situation, grocery stores are seeing a change in their market, but the locally owned Piggly Wiggly stores are continuing to remain loyal to their customers and employees.

After a 300 percent markup by a certain egg company, Piggly Wiggly elected to remove those eggs from the shelves until the cost goes down, according to Jim Oppe, owner.

"Our system is set up on supply and demand and when the demand is more than the supply, that's what happens. I think you're going to see prices go up," Oppe said.

However, they will continue to sell Eggland's Best Eggs. The other brand of eggs before they were pulled were being sold at cost, which was higher than normal.

Oppe said they've also seen an increase on other items like beef and pork.

"That two weeks of the buying frenzy kind of emptied the pipeline and that's what happened. The pipeline fills back up and everybody has calmed down," he said.

Another change in the market involves the restaurant industry. With several restaurants only offering curbside or delivery meals, Oppe said they have been able to buy products from some of them if they have extra.

"Last year was the first year that food sales in restaurants out paced food sales in grocery stores. With restaurants affected by this, (it) puts an extra strain on the system. Hopefully that product is finding its way into the retail end," Oppe said.

While grocery stores are still fully operational, Oppe said their employees are top notch and working hard to ensure all customer contact places are properly sanitized.

They also ensure employees have access to gloves and face masks.

"We've had some customers (who) have made face masks for our employees and brought them in," Oppe said. "Our customers are great and we appreciate them very much. This community has been very good to us."

Candice Black can be reached at cblack@newsandsentinel.com.