Why is Chicken so Expensive?

Question

Why is chicken so freaking expensive? Every time I go to the grocery store I have a nervous breakdown in the meat department. I am a stay at home mom, and my husbands works A LOT to support our family. I used to buy those bags of frozen chicken breasts. I would buy them when they were buy one get one free and it was like $12.97 for the two of them. Every time they were on sale like this I would stock up like crazy. For about the past 3 months, the grocery store NEVER puts them on buy one get one free and they jacked up the price to $16.99 per bag. WHAT IS GOING ON??

Answer 1

One word: Corn.

With the ethanol boom, the costs of everything related to corn have skyrocketed. Farmers this past year planted more corn acres than ever because the commodity prices went up. So the farmers wanted to sell more corn to ethanol, while still having to feed the animals. Chickens eat corn, cattle eat corn. There's your chicken, eggs, beef, milk, etc. Plus, there's the cost of gas or conversion to ethanol that jacks the transportation prices up.

It all goes back to the price of corn. Seriously. I was an ag major. It's a trickle-down effect.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

They're not expensive at all. The most expensive thing is the coop, and you can save heaps of money buy building your own. I have two chickens now, I buy one big bag of food for them a month and fresh hay for their coop whenever it's needed. Those are the only real expenses I can think of. They're lovely pets :)

Answer 4

I can get chicken on sale for 69 cents a lb. That's a whole Washington grown chicken and I live in the Greater Seattle area.
Southern grown I have seen for as little as 49 cents, but I wouldn't buy a southern grown one

Answer 5

Look for the fresh chicken specials. Those frozen bags you buy have water injected into the chicken to weigh more.
Go to a Sam's club or BJ's and buy chicken in bulk to save money.

Answer 6

Yeah same thing is going on here. and considering chicken is my favorite food its getting on my nerves. Chicken used to be such a cheap meat. Usually we'd buy those bags of chicken for a bbq out on the grill but as it turned out steak was cheaper! I think it has something to do with disease. I know most of the chicken comes from Arkansas because I unfortuantly used to live right next to the places.

Answer 7

Buy whole chickens and bake them. Breast meat has always been expensive. I agree, meat in general is high and you have to shop around for deals. I paid 99 cents a pound for t bone in 1988 now they are as high as 9.99 a lb. Sickening isn't it? It's all about greed.

Answer 8

Just went to QFC in Seattle. No less chicken breasts cost $7.50 a pound. Thought I was at the organic shelf but found that at $8/#. It can rot on the shelf at that price. It's chicken!!!!! Not ribeye steak.

Answer 9

I have no clue, but I share your pocket shock. I'm a SAHM too, and feel very guilty when I go to a store to get a whole chicken to roast and it comes out to be $11- someting!

So what I do is.... watch the sale papers. Many stores sell either breasts (w/ skin and bone) for as little as 99 cents/lb if bought in a big bulk package. More often $1.99/lb. You can also find bonless, skinless breast portions just as cheap. Repackage into freezer zipper bags when you get home to fit your family size

I pick up frozen bags of bnls skls breasts at WM (Sam's Choice brand) for around $6.97 and contain about 10-12 breasts each. The bags are bigger for about the same price at Sam's Club and/or Costco.

Answer 10

WOW 16.99 per bag? You need to shop somewhere else. I don't think chicken is that expensive.

Answer 11

I'm on the West Coast and "locally" grown whole chickens were on sale for $0.79 per pound last week. This week they're $0.99 per pound. Bone-in chicken breast are $1.99 per pound. Boneless is much more expensive.

It's more economical to buy a whole one and break it down yourself.

It's really simple and takes about 5 minutes. Faster if you have good knife skills and faster yet if you have poultry shears too.

lol... I use the word "locally" grown very loosely. They're either from WA State, OR or CA, but not shipped across the country from Arkansas.

I would recommend shopping elsewhere too. From what I've seen usually the buy one, get one free deals aren't really great deals. A competitor usually has a "buy what you need" for a less expenisive price than the 2-fer.