A publication of the USDA AMS Livestock and Poultry Program, Agricultural Analytics Division

February 19, 2019

Shell Egg Marketing During the Holidays 

Thanksgiving and Christmas are key marketing events on the calendar for shell eggs. With the arrival of November, thoughts 

turn to family gatherings and Grandma’s pumpkin pie (50 million estimated to have been eaten during Thanksgiving 2018, 

at 3 eggs per pie, that’s 150 million eggs!). As December arrives, community-organized cookie walks offer tons of baked 

treats to eager consumers as Christmas season kicks into high gear and purveyors of egg nog open the spigots. Retailers

are eager to please and step up their promotional campaigns for shell eggs. Typically, store ads peak 2-3 weeks ahead of 

each holiday, giving shoppers plenty of lead time to prepare for their holiday feasts. 

During the recent Thanksgiving marketing period, supermarket shell egg 

features outpaced those for Christmas by 13%. Caged shell eggs at 

Thanksgiving accounted for 36% of store features with 15% of these comprised 

of nutritionally-enhanced, national branded offerings. At Christmas, the share 

of features for caged eggs declined 3% from Thanksgiving to 33% and ads for

nutritionally-enhanced, national branded shell eggs declined 4% to 11%. 

Grocery retailer marketing efforts for both holiday seasons focused heavily on 

shell eggs from cage-free production systems with 65% of shell egg features 

at Thanksgiving and 68% at Christmas. In November, cage-free features were 

led by organic offerings with 41% of cage-free ad share with those from 

barn/aviary systems, as defined by the United Egg Producers, accounting for a 

29% share. Features ahead of Christmas were dominated by shell eggs from 

barn/aviary systems with 46% of feature share. Organic offerings, at 35% of 

ad share, remained prevalent but less so than during the Thanksgiving period. 

Non-organic free-range shell eggs, where hens are physically outdoors for not less than a certain number of hours per day, 

were prominently featured during both holidays, accounting for 17% of Thanksgiving cage-free ads and 14% at Christmas. 

Organic shell eggs raised in free-range conditions accounted for 29% of all organic shell eggs featured in November (8% of 

all egg types) and 24% in December. Pastured production, where the hens spend their days outside with portable coops 

for egg laying and for shelter from inclement weather, has been slowly 

growing in recent years with a current non-organic flock estimated at 

2.5 million hens. Non-organic pastured shell eggs saw a 7% ad share 

of all eggs featured at Thanksgiving but dropped to 2% at Christmas. 

Shell eggs from organic pasture systems, with a current flock size 

estimated at 1.3 million hens, saw an overall share in November of 2% 

(7% within the organic category) and 1% (4% within the organic 

category) at Christmas. 

At Thanksgiving, featuring of brown-shelled types outpaced white by 

65-35%, 68-32% at Christmas and, not surprisingly, 90% of all shell egg 

offerings during both holidays were Large class. Average wholesale 

prices ahead of Thanksgiving were as much as 19% higher than they 

were ahead of Christmas. This is reflected in the average 

advertised prices for shell eggs of all types at 

Thanksgiving compared to Christmas (see table at 

left).

For more information, see the Feature Advertising by U.S. 

Supermarkets Meat and Poultry Thanksgiving and Christmas

reports.

M arket Insights

White Brown White Brown

CAGED Production

conventional 1.29 1.69 1.26 1.89

nutritionally-enhanced 2.45 2.50 2.25 2.50

vegetarian-fed -- 2.61 2.50 2.11

CAGE-FREE Production

 Barn/Aviary........................ 2.26 3.02 1.96 2.41

nutritionally-enhanced -- 2.89 2.79 2.77

vegetarian-fed -- 2.90 2.50 2.74

 Free-Range......................... 2.06 3.23 3.25 3.08

nutritionally-enhanced -- 4.99 -- 3.01

vegetarian-fed 2.50 3.13 2.99 2.67

 Pastured.............................. -- 5.26 -- 4.65

 Organic................................. -- 4.04 3.99 3.98

nutritionally-enhanced -- 4.23 -- 4.26

free-range -- 4.25 -- 4.26

pastured -- 6.31 -- 5.83

"--" denotes types not observed in surveyed supermarket ads during these 

marketing events. Source: USDA AMS Agricultural Analytics

Thanksgiving 2018 Christmas 2018

Thanksgiving/Christmas 2018 Marketing Periods

Large class; dollars per dozen

Average Featured Supermarket Sale Ad Prices for Shell Eggs

29%

17%

41%

11%

3%

46%

14%

35%

3% 2%

Barn/Aviary Free-Range Organic Pastured Pasture Organic

Cage-Free Offerings

Thanksgiving

Christmas

20%

15%

2%

19%

11%

3%

conventional nutritionally-enhanced vegetarian-fed 

Caged Offerings

Thanksgiving

Christmas