Stop & Shop advertises free eggs—but at what cost?

Stop & Shop is currently running a promotion where customers who spend $100 receive a free carton of a dozen eggs.

But the offer specifically excludes cage-free eggs at stores in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island—which means Stop & Shop is rewarding customers with the very eggs it promised it’d move away from. Stop & Shop made a promise to source 100% cage-free eggs by 2025, sparing the egg-laying hens in its supply chain from life in a cruel cage—but has not fulfilled its promise to do so.

Of the offer, Stop & Shop’s External Communications Manager Daniel Wolk said they “have plenty of eggs ready for customers.” But in late April, Ahold Delhaize—the parent company of Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Giant Company, and Giant Food—contradicted Wolk’s announcement. Ahold’s Vice President of Communications stated that an egg shortage is part of the reason it hasn’t met its cage-free commitment.

The retailer’s hypocrisy was called out by a Boston area resident Maxwell John in a recent op-ed: “It’s not the first time a grocery chain with a cage-free pledge has made ethical choices harder for price-conscious shoppers. Caged eggs are often used as “loss leaders”—sold below cost to lure customers in. If Stop & Shop were serious about its commitment, it would (at the very least) shift these incentives to cage-free eggs. As a longtime resident of the Boston area, where Stop & Shop has a significant presence in the community, I find this deeply disappointing. It’s clear the company isn’t serious about animal welfare. If it were, it wouldn’t be using caged eggs as a marketing tactic in 2025… This isn’t just corporate irresponsibility—it’s flat-out deception.” Behind every flashy promotion, Ahold Delhaize executives are quietly banking on customers not noticing how their greed fuels continued cruelty in the egg supply chain.

To read the powerful op-ed in full and take action against Stop & Shop’s hypocrisy, click here.