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If you’ve so much as stepped foot in the South, then you’re familiar with Waffle House. The 24-hour, breakfast-focused chain is the stuff of legends: The source of an affordable meal no matter what time of day, unstoppable even during severe weather and hurricanes (see: the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “Waffle House Index”). But not even Waffle House is impervious to the strain of increasing egg prices.
Waffle House Is Adding a Surcharge for Eggs
With avian flu affecting already-strained egg production, the Georgia-based breakfast chain made a major menu change this week. As of Feb. 3, customers can expect a 50-cent surcharge per egg for the indeterminate future.
“Rather than increasing prices across the menu, this is a temporary targeted surcharge tied to the unprecedented egg prices,” Waffle House said in a press release. “We are continuously monitoring egg prices and will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow.”
The added cost varies depending on the menu item. At the moment, the surcharge only extends to items that use fresh eggs. According to a Waffle House employee who wished to remain anonymous, items that come with two fresh eggs—take, for example, the breakfast bowls or the Pork Chops & Eggs Breakfast, which come with two scrambled eggs—will cost an additional dollar with the surcharge. Items that don’t contain fresh eggs, like hash browns and waffles, will not be affected.
Egg prices are expected to rise 20% this year. In January, Georgia—the country’s largest supplier—halted poultry production. The avian flu is not solely to blame, as inflation, supply chain issues, and even the war in Ukraine have affected prices.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, eggs, a dozen large, Grade A eggs cost an average of $4.15. This is not quite up to January 2023’s peak of $4.82 per dozen, but if egg prices do in fact rise by 20% this year, we could see an average exceeding five dollars per carton.
Wholesale prices have also increased. For a franchise like Waffle House, which, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, served 2% of the U.S. food industry’s eggs before the pandemic, that’s gotta hurt.
Waffle House is the first major chain to implement such a surcharge, although some independent restaurants have established similar price hikes. Time will tell if other chains, especially breakfast-oriented chains, like IHOP and Denny’s, will follow suit.
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