American Food Chain Announces Egg Surcharge

Waffle House announced it will begin adding a $0.50 surcharge to all egg items sold on its menu.

The surcharge, which went into effect on Monday, will impact the restaurant chain’s 2,000+ locations in the United States.

#BREAKING: Waffle House has announced a new surcharge of 50 cents per egg in response to rising egg prices caused by a nationwide shortage pic.twitter.com/NWBhGX7Yte

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) February 4, 2025

NBC News reports:

In a statement, the comfort food franchise said the surcharge was triggered by the highly infectious virus, which has affected the chicken population and caused an egg shortage. More than 13 million hens have been lost or slaughtered since December following the bird flu outbreak, according to the Agriculture Department’s latest egg markets overview.

Economists and market analysts have cited the bird flu as the chief reason for the price spike, along with the typical consumer demand for eggs during the winter holiday season.

In the past year, the average price for a dozen eggs in the U.S. has jumped 50%, and the cost increase appears to have accelerated since November, the month Donald Trump was elected president, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Consumers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions,” Waffle House said in a statement.

“Rather than increasing prices across the menu, this is a temporary targeted surcharge tied to the unprecedented rise in egg prices,” it added.

Due to bird flu, Waffle House is adding a .50 cent per egg surcharge to all menus @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/hpfn52RIlh

— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) February 3, 2025

Waffle House has announced that they will temporarily be adding a 50-cent surcharge per egg until egg prices go down. pic.twitter.com/vVT3jGOVPv

— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) February 4, 2025

Per USA TODAY:

Eggs will continue to be available in customers’ favorite menu items despite the extra charge, according to the chain, which also said it hopes the price fluctuations will be “short-lived.” Waffle House serves around 272 million eggs per year, according to its website, well surpassing even its titular waffles, of which it sells just 124 million.

“We are continuously monitoring egg prices and will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow,” the statement ended.

The stage was set for rising egg prices when the current bird flu outbreak began in the U.S. in 2022. Currently, consumers are seeing high prices and shortages thanks primarily to the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, which is killing off egg-laying poultry en mass, creating supply challenges.

By Feb. 3, the virus had infected roughly 150 million poultry across all 50 states since January 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Because of the spread, infected birds have been selectively slaughtered across the U.S., including sometimes millions of birds at a single location.

This, combined with factors like inflation and in some cases changing laws and regulations, has left consumers feeling the pain in grocery stores and at breakfast tables.

In related news, Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) launched an investigation to track down 100,000 stolen organic eggs from a distributor.

100,000 Eggs Stolen From Distributor, Investigation Launched

Also, an egg truck crashed in Los Angeles on Monday morning.

Egg Truck Crashes On Highway

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up.

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