Waffle House is feeling the pinch from soaring egg prices and will now pass that cost onto its customers with a 50 cent per egg surcharge across all menus.
“The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (bird flu) has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices,” a press release from Waffle House said of the temporary surcharge. “Customers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions.”
Waffle House did not provide a timeline for the removal of the surcharge, indicating only that the company would “continuously” monitor the price of eggs before eliminating or adjusting the extra cost.
“As long as they are available, quality, fresh-cracked, Grade A Large eggs will remain a key ingredient in many of our customers’ favorite meals,” the statement from Waffle House continued. “While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived, we cannot predict how long this shortage will last.”
According to a report by NBC News, the average price of a dozen eggs was $5.29 in January, up from $4.15 in December and $3.65 in November. Last February, a carton of eggs cost around $3.50 a dozen.
Since December 2024, the US Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 13 million egg-laying chickens have succumbed to HPAI or been slaughtered to help curb the spread of the virus among flocks.
As of Feb. 3, the highly contagious bird flu has struck 124 flocks across the country in the past month, affecting around 23 million birds. Georgia includes two commercial flocks and one backyard flock affected by the outbreak, a total of 175,910 birds.