Waffle House is charging customers extra for each egg they order as avian influenza sends prices higher.
The chain said that on Monday, it started adding a $0.50 surcharge to each egg it sells. The charge is temporary, and the restaurant could adjust or eliminate it if prices change, Waffle House said.
Waffle House added the fee instead of raising costs across its menu as it copes with an "unprecedented rise in egg prices," the company said.
"The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (Bird Flu) has caused a dramatic increase" in costs, Waffle House said in a statement, adding: "Consumers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions."
It also said: "While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived, we cannot predict how long this shortage will last."
Some customers posted about the surcharge on X:
Waffle House charging an extra $0.50 per egg right now dawg. Good grief.
— Perc Cousins (@extraORRdINary) February 4, 2025
Restaurants, grocery shoppers, and others are being hit with rising egg prices as avian flu continues to circulate in the US. The disease has spread among egg-laying chickens over the past few years, killing many birds and pushing egg prices higher.
As of Thursday, the cost of a dozen Midwest large eggs was $7.08, the US Department of Agriculture said. That's up from $1.65 almost exactly three years ago, before the latest round of avian flu started spreading.
Kevin Roose, a technology columnist at The New York Times, posted on Sunday that he paid a $1.50-an-egg fee at another restaurant:
Paid a $1.50 egg surcharge *per egg* at brunch this morning. Thinking about basing my whole political identity around this.
— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) February 2, 2025
In recent years, consumers have dealt with higher prices for other grocery staples. Inflation was one of the major issues in the presidential election this past fall.
But President Donald Trump's administration has said relief from high prices will not be immediate. Vice President JD Vance said last month that "it's going to take a little bit of time" for the cost of food to come down.
CNN earlier reported the new fee.
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