The Waffle House, a restaurant chain known for its 24/7 hours, good simple food, and iconic yellow and black signs beckoning across the American South, has added a 50-cent surcharge on every egg it sells in response to the rise in egg prices caused by bird flu outbreaks.
The additional charge took effect on Monday, but the company noted the surcharge isn’t permanent.
“While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” Waffle House said in a statement on Tuesday.
The company continues to monitor egg prices and said it will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow.
The price of U.S. wholesale eggs hit an all-time high in December 2024, according to commodity data firm Expana, with a dozen eggs going for $5.57 in the Midwest and $8.85 in California.
The main factor driving egg prices higher is bird flu outbreaks in chicken flocks across the country. The virus led to the culling of more than 20 million chickens in the United States last quarter, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show, the highest since the beginning of the outbreak in 2022.
Pete & Gerry’s Organics also faced a difficult situation with its eggs in Antrim Township, Pennsylvania, when 100,000 of them were stolen from the back of its distribution trailer on Saturday night, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Law enforcement are investigating the theft of roughly $40,000 worth of eggs.