In a welcome sign that sky-high egg prices are coming home to roost, Waffle House is dropping its 50 cent per egg surcharge.
"Egg-cellent news," the chain announced Tuesday in a social media post. "The egg surcharge is officially off the menu. Thanks for understanding."
Waffle House had added the surcharge in February as an outbreak of avian flu forced the culling of tens of millions of egg-laying chickens, sending prices to record highs. Since then, both wholesale and retail prices have begun to normalize, although retail egg prices in May were still up more than 40% from a year ago.
"Families are seeing relief with egg prices driving food deflation," Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement last week. "We must remain diligent, and egg farmers and producers can continue to utilize USDA resources to conduct biosecurity assessments."
Why the egg price hike resonated so much
The spike in egg prices was a challenge for Waffle House, which serves about 272 million eggs in a typical year. The Georgia-based chain operates more than 2,000 restaurants, and its 24-hour diners are such a fixture in the southeast that FEMA uses an informal "Waffle House Index" to measure hurricane damage.
The temporary egg surcharge was its own sort of misery index as the nation vented its frustration with runaway food prices. Other breakfast chains like Denny's also added surcharges when eggs were in short supply.
"The price, it almost quadrupled. But also the availability. That's where it got really scary. It was like, can you get them?" said Ed Powers, who manages operations for The Broken Yolk, a chain of 41 restaurants based in San Diego. "The good news is, as far as the supply goes, [it's] much better than it was let's say just even six months ago."
Waffle House quietly dropped its surcharge a month ago, before trumpeting the news on Tuesday. Denny's says it dropped its own surcharge in late May, calling the move "great news for Grand Slam lovers everywhere."
The American Egg Board, which represents farmers, notes that rebuilding the nation's egg supply will take time. As of June 1, there were about 285 million egg-laying hens in the country. That's down more than 6% from a year ago, and down nearly 13% from early 2022, before the avian flu outbreak began.
"The good news for egg lovers is that ongoing recovery efforts by egg farmers, support from USDA, and a decrease in new cases of bird flu have provided stability in both egg prices and supply," the board said in a statement. "Further, demand for eggs typically falls after Easter and into the summer months, which has made more eggs available at retail and grocery stores."
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