Waffle House adds egg surcharge

The Street

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including why Waffle House is increasing the price of each egg ordered and what investors are watching.

Transcript

00:00Waffle House has had enough with the sky-high egg prices.

00:04The restaurant chain is now tacking on an egg fee

00:07to any meal that includes an egg dish.

00:09According to signage posted inside the restaurant,

00:12there is now a 50 cent per egg charge in effect.

00:16Egg prices have soared due to shortages

00:18caused by the outbreak of avian flu.

00:21The average price of a dozen large grade A eggs

00:24cost $4.15 in December,

00:26according to the Consumer Price Index.

00:29The average retail price for a dozen eggs

00:31was $2.99 from January to September 2024,

00:35and that was already a 7% jump from 2023,

00:39according to the American Farm Bureau Federation

00:41and Industry Trade Group.

00:43With prices like those, Waffle House,

00:45which is famous for its low-cost meals,

00:48told CNN it had no other choice but to add the surcharge,

00:51but it is, quote, continuously monitoring egg prices

00:55and will adjust or remove the surcharge

00:58as market conditions allow.

01:00Experts expect the egg shortage to continue this year.

01:03Bird flu has been wreaking havoc

01:05on the farming industry since 2022.

01:07The American Farm Bureau Federation says 108 million birds

01:10have been killed since then,

01:12with 75 million of those being egg-laying birds.

01:16And the outbreak has picked up in recent months,

01:18with 17 million birds put down

01:20in just November and December of 2024.

01:23Waffle House is on the front lines

01:25of this supply disruption.

01:26It serves 272 million eggs per year

01:30across its 2,100 locations.

01:33Turning to markets this Tuesday,

01:34stocks are once again swayed by tariff news.

01:37U.S. tariffs against Canada and Mexico are temporarily halted

01:41but an additional 10% tariff against Chinese goods

01:44are in effect.

01:45China has responded with levies on U.S. goods in retaliation.

01:50That'll do it for your daily briefing.

01:51From New York City, I'm Conway Gittins with The Street.

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