Waffle House has dropped a temporary surcharge on eggs, as prices return to more normal levels. The chain had added the charge in February as an outbreak of avian flu caused egg prices to soar.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America
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Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America
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…