Waffle House drops egg surcharge as prices fall back to Earth

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.

Waffle House quietly dropped its surcharge a month ago, before trumpeting the news on Tuesday.

Overall, food prices are up 2.9% over the twelve months ending in May while restaurant prices are up 3.8%. Food prices have climbed slightly faster over the last year than the overall cost of living.