Restaurant Chain Adds An Egg Surcharge, CA Customers Could Pay More

CALIFORNIA — Fans of the bargain breakfast may have to pay extra at Denny’s if their order includes eggs, the restaurant chain confirmed.

Citing the nationwide egg shortage and increased cost of eggs, Denny’s said some locations will temporarily add a surcharge to every meal with eggs.

“This pricing decision is market-by-market, and restaurant-by-restaurant due to the regional impacts of the egg shortage,” Denny’s told Patch on Tuesday in a statement. “We understand our guests’ desire for value, and we will continue to look for ways to provide options on our menu, including our $2 $4 $6 $8 value menu, while navigating these rapidly changing market dynamics responsibly.”

Denny’s has 354 locations in California.

The move follows a similar decision from other major national such as Waffle House, which recently said it would add a 50-cent surcharge per egg on all of its menus.

Meanwhile, local bakeries and restaurants nationwide have been grappling with whether to increase prices or change up offerings to accommodate the added cost.

The issue is affecting grocery stores too. Trader Joe's is capping purchases to one carton per customer each day at all stores. Consumers and several local media outlets have also reported varying limits at stores like Costco, Whole Foods and Aldi. But not all those limits are nationwide.

Throughout the month of February, several Costco stores in Orange County have run out of eggs shortly after opening in the morning.

The main reason that eggs are more expensive or hard to find is the bird flu outbreak. When the virus is found on a farm, the entire flock is killed to limit the spread of disease. Because massive egg farms may have millions of birds, just one outbreak may put a dent in the nation's egg supply.

The latest monthly consumer price index showed that the average price of a dozen Grade A eggs in U.S. cities reached $4.95 in January, eclipsing the previous record of $4.82 set two years earlier and more than double the low of $2.04 that was recorded in August 2023.

Of course, that is only the nationwide average. A carton of eggs now costs $10 or more in many California cities. Specialized varieties, such as organic and cage-free eggs, are even more expensive, and California has been mandating cage-free varieties since last year.

Ten states have passed laws allowing the sale of eggs only from cage-free environments. The supply of those eggs is tighter and focused in certain regions, so the effect on prices can be magnified when outbreaks hit cage-free egg farms.

Many of the egg farms with recent outbreaks were cage-free farms in California. Cage-free egg laws have already gone into effect in California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Michigan.

Relief is not expected any time soon. Egg prices typically spike around Easter due to high holiday demand. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted last month that egg prices were likely to go up 20 percent this year.

As of last week, nearly 159 million commercial birds were lost to avian influenza since February 2022. Last month more than 23 million birds were killed, and that came right after 18 million were slaughtered in December.

Some lawmakers are asking federal regulators to investigate, The New York Times reported Tuesday, after egg industry giant Cal-Maine Foods reported an 82 percent increase in revenue for the quarter ending in late November compared to the previous year.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.