'No one wants to pay $25 for breakfast': US restaurants cracking under inflation

> Egg prices alone have nearly doubled since December, according to the US Department of Agriculture, and many breakfast restaurants and diners are reeling. Waffle House, a chain with more than 2,000 locations, recently announced a $0.50-per-egg surcharge due to inflation and the worst avian influenza outbreak in history, as tens of millions of birds have been culled to contain its spread.

> It’s not just eggs that have gone up in price. Coffee is at a 47-year high, driven by climate disruptions in Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s largest producers. The cost of frozen orange juice has nearly doubled since 2020, due to citrus disease and climate shocks. Flour, too, has become more expensive in recent years, with prices spiking in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Wages are a component (structural demographics), but so is climate change and the Russo-Ukrainian War. None of these costs (wages, commodities) are likely to go down in the near future.

Citations:

The Last Days of American Orange Juice - https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/02/american-... | https://archive.today/pR1fO - February 4, 2025

Restaurant Labor Shortage Statistics: Insights and Impact - https://www.therestauranthq.com/trends/restaurant-labor-shor... - November 18, 2024

HN Search: coffee climate - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

HN Search: labor shortages - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...