Wisconsin restaurants are navigating the challenges of soaring egg prices as the bird flu outbreak continues to affect supply and demand.
WEST MILWAUKEE, Wis. —
At West Milwaukee’s wildly popular breakfast place, Mad Rooster Cafe, eggs are the stars.
“Ninety-eight percent of our menu is eggs,” said Mad Rooster Café’s Jose Rodriguez Wednesday. The restaurant’s operations manager says it explains why the ongoing bird flu outbreak leading to the loss of tens of millions of egg-laying hens is hitting so hard: They buy about 600,000 eggs a year, including their other location in Kenosha.
“It makes you think where is the profit coming from? Although you can’t pass that along to the customer the entire way,” Rodriguez said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Feb. 5 report lists the average price for large eggs increased $1.42 per dozen since Jan. 1, hitting an all-time high of $7.23. That marks an increase of 24% in just the last five weeks.
In response, the Waffle House chain announced this week that its restaurants will add a 50-cent surcharge per egg to every order.
At Mad Rooster, Rodriguez said there is no surcharge, but he said it is clearly hitting the bottom line.
“I’m sure at some point there will be some type of increase, but very minimal, to try and control that cost for the customers,” he said.
Marquette University business professor Alex Milovic said Tuesday he doesn’t expect prices to drop anytime soon. “It’s simple supply and demand because we’ve got the bird flu spreading, so fewer eggs mean increased costs.”
Milovic said while we’re all facing sticker shock at the grocery store, it’s concentrated for restaurants. “They are feeling the costs and, ultimately, the customer feels the cost, so if we’re adding a surcharge, the customers might choose different menu items, or they might choose different restaurants. So that would be a big fear if I’m a restaurant owner,” he said.
Rodriguez said an additional pitfall would be sacrificing quality to control costs. The restaurant prides itself on using cage-free Wisconsin eggs. “It helps us to understand, hey, what do we need to do to ensure that we are still providing the best quality eggs and produce, but at an affordable price to the customers,” he said. That will grow increasingly challenging if the price of eggs continues to soar.
GET THE FACTS: What’s Behind the Egg Price Spike?
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