In the midst of egg price escalations due to the bird flu outbreak, Cracker Barrel is taking a firm stand against increasing costs for customers. The company is tossing a bone to its rewards members, with double points on egg dishes through next Wednesday, Fox 5 Atlanta reported, while Waffle House has opted to add a 50-cent surcharge to every egg in attempts to manage their own financial strain without a broad menu price hike, as per their statement obtained by NewsNation.
Despite the Department of Agriculture's predictions of a further 20% hike in egg prices, Cracker Barrel is positioning itself as a bastion of affordability and hospitality; the company said, "We know our guests already have a lot on their plates, so we’ll just stay focused on serving up plates of delicious food at incredible value, like our Sunrise Pancake Special starting at $7.99," the company leans into this sense of stability as a response to Waffle House's pricing shift, which it frames as less than hospitable, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
In comments shared with Nexstar, "A surcharge on eggs? Well, there’s nothing hospitable about that. At Cracker Barrel, country hospitality is as important to us as a hearty breakfast — and that means not charging extra for eggs," a direct jab likely aimed to attract those feeling peckish and pinched, according to NewsNation.
The contrasts between the restaurateurs' approaches to the egg crisis seem to be drawing lines in the sand for their breakfast clientele, the escalating costs caused by animal culling due to the bird flu—a viral nemesis that has claimed nearly 170 million birds and spiked human cases to 67 in the U.S. alone, including one death, according to the CDC stats shared by Fox 5 Atlanta.
Soaring egg prices have sparked discussions on the feasibility of backyard chickens and a looming question over when and if hens will develop natural immunity to the bird flu Patrick Penfield, a Syracuse University supply chain expert, told NewsNation in January that hope rests on possible future hen immunity, but "we have not seen that yet and it will take many years for that to happen." With that said customers are caught between Cracker Barrel's promotion of its value-driven approach against the backdrop of Waffle House's more bare-knuckles budgetary response as each establishment deals with the crunchy economic shell of the ongoing avian influenza situation.
