ATLANTA — The price of eggs keeps going up and up - in December, the cost for a carton of one dozen eggs was 138% more expensive than it was a year ago.
That hurts when you're at the grocery store looking to buy one carton for your family - imagine if you buy hundreds of millions of eggs. Norcross-based Waffle House is certainly feeling the sting.
Waffle House told 11Alive's partners at the Atlanta Business Chronicle they go through almost 300 million eggs a year - 299,241,600. Eggs, as you might imagine, are one of Waffle House's top sellers.
The company is privately owned, so they don't have to report exact figures about how much they spend on eggs. But using the price increase and the current going rate, it's likely their costs for eggs went up by something in the range of $60 million.
But here's the good part - Waffle House executives say they're not going to pass on that cost to you, the eater. They also wont be cutting menu items or staff.
In fact, the company says it's still hiring and renovating older restaurants, all while trying to find a better deal on egg prices.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in the Senate are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate if price gouging is a factor in the surging cost of eggs. For the most part, though, the price spike has been attributed to an outbreak of avian flu having a serious impact on chicken flocks.