Northern Illinois breakfast restaurants, grocers reeling from increase in egg prices

ELBURN, Ill. — The jump in egg prices nationwide has caused a lot of economic pain, not only for consumers, but for restaurants and grocers.

Elburn’s Rise N Dine owner Cheryl Groce certainly is feeling the pinch of the rising prices.

Groce said it’s not only the cost of eggs that’s gone up, but prices on everything she needs to run her downtown Elburn breakfast restaurant have skyrocketed.

“A dozen eggs went from 99 cents to over $6, the price of cooking oil has doubled and bread went up 30% over the past year,” she said.

Groce has been looking for other ways besides raising her prices to make up for the increased expenses. She said that she’s been “tightening her belt” and paying extra attention to her budget.

“We can’t raise prices too much or else people just won’t go out,” Groce said. “Customers are really feeling the pinch, too. I just hope things will get back to some kind of normal again soon.”

Darice Augustine, assistant manager of Briana’s Pancake House in Batavia, said a case of eggs that previously cost $43 is now more than $120.

“It’s been a lot,” she said. “We came out with new menus in November, where we put new items and changed our prices. We tried to hold off on a price increase as long as we could, and we don’t want to change the size of our meals. We’re just doing the best we can.”

Although retail prices for shell eggs are starting to ease, they remain at “historically high levels,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Prices on frozen whole eggs declined by 20 cents and prices for dried whole eggs are remaining steady, according to the USDA.

Northern Illinois University’s economics department chairman and economist Carl Campbell said the diminished egg supply due to the avian flu caused egg prices to substantially increase.

“The main reason is the avian flu that’s killed a significant number of the bird population,” Campbell said. “So, supply of eggs is diminished, and as a result the prices have gone up substantially.”

The situation is hopefully going to get better soon, as the avian flu subsides.

“As that declines, we’ll have more healthy chickens and that’ll bring down egg prices,” Campbell said. “Some data shows egg prices have fallen by about 13% in the last few weeks, so I think we are starting to go down.”

The bird flu outbreak is the worst in U.S. history, with millions of birds dead since early 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Almost 60 million birds have been killed so far, according to the USDA.

“When there’s an egg or any supply shortage, that means there aren’t enough eggs to go around to meet previous demand,” Campbell said.

“That means egg producers can raise prices and still sell all the eggs they produce. Trying to maximize profit, they would raise prices. So, the middle man pays more to cover costs. And the grocery store passes that (increased cost) on to the consumer.”

Even as far back as July, according to the National Restaurant Association, restaurants are “feeling the pinch” of rising food costs — in eggs, along with beef, dairy, oil and poultry.

It made no difference if the restaurant was quick service, fast casual, casual, family or fine dining, according to the National Restaurant Association.