Waffle House Adds 50 Cent Surcharge On Eggs As Bird Flu Results In Price Increases

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Eggflation: Pricier eggs are lucrative for Cal-Maine

Cal-Maine’s profits shoot up alongside consumer prices for eggs.

2/13/25 12:44PM

Egg prices are high, but egg producers’ profits may be higher.

Cal-Maine, the largest egg producer in the US, is expected to make $284 million in profit in its upcoming quarter, a 93.5% increase year over year. This comes as consumer egg prices have nearly doubled in the past year. (Cal-Maine reports results on April 1 for the months of December, January, and February.)

It was the same story the last time egg prices shot up. Between February 2022 and February 2023, Cal-Maine’s profits increased by 718.2%. During the same period, the price of a carton of eggs increased 105.3% percent.

It’s not unlike the “greedflation” or “shrinkflation” we heard complaints of a year ago, where food manufacturers maintain prices while shrinking volume or hike prices opportunistically to increase revenue. Bird flu has led to fewer egg-laying hens and, according to Cal-Maine, demand hasn’t eased up.

As of November 2024, Cal-Maine said it had 38.4 million egg-laying hens die of bird flu that year. In October, when Cal-Maine was supposed to have a flock of 322 million to 325 million hens, it only had 312 million. “Any time that you have a decrease in bird numbers during peak demand, certainly prices have to react,” Cal-Maine CEO Sherman Miller told analysts on a November 20 call.

IYZtq-go-yolk-or-go-broke — Sherwood News

Farm Action, a farmer advocacy organization, has urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Cal-Maine and other major egg producers for allegedly raising the price of eggs by far more than their bird flu costs would warrant.

“While avian flu has been cited as the primary driver of skyrocketing egg prices, its actual impact on production has been minimal,” the group said in a letter dated February 12. “Instead, dominant egg producers — particularly Cal-Maine Foods — have leveraged the crisis to raise prices, amass record profits, and consolidate market power.”

Cal-Maine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Texas sues Netflix, accusing streamer of spying on children and collecting user data without consent

The state of Texas filed a lawsuit Monday against streaming giant Netflix, alleging that the company has built a “behavioral-surveillance program of staggering scale.”

The suit alleges that Netflix is “deceptively designed” to be addictive, using features like autoplay to get viewers hooked, “mining those users for data, and then converting that data into lucrative intelligence for global advertising juggernauts.”

“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you,” the lawsuit reads.

“This lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information,” Netflix said in a statement to Sherwood News. “Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data‑protection laws everywhere we operate.”

Texas is seeking civil penalties of “up to $10,000 per violation” of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, along with an additional penalty of up to $250,000 per violation involving a consumer aged 65 or older.

“Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be. Instead, it has misled consumers while exploiting their private data to make billions,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the press release announcing the lawsuit.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.