Article

How one restaurant is cutting egg prices

While most restaurants are still passing down higher egg prices to customers thanks to the egg shortage caused by the bird flu, one restaurant has discovered a way to reverse its price hikes.

August 6, 2015 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com

While most restaurants are still passing down higher egg prices to customers thanks to the egg shortage cased by the avian flu outbreak, one restaurant has found a way to reverse price hikes.

Taco Cabana is lowering prices on egg-based breakfast tacos by 10 cents and breakfast burritos by 20 cents. It had increased prices earlier this year.

"Our supplier was able to source eggs from multiple areas unaffected by the avian flu, and that’s how we’ve been able to secure a more stable, lower-price supply of eggs," said COO Todd Coerver. "But understand, the lower pricing is only a slight improvement over where we were, due to the on-going shortage increasing demand around the country."

To celebrate the new lower prices, all Taco Cabana locations will offer one free breakfast taco on Aug. 11 to each guest who comes in with a downloadable coupon, available on Taco Cabana’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. No purchase is required. Only one coupon is allowed per guest.

"We made a promise to our guests that our price increases related to the egg shortage were temporary," Coerver said in an interview. "So we are making good on that promise. We realize it’s an unusual move in today’s world, but we feel it’s the right thing to do."

The price reductions will especially benefit customers who are fans of Taco Cabana’s popular Breakfast Taco Box, featuring a dozen breakfast tacos of the guests’ choice, Coerver said. The price of a Breakfast Taco Box will go down $1.20.

The average price of eggs is currently hovering $2 to $4.49 per dozen, according to BB&T Capital Markets analyst Brett Hundley, who said prices could soon climb even higher — prompting $6 eggs per dozen by fall.

"It’s almost scary to think about what could happen to egg prices," Hundley said. "We think turkeys and egg layers are most at risk. We think broilers are at risk but considerably less so."

About Cherryh Cansler

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Cherryh Cansler is VP of Events for Networld Media Group and publisher of FastCasual.com. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

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