Starting the day with a healthy breakfast is becoming a pricey luxury

Alicia Love typically purchases the most popular beans for Coffee Labs Roasters in a one-year deal with her coffee importer. But at the end of last year, prices were so high that she decided to wait the market out.

Instead, prices climbed even higher. With supplies running low, she signed a purchase order for a three-month supply, and hopes that prices will soon ease.

“At the time I thought, should we wait to sign this new deal?” Love, an owner of the Tarrytown, New York, business, told CNBC. “I’m kicking myself in the butt now for not doing it then.”

The initial deal would have cost Love roughly $4 per bag, which is for either 130 pounds or 152 pounds, depending on the variety. The three-month deal she just signed was for roughly $5 per bag.

The skyrocketing cost of coffee comes as egg prices are also rising without any end in sight. Both products are pillars of an American breakfast, which has long been one of the cheaper meals to eat either at home or on the go. The quickly escalating prices means consumers are changing their habits and businesses are scurrying to react.

In the latest consumer price index report, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed the price of eggs in the U.S. up 53% year over year. But the pace of gains has been rapid. From December to January, the average cost of a dozen spiked 15%, per FRED data. In the week ended March 3, a 7% week-over-week increase brought average prices above $8 a dozen, JPMorgan Chase said.

While egg production is suffering from a devastating avian flu outbreak, which has resulted in the culling of millions of hens. Some say the consolidation of the industry is exacerbating the problem. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into antitrust practices that might be at play.

Coffee, meanwhile, is also reaching record-high prices. A dry spell in Brazil, which has hit crop yields, is largely at fault. Over the past 12 months, futures prices have more than doubled. Last month, coffee prices on the Intercontinental Exchange surpassed $4 per pound for the first time ever.

“I’m hoping that we just have stability in the market. It’s very challenging to navigate the volatility, and the consumers are going to struggle with that,” said Andrew Blyth, coffee trading operations manager at Royal New York. “You can’t have menu prices changing once a month, especially for something as … routine as coffee.”

Consumers have gotten the message. Morgan Stanley said in a Wednesday note that its survey of consumer sentiment signaled the first negative reading since June 2024. This follows the University of Michigan’s own survey from February that showed consumers expect inflation to get worse in the near term.

Breakfast as a whole was already stretching consumers wallets in recent years, according to Robert Byrne, senior director of consumer research at Technomic’s food service segment.

“Speaking of breakfast more broadly, over the past few years we have seen affordability ratings for family-style chains (IHOP, Cracker Barrel, Denny’s, etc.) under greater pressure than what is reported across other restaurant segments,” Byrne said, in an interview.

That’s caused diners to shift their behavior, Byrne said.

“Breakfast is the easiest to either replace with something simple from home or even skip altogether,” Byrne said. He added, a recent Technomic survey found, on average, consumers use some type of foodservice for breakfast roughly 1.2 times per week.

“With inflation impacting all consumers – even affluent diners are pulling back on frequency – the thought is consumers are skipping other types of occasions and instead saving up for a weekend splurge, which probably is a dinner,” he said.

Technomic’s research also shows consumers are walking away from more routine breakfast orders at quick service options like Dunkin’ or McDonald’s. Byrne said, when they do go now, it’s often either an “impulse” order or a substitute for a splurge at a restaurant.

The impact is being felt across the restaurant industry. Dine Brands, the parent of breakfast staple IHOP, has seen its stock pull back more than 13% this year and shares hit a 52-week low on Wednesday after providing a disappointing 2025 outlook. The majority of analysts polled by FactSet maintain a hold rating.

“For IHOP … we’re expecting sort of low to mid single-digit inflation cost for the year. And that’s really primarily – it’s really driven by eggs,” Dine Brands Chief Financial Officer Vance Chang said on the company’s earnings call. “Outside of that, I think there’s some headwinds with bacon and coffee as well.”

Facing similar pressures, Waffle House and Denny’s recently imposed a surcharge for menu items containing eggs as opposed to a straight up price hike. Byrne said such a move may be more bearable for consumers because it’s assumed the surcharge is a temporary increase. McDonald’s has held the line and said the company will not implement an egg surcharge.

“My sense is that consumers may appreciate that it is noted as a temporary surcharge rather than a blanket price increase, as this implies that prices will return when the situation changes,” Byrne said. “On the flip side, printing menus is expensive and an operator may not be in a position to do so quickly.”

Restaurant stocks have well underperformed the market over the past year. McDonald’s is an outlier with a 10% gain over the past year, but Denny’s stock has plummeted more than 55% and Cracker Barrel has fallen 38% over the same period.