It has become an Hotel News Now tradition that the crew covering the Americas Lodging Investment Summit has to go to the Original Pantry Cafe at some point while we're there.
We used to go after whatever day was our longest. Nothing like sitting down to breakfast food at 8 or 9 p.m. after spending the day doing interviews, sitting through general sessions, going to receptions and wrapping up our daily coverage.
Now that the Pantry isn't open as late, we go at actual breakfast time. The food is just as great, but the feeling is different.
Anyway, as usual, I got my ham and cheese omelet with a side of potatoes and sourdough toast. Knowing how much the actual dish cost, I couldn't help but wonder how much of that came from — you guessed it — the price of the eggs.
The shortage due to the ongoing bird flu is now so bad that Waffle House will charge an extra 50 cents per egg in its omelets and scrambled eggs, the New York Times reports. It's apparently a temporary measure, but the expectation is that it will take months before the number of egg-laying chickens stabilizes.
“While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived, we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” Waffle House said in a statement. “We are continuously monitoring egg prices and will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow.”
We've all unwillingly grown accustomed to higher prices of food at the grocery store and restaurants.
And the reality is, unless something changes, we're probably going to see prices rising more.
Do a Google News search for any combination of words involving agriculture and immigrants and you'll come across a bunch of stories about the potential impact of current immigration policies will have on farms.
"More than two-thirds of U.S. crop workers are foreign-born, according to the USDA. Many of them came to the country through the H-2A visas, but officials estimate that 42% of the workers are undocumented migrants," CBS News reported in recent weeks.
How this all plays out remains to be seen, but we should all work into our budgets higher prices for eggs and fresh produce. Maybe we'll see hotel free breakfasts come with an asterisk for certain dishes. Breakfast is still free, but you have to put a quarter in the gumball machine to get an egg — but hope it doesn't crack on the way down. Probably not, right?
Though I do wonder, if I decide to go the slightly healthier route, how much the veggie omelet will cost next year.
You can reach me at bwroten@hotelnewsnow.com as well as on LinkedIn.
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