Full-Service Restaurants NAICS 722511

Sep 14, 2025 - Tariffs Impacting Menu Prices

• New tariffs on food and beverages imposed by the Trump administration threaten to drive menu prices higher, according to a recent statement from the National Restaurant Association. The trade association called out coffee and hamburgers as examples of menu items under pressure from tariffs, notably a 50% tax on imports from Brazil, a major provider of coffee and beef. “Operating a restaurant is becoming increasingly difficult due to economic and regulatory pressure and a nearly 5% increase in wholesale food costs since last year,” NRA CEO Michelle Korsmo said in a statement, adding “These new tariffs on food and beverage items will exacerbate the situation,” leaving many restaurants with no choice but to raise prices. The NRA said tariffs disrupt supply chains, drive up costs for restaurant operators, and ultimately lead to higher menu prices for consumers, already discouraged by the rising cost of dining out.
• Full-service breakfast chains Waffle House and Denny’s have removed egg surcharges from their menus that were added earlier this year when prices soared, US News reports. Denny’s eliminated its egg surcharge in May, while Waffle House, which serves up 272 million eggs per year, dropped its 50-cent surcharge in June. Bird flu outbreaks in January and February caused the egg prices to rise to record highs. Since then, wholesale prices have fallen 64% and retail prices have declined by 27% from their peak. Actions taken by the USDA to combat bird flu on poultry farms and egg imports have helped drive down the price of eggs. However, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins warned that the fall could be “potentially challenging” for egg producers as wild birds often spread the avian flu virus during their migrations.

• As demand for hard-to-get reservations has grown, the restaurant industry’s equivalent of ticket scalpers have been scooping up reservations and selling them online, the National Restaurant Association reports. Technology enables individuals and companies to scrape reservations from legitimate restaurant websites or partner reservation sites and then sell them on unauthorized online resale sites and social media, per the NRA. The practice is creating challenges for restaurants, like costly no-shows, staffing needs to manage the expectations of customers who purchase these third-party reservations, and potential damage to their brand. Amid rising frustration from diners and restaurant operators, state governments have begun working with the restaurant industry to create a regulatory framework to fix the system by returning control of reservations to restaurants. A recent survey of diners at full-service restaurants found nearly 2 in 5 were aware of third-party websites that charge for reservations and nearly 15% said they’d paid for a reservation.
• Producer prices for all foods rose 3.7% in August compared to a year ago, after rising 4.9% in the previous August-versus-August annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Employment by full-service restaurants inched up 0.9% year over year in July, while the average industry wage rose 5.4% over the same period to $21.04 per hour, easing a bit from its high in May, BLS data show. While the industry’s rising labor and food costs are supported by sustained consumer spending, which rose 2.6% in July compared to a year ago, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, rising input costs are a major pain point for restaurants.