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.

“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.”

Dine Brands expects domestic same-store sales for IHOP to be in the range of down 1% to up 2% for fiscal 2025.

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.

The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into potential antitrust issues related to the surging price of eggs, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The investigation, which is in its early stages, includes a look at whether large egg producers have worked together to raise prices or reduce supply, the report said.

The news comes as the price of eggs has soared, leading some restaurants to announce menu changes and reports of grocery stores with empty shelves. For example, Denny’s announced last month that it was passing along rising egg costs to customers in the form of a surcharge.

In the latest consumer price index report, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed the price of eggs up 53% year over year. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the cost of eggs rose 15.2% just between December and January — this marked the largest increase in the eggs index since June 2015.

The price increases appear to be at least in part due to an outbreak of avian flu that has led egg producers to cull their populations. However, advocacy group Farm Action sent a letter last month to the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission, calling for an investigation into other causes.

CNBC has not independently confirmed that this investigation is ongoing. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The unemployment rate among Black men saw a significant improvement in February – even as the rate ticked higher for U.S. workers in general.

The overall unemployment rate edged higher last month to 4.1% from 4% in January, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Friday. Nonfarm payrolls growth also came out underwhelming, according to the data.

To be sure, the unemployment data for February comes amid a push from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency to reduce the federal workforce. The full impact of those cuts have yet to unfold, and further uncertainties around the direction of the U.S. economy and tariff decisions could affect hiring, according to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

“It’s the calm before the storm,” she said. “We’re not seeing the layoffs in the data yet, for the most part.”

An improvement in unemployment rates for Black men in February

For Black men aged 20 and older, the unemployment rate notably declined to 5.5% in February from 6.9% in January. That latest number shows a drop back down near levels seen in December, which had a 5.6% unemployment rate for Black men in this cohort.

The unemployment rate for Black women came out at 5.4% in February, holding steady from January and December. Those results come after the rate spiked to 5.9% in November of last year. By comparison, the jobless rate among Black workers overall edged lower to 6% in February, down from 6.2% in January.

“You see a fair amount of volatility month-to-month. It’s a little hard to ignore the huge drop in the unemployment rate for Black men … that’s a positive indication,” Gould said.

Higher unemployment rates for Hispanic and white women

The unemployment rate for Hispanic women climbed to 5.1% in February, up from 4.5% in the prior month. Hispanic men saw a similar jump in the unemployment rate, which rose to 4.6% last month from 4.0%.

For white women, the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.4% in February from 3.3%, and for white men it rose to 3.5% last month from 3.1%. White workers overall saw the jobless rate climb to 3.8% in February from 3.5% in January.

For Asian workers, the unemployment rate slid to 3.2% in February, down from 3.7% in the prior month.

Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, said that February’s payrolls report comes with a “load of footnotes.”

“For instance, the reporting survey was conducted following a period of significant job displacement in California related to the wildfires and other adverse weather conditions around the U.S., in the midst of a changing immigration picture, more labor strikes, and the beginning of the impact of DOGE on federal government employment,” he said.

– CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report.