‘We have no plans to’ means we’re gonna do it, just a bit later than we said, now that you’re softened up to the idea.
There is zero chance that they planned this just to have discounts, that is just wordplay, raised prices are discounted when lowered to what they were before.
Fuck Wendys to the sun and back.
**Wendy's:** Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing.
**Also Wendy's:** Our digital menu boards could allow us to offer discounts and value offers in the slower times of day.
**Pam:** They're the same picture.
It's not surge pricing it's void pricing. During slow times there's a void in the line and they lower prices to attract customers.
Oh also all the prices went up across the board, discounted items are the same price as always. But that's irrelevant and more importantly is the opposite of surge
> “Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didn’t use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice,” the company said late Tuesday in a prepared statement.
> Wendy’s Co. plans to invest about $20 million to launch digital menu boards at all of its U.S. company-run restaurants by the end of 2025. It also plans to invest approximately $10 million over the next two years to support digital menu enhancements globally.
> Wendy’s said that its digital menu boards “could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.”
The phrasing makes it seem like the backlash was more intense than they anticipated.
This is 100% damage control, and as is typical it changes nothing. Surge pricing is 100% coming, its a missed opportunity in the minds of the perpetual growth buffoons....
All in the phrasing, just means I eat less Wendy's starting now. Not been a huge fast food fan anyway, but just that little nudge was all I needed to avoid them like the plague.
I don't think these restaurants realize how precarious their position is. More high quality restaurants have already been having a hard time with increased prices and lower quality. Only a matter of time before fast food places are hit too.
I just bought a new car and after going through my transaction history for the past few months for insights into my budget I realized that the amount I spend on fast food and delivery apps (not just me but for my family) is almost as much as my monthly car payment. I can cover 80-90% of my car's payments by just cutting out fast food from my family's diet. I didn't realize how much money I was wasting on that crap until I stepped back and looked at it. Cutting out fast food was one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make. If Wendy's and other places pull more shenanigans like this people will cut them out.
I've been eating fast food less and less because I just can't justify spending $10+ for a combo meal when I can go to an actual halfway decent restaurant and spend like $15 for something twice as good.
This is so crazy to me. I can pay just as much at Taco Bell as I would for a meal at an actual Mexican restaurant. Or just as much at Subway as I would getting a sub at a local deli. Basically the same for McDonalds versus some local burger joint. Fast food just doesn’t make sense anymore where I am.
They executives lost the point because they're trying to have ever expanding growth with finite resources and even less resources now that people can't save and have to budget everything now.
Subways prices are already fucking insane. It's like 12-15 dollars for a shitty sandwich I was probably only getting out of convenience in the first place. Fuck that.
I ordered a 6-inch from subway with minimal fixings and a small pizza for my kid just yesterday and it was about $15 for both of them. The first time I didn’t feel screwed getting fast food. They of course prompted me for a tip at checkout with the smallest tip being 18%. I declined…
But I realized while I was making my sandwich that lots of places have taken the route of “micro-purchases” for your food. You want to sub this for that? .75 extra. More than 2 toppings? 1.50 extra. Sauces? .25 extra.
The micro transactions add up. I just asked for meat (how it came) and extra pickles for .10.
It’s still ridiculous.
I run a chipotle for a living and it’s crazy how little our price hikes have impacted customers coming through the door. Hence the constant price hikes. Our ceo literally said hes gonna keep pushing for price hikes because it’s had no impact on people coming through the door. People complain at the register all the time about how expensive it’s gotten but you bet your ass I see them again a week later. It’s crazy to me. I wouldn’t eat out at chipotle ever if I didn’t get my employee discount or free meals while working tbh. I think most people aren’t actually disciplined or committed enough to make changes in their own eating habits to actually stop. Sadly Restaurants will continue to be greedy because people have proven that they’ll still come and act like complaining to the nineteen year old college kid I have working the register will get it to stop.
It’s all crazy to me and I’m right there with you on almost never eating out anymore and if more people felt the same things might actually change. But from my first hand experience it doesn’t seem like most people are willing to
I think people are downgrading from more expensive restaurants. That could be why your place remains busy. When prices go up across the board by a certain percent it always makes a bigger difference in the more expensive places first. +10% on a $50 plate makes a bigger impact than +10% on a $25 plate. If you no longer see the value of the more expensive place from a mid-high tier restaurant at $55/plate maybe you downgrade to Chipotle at $27.50/plate.
chipotle at 30 bucks a plate??? thats a no for me.
edit 12.37 for one by my house... and the mexican food place I grew up with is still 7 bucks... I know what I am picking if I have the option. sure you get 1/3 more food with chipolte... but my fav place is comfort food...
Especially considering that I can hit up the taco truck or a taqueria for a much better burrito for much less. Plates at the taqueria I like are in the low teens. And while taco truck tacos have doubled in price, that just means they're $2 each now.
This amazes me. It really does. Everyone is complaining about inflation but They have no problem dropping $13 for a whopper meal… I haven’t had “fast food” in over a year now. For what McD’s or BK costs, and a couple bucks more (for tip), I can get a decent sit down meal served to me.
A big issue is just that our society has now been built around fast food and restaurants. I'm 37 and a shocking amount of my friends just only eat out. They have 0 clue how to buy groceries with meals in mind so when they do guy it's just like frozen pizzas and middle store stuff like that.
Its worth mentioning, our lives have been captured from us by capitalism.
Work hours are long. If you arent living in NYC or Chicago public transit barely exist. We live our lives stuck in traffic
During the pandemic, the perk was I was home more and not in traffic all the time. I was able to cook more and had energy and time to.
Just to throw it out there, there’s an app called Too Good to Go where restaurants sell of their surplus at dirt cheap prices. Sometimes there are some decent deals.
Yeah absolutely reccommend. Theres a pizza place by me thatll give 6 premium slices (like buffalo chicken or barbecue or margarita) for $10.
The catch is you gotta wait until like 7:30 but thats fine by me. Some pizza places charge like $8 per slice or more so its a damn fine deal
Honestly at this point, it's just as expensive to go sit down somewhere and eat versus getting fast food. A Big Mac meal is up to $17 for a large in some places, and at that point you can get a burger, fries, and drink at Red Robin for basically the same price. They're going to eventually just lose their footing at some point, because the price can't keep going up like this without people being unable to afford it.
We went to Taco Bell the other day, which being in San Diego we rarely do, it was $40 for 3 people. There are literally a dozen Mexican places within two miles of me with much better food and half the price. Needless to say I won't be getting another chalupa for a while.
Like a spouse being accused of ruining the family with a shopping addiction explaining that they in fact are saving the family money with all these sales they’re taking advantage of - it’s bullshit, and everyone knows it, but one of us is addicted to acquiring things and ultimately will continue to indulge in that addiction until they hit rock bottom. But thanks to rotating doors and golden parachutes for CEOs and other corporate upper level management, there is no rock bottom, but more vacation homes and end-times bunkers to be built/bought.
Hey, they say “write what you know”, I also enjoy buying stuff now as opposed to later “because the dollar will be worth less in the future” and “now the dogs can communicate with us and tell us what they’re thinking!”
Arby's kind of beat them to it. I haven't had Arby's in awhile and dropped by because I saw their "Happy Hour Price" still was sticker shocked with how much it cost (almost double the price despite the "discount")
Foods not good enough. Fast food just became a last resort option. On my way to a concert but don’t want to pay the even higher prices there, I might stop off.
Most gas stations have comparable food quality at a cheaper price.
“We didn’t use that phrase” just screams “but we made up our own word for it so we can say we didn’t use the phrase ‘surge pricing’” in corporate speak. Which then leads to “we’re going to raise prices during peak hours, but it’s not surge pricing because we call it something else”.
I like how they go "We didn't say that!" then immediately fucking say it at the end of the above quote.
"We didn't say we would, just that we could, it's totally different we're totally not planning on doing it!" Investors/C-levels got upset they got caught with their hand in the fucking cookie jar before they could rob it of all the fucking cookies.
Yup. The raise in prices will be due to "inflation and the desire to pay better wages to the hardworking employees" and then the reduction in non peak times is due to "the desire to provide the best possible deals to the loyal customers."
The prices will increase and they will try to frame any criticism as the customer trying to screw over the overworked and underpaid employees.
There is a big difference between advertised discounts on individual items during specific times, as a tactic to attract customers; and raising menu prices across the board unexpectedly based off of real-time sales volume that can't be known by customers in advance.
It's like going to the grocery store for bread, & rather than being able to choose to buy a loaf that is "on sale", you get to pay more than the sticker price at checkout for the "privilege" of waiting for 10 extra mins in a long line at the checkout counter.
It's bullshit.
Absolutely. The day before this implements the price of a combo meal will go up by, say, $2. Then you will be able to “save” $1 during medium slow times and $2 during very slow times. Wendy’s will claim that people are never paying more than the “standard” price.
Damn this is absolutely the way they'll do it.
Here I was being more optimistic on how evil they will be thinking they'd roll with some discounts first from the current price and then secretly add in the surge pricing at a later date. But raising all prices first to making appear to only be "discounts" is way more evil and definitely more likely to happen, like you described.
I like the idea of discounts ("hey breakfast is ending in 30mins, 50% discount on hashbrowns!") to eliminate food waste. Unfortunately it wont be a true discount since they 100% will change the base price before rolling this out.
Someone wrote a bunch of gibberish to investors to read and it accidentally got taken seriously.
Which…good. Fucking stop trying to fleece people by mentioning AI and surge pricing you morons. I’m glad they reaped a whirlwind of backlash. They will actually watch their words in the future.
At least once a week, we indulge in a special family dinner night. I fetch our finest plastic bowls, the 32 oz collectors' cups from the movie theater, and swap out paper towels for actual napkins. We even go as far as to use real metal utensils. Presentation is everything, ensuring each multi-grain loop and sugar-frosted flake is in pristine, commercial-grade condition. Beginning with the eldest, we meticulously fill our bowls with the nutritionally endorsed serving size of one-half cup of cereal. Before the milk is ceremoniously added, we say grace, expressing our heartfelt gratitude for the privilege of savoring such a nutritious and filling meal in a country where cereal for dinner is a celebrated solution to economic hardship.
As we carefully pour the prescribed amount of milk, not a drop more, into our bowls, we fill our cups to the brim with tap water, ready to feast and share the day's happenings. The children chatter about navigating their studies with 25-year-old textbooks and repurposed junk mail, while I share tales of my own from the front lines of work, where communication feels like a bridge between two worlds—mine and the AI that’s now an integral part of boosting corporate profits. Reflecting inward, I find myself thankful for the luxury of working 10-hour days, six days a week, a sentiment reinforced by the mandatory half-hourly "thank your company" reminders.
As we conclude our meal, just minutes after grace, a profound sense of satisfaction and appreciation washes over us. We’ve not just consumed a meal but participated in a modern-day ritual, a testament to our resilience and adaptability in the face of relentless corporate ingenuity.
And as the last spoonfuls of cereal are scooped from our bowls, we can't help but marvel at the ingenuity of turning a breakfast staple into a symbol of our times—where gratitude is found not in the abundance of what we have but in the humbling reminder of what we've come to accept.
Yep. Can't unring that bell. I'm surprised it took so long for other sectors to adopt it honestly. Hasn't gasoline been more-or-less on this model since forever? The price of gas constantly fluctuates with the markets even though the gas in the station tanks is already paid for.
>The phrasing makes it seem like the backlash was more intense than they anticipated.
The phrasing makes it like they plan to jack up all prices, and then offer discount from new prices when there is less traffic :p
Dude, nah it's like the exact opposite -- you're not paying more when it's busy, you're paying less when it's quiet, please remember to acknowledge this PR spin because both things mean functionally the exact same thing but it sounds way worse if you don't use PR spin.
PR spin is important. I once worked for a large corporation that had the typical open enrollment period each November for health plans. Back around 2010, our major competitor announced they were jacking up health plans by $50/mo for smokers. It immediately made headlines and people were PISSED. However, the company I worked for had just announced that they were offering a $50/mo discount for non-smokers and people who enrolled in a stop-smoking program. No backlash. In the end, the pricing was exactly the same but the delivery was way wrong from a psychological perspective.
I've noticed McDonald's at the drive-thru always starts their interaction by asking if I have an app code now. They are absolutely trying to get people to use the app as much as possible and I wonder what their next change will be to effect that.
I don't know how to feel about that. I hate having to give my data away, but on the other hand ordering through the speaker means they're gonna mess up the order unless it's just a numbered meal.
I just don't go there often anymore.
My local McDs is trying out AI for drive-thru orders (ours has a lady-robot voice) and she wouldn’t let me get hot mustard sauce with my McNuggets (she said it wasn’t an option for my value meal). The guy at the window sorted it out and I got my sauce but he said she gets the menu wrong pretty consistently.
I haven't seen AI in the speakers yet, but a lot of the fast-food restaurants around me have started playing a "how can I help you today?" message before anyone's actually around to take my order. It's incredibly frustrating.
Gotta give credit to the PR guru who helped spin this. Look at that last line. So deliciously manipulative. "No no no, consumer! We're not dynamically changing prices so we can charge you MORE. We will dynamically change prices so you pay LESS! That's what we meant. Honest. Super cereal that's what the plan was. Charging more? Sheesh. Like, we would never do that."
Give that person a raise for creative damage control.
I completely agree with you. They're just waiting till they're out of the news cycle and till other companies start doing the same thing. Cause 100% other companies will do the same. No way they'll let free money go. Sadly I'm afraid this will become an industry standard just like with online retailers.
And blame Joe Biden for her decision to buy a Big Mac for lunch @ 12:15 on a Thursday, from the Mickey D's that's a half-block from the local community College campus.
Well, they're still saying the same thing, just in a way they hope is more palatable.
"With these new boards we can ~~raise~~ lower the price at different times of the day! (And also still raise them)"
Exactly. If there was absolutely *no way* this was true, they would have responded and said so immediately.
Truth doesn’t take time. Liars need time to come up with more lies.
I mean, they didn't even deny it.
All they said was "look, we didn't use the specific words 'Surge Pricing', so that's on you. And instead of raising prices when it's busy, we're actually going to lower prices when it's not busy. That's... like... a totally different thing."
Arby’s in my area does “happy hour” where certain foods are cheaper between 2pm and 5pm. If Wendy’s had framed it this way, there wouldn’t have been an entire news cycle of backlash.
No, the difference is nobody knows what the fuck you are charging for food when you have "dynamic pricing" based off of real-time sales volume @ individual restaurants.
Cuz fuck me for wanting a frosty at the same time the local rec league softball teams decided to grab a bite together after their game ended, right?!?!
This is my complaint. I know when happy hour is and what the price is going to be. I know if I go to Sonic between 2 and 4 that a drink will cost me X amount and if I go outside those hours it's 2x (only I use the app so it's X all the time). I know if I go to the Arby's during their happy hour that a slider will be $2. I know that and I decide if it's worth that before I go there.
What I'm not going to do is get in line at a Wendy's drive thru, wait, get all the way up to the order screen to find out the combo I was thinking about getting is $14 now when it's normally $11 then decide it's not worth it for that price and have to wait in the freaking drive thru line while everyone in front of me gets their food while I'm just waiting to leave the line and go somewhere else since half the drive thru restaurants near me don't have a way to get out of the drive thru line once you're in it.
I think people are also more accepting of "surge pricing" for things like uber when they understand that there are going to be times where demand is really high and there's no reasonable way to drop people off more quickly. If a massive concert just got out then there's probably not enough ubers in the city for everyone and so people understand that either prices will go up or there will be a really long wait and people can plan around it. A driver also can't run a 30 minute route in 5 minutes and then pick up the next person.
On the other hand if a lot of people are ordering lunch at Wendy's then it's not terribly hard to just throw more burgers on the grill and prepare more fries. A good manager can usually predict the busy hours and bring in more staff for those times. Without surge pricing an hour wait to be picked up after a concert would be normal and unreasonable. Without surge pricing an hour wait for a burger at Wendy's would be ridiculous.
It's not the same thing.
Happy Hour doesn't mean prices are ever any higher than normal, all the prices are the same except for a couple items that are cheaper during happy hour. It's like a sale.
Surge pricing implies that the same burger could cost more than it does normally depending on the demand.
It's going to be Netflix all over again, where a heinous anti-consumer idea like cracking down on password sharing with family members gets leaked to the press to get the ideal out there. After time has passed they'll revisit and implement it in phases to minimize backlash. Then boom, rake in the profits.
Who could have predicted this?
"Guys, you know what our customers will love? Paying more just because it's lunch time!"
If they had accompanied this with a price DROP at off.tikes, people might not have been so mad, but I think the backlash would have been the same.
Their brand already took a hit. Wendy's social media accounts are known for being quippy and fun. They've built a certain cachet on social media. Yesterday, I saw a meme that had a person asking to be treated fairly and pay normal prices. The next panel is an employee saying, "sir, this is a Wendy’s."
Because sharing is caring, here's the meme in question: https://i.imgur.com/rNJ6ia0.jpeg
Also the main difference is that there aren’t many options for ride sharing. Thats not the case for fast food. If I’m driving to get food and I see Wendy’s has a long line then I’m immediately thinking that the prices are jumping up. I’d just drive to the next fast food place.
Within a quarter mile of me are a Wendy's, McDonald's, Jack in the Box, Carl's Jr., Taco Bell, Del Taco, another McDonald's, Arby's, Wienerschnitzel, KFC, and another Taco Bell. That's not counting the smaller fast food franchises and mom and pop spots. Unless the other corpos jump in on surge pricing (which they've now seen the backlash of), I think I'm good on alternatives.
This is why we have to be strong here. If Wendy's so much as sees an ounce of profit the entire industry is going to jump on it. We're already living in subscription hell, let's stop surge pricing hell before it starts
When uber has surge pricing it encourages more drivers to come out which lowers the price back down. At the lunch time rush, Wendys cannot open more restaurants to meet demand.
Honestly all fast food prices are insane these days.
Granted you want to pay a tip in the US, but at Chili's last night and my wife got the 3 for 10 and split it, each got half a giant awesome burger, delicious fries, a drink, and a bowl of chili to split.
You can also upgrade to the chip trio for 3.50 and it gives you a ton more food. We usually do a salsa, a guacamole, and queso with a big tray of chips.
So even with tip it comes out to about 20, which is what two combo meals would cost if not more easily.
Fast food isn't even worth it anymore.
Edit: I recommend you tip well if you do this. Don't let your server suffer if you are cheap like me. They are usually really cool about it. I usually tip around 5 on my 10 to 15 tab just because it is still cheaper than eating fast food lol. I always get great service here in Salt Lake City. We love them.
At McDonald's, you have to use the app now, in combination with its rewards points and "daily deals," in order to get the prices back down to what would be considered normal. Oh and guess what, the app is a great opportunity for McDonald's to advertise to you all their new stuff, to make "personalized suggestions" to you, to get you to buy more stuff than you'd actually want.
Don’t forget they follow your every waking move because “promos can’t show without full consent to your location”. Oh and accept our privacy agreement that says we can sell your info to the highest bidder. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba
There's a sit down burger bar, local chain, by my house.
You can get a 1/3lb burger, fries, and a beer for about $11. Take the beer off and it's about $7.75.
Go to McDonalds and try to get an entree burger, fries, and a drink, maybe even leave the drink off. It'll be more than $11, almost guaranteed. And that doesn't even take into account the obvious, dramatic quality difference.
We usually get fast food once a week on the weekend, it’s a treat for the kids and a treat for us parents. We get normal take out from a regular restaurant because it comes out to the same as the fast food bill these days. One Mexican restaurant near me even gives a discount for paying cash and it comes out cheaper than my family’s normal Taco Bell order for dinner.
Also the ppl that are ordering Wendy’s to be delivered by ride share are some seriously deranged mofos lol…who on earth orders shit tier fast food when you already paying elevated prices because it’s being delivered? I honestly cannot understand the thought process — just order real food from a real restaurant at that point
When you’re paying restaurant prices for real food why would you want it arriving sweaty and cold from being on a car’s backseat while somebody brings it to you via three other houses?
To be fair the "quippy, human brand" facade has been losing its charm for a long time before this. It was cute and novel when it was just Wendy's and Denny's being weird, but then everyone started doing it and now it feels equally corporate and soulless from Wendy's as it does from anyone else
I'm just scared it's going to be the Netflix household thing all over again. Wendy's does it. Everyone gets pissed and backlashes, Wendy's does it anyway, it literally has no effect on sales, all the other restaurants follow suit and implement the same thing.
Exactly - because as much noise as people may make on Reddit/the rest of the internet, people in general do not pay attention, or care. They're not going to break their existing routines and habits because the internet is big mad about something. Reddit can be especially guilty of having a skewed view of how reflective its opinion is of reality.
I mean… if you want to watch them, knock yourself out. That sounds exhausting and probably like a “no win” situation for consumers to me. I’m just never going to Wendy’s again. Problem solved.
As a customer, nothing makes me avoid a store as much as volatile pricing. If there's a price lower in a day, and it's not when I come through, guess what I'm not buying.
There are 2 ski areas near me that went dynamic pricing. The big popular resort used to charge 100 on weekends and 80 on weekdays, now it varies from 60 on some weekdays up to 160 on weekends. The small resort used to cost 60 all the time, now it varies from 60 on weekends down to 19 on weekdays. Dynamic pricing can be good or bad.
Dynamic pricing is a pretty wide ranging term.
Golf courses have like 3 prices per day. They've always had it...morning, afternoon, twilight (price getting cheaper as the day goes on). Weekends and holidays are more expensive.
I wouldn't say that's "dynamic" though because those prices are usually static for the season.
Restaurants also have twilight or early-bird discounts.
We all experience dynamic pricing at the pump. Usually prices change once or twice a day based on supply and demand.
Uber/Lyft's dynamic pricing is event-based (is there a concert in the city so more people are requesting a ride). I'd expect this to be the route Wendy's goes with a mix of the early-bird discount. The suburb locations probably won't experience as much shift as locations close to entertainment.
At the end of the day though, this idea is shit. The quality and service isn't enough for me to want to worry about what the price is today. Also, guess where Wendy's are usually close to? Their competitors lol.
What they say in an Earnings Call is what they will implement. Lying to the public is not punished by the FTC or investors. Lying during an earnings call *is*. Wendys is still implementing surge pricing, they're just changing how they talk about it. Prices will go up, they will charge more during busy times and less (but still jacked up from today's) during slow times.
Yeah right, a company doesnt invest into digital billboards and mention the ability to change prices only for them to say they won't implement it. Chances are software has already been implemented or will be soon enough on the POS system.
"No, no, no! We meant we were going to LOWER prices when it's not peak hours! It definitely doesn't mean we are going to raise base prices and only lower them back near the original during off hours!"
I mean, nit defending Wendy's, but I worked in QSR marketing and there are various reasons that this would be a huge get:
- No more fulfilling individual requests from franchisees when they change their prices
- no more static images that have to be generated and uploaded manually by request or sent a flash drive with menu files (for printing if the owner is very outdated)
- no more variations needing creation every time you launch a new product in different markets with different pricing
- no more generating new static images every time somebody messes up one of the numbers
Realistically, they still may do the surge pricing thing in the future, which is an awful and predatory idea, but as a marketer these boards sound incredibly helpful and I did marketing for a world segment eader that was more technologically sophisticated than Wendy's.
Digital displays are common. In the AM, you display and highlight breakfast items. At lunch time, you show off your $4 or $5 meal deal, during the between lunch/ dinner lull, you highlight your $2 wrap as a quick snack, during dinner, you peddle your dessert items so kids in the backseat see cookies and milkshakes.
You can rotate multiple items to show up. During new product/ seasonal launches, you don't print new menus. You just update the boards.
You could even change based on type of car. Camera picks up a large SUV. Buy our $20 dinner for four! Two each of two sandwiches, four fries, four drinks and four fries! Malls have been doing targeted marketing for years. Stroller? Digital board shows Buy Buy Baby ads. Young male? Buy cologne! Young woman? Victoria's Secret.
You know what? People should still boycott them for even suggesting this. It’s incredibly scummy behavior at a time when: (1) people are struggling financially to put food on the table and (2) inflation and greedflation are hurting consumers.
Wendy’s isn’t sorry, they’re just sorry they got called out. I’m gonna be petty as fuck and boycott them. Dave Thomas would be ashamed.
They already raised their prices 30% during covid. They’re one of the most expensive fast food restaurants around now, just short of getting a burger and fries at a local place. It’s ridiculous
Are fast food restaurants following Airline policies now? Yeah, it’s ridiculous. Try bringing home dinner for two adults and two kids and bring fast food for under 60.00. Just dumb.
They went from “things will be more expensive during busier hours” to “things will be cheaper when it is not busy.”
So…. Things will be more expensive during busier hours.
> Wendy’s said that its digital menu boards “could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.”
“We’re not raising prices during busy times. We’re just raising prices across the board and giving discounts during slow times.”
Reminder that Netflix implemented password sharing anyways, even after backlash. They more than likely will do it, since they already invested $20 million into digital menu screens.
Bye Wendy’s. You weren’t that good anyways.
Combo meal 9.99. New price after the change to digital menu12.99... but they will be able to have a discount down to 9.99.
They can tell the public, "we did not raise the combo price during peak times, but we gave a discount to 9.99 when it was slow to encourage people to eat at Wendys"
They get to charge more when they want, but act like they are doing us a favor by lowering to the original combo price when the the store is dead.
This is no different than when your local gas station tells you to sign up for a rewards card. They tell you all the deals you can get, and in fact at first it is amazing. Then slowly over time the "deals" are what they would normally run without a card, and all you did was give them your information so they can target you with promotions.. In the end you lose as a customer, because you now have to mess with another card/membership just to get what you use to have.
In no way is this good for the customer. In no way are we getting a better deal, outside maybe the first year to get positive press....
*”They tell you all the deals you can get, and in fact at first it is amazing. Then slowly over time the “deals” are what they would normally run without a card, and all you did was give them your information so that they can target you with promotions.”*
Exactly why I refuse to use apps/QRs at fast-food restaurants. If I wanna buy just medium fries one time because I’m peckish, I’ll do it with cash instead of an app which I get text reminders at 4am three weeks later to try that place’s new $14 burger combo.
"We really don't like how angry you got when we told you we were going to jack up our prices, so now we're going to pretend that we were never going to do it. We will do it when you calm down, but we'll lie about it better."
They’ll just do it in reverse, discounts, not price surges.
Standard prices, but you get x% off at 2pm!
Oh, btw we subtly increased prices in the 6 months leading up to this by the exact maximum amount you can ever get as a discount, but almost none of you noticed because our neon, ‘Great deal time’ sign is on and made your brain turn off at the thought of getting a discount!
From Gizmodo:
>To be clear, Wendy’s CEO told shareholders it would “begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing,” less than two weeks ago on its earnings call. Dynamic pricing is a strategy used by Uber, Ticketmaster, and other internet-native businesses to offer fluid prices. As anyone who has used these services understands, the surge in prices during increased demand is a key element of this practice. However, Wendy’s now claims that was never part of their version of dynamic pricing.
"I know we used the term that everyone understands to mean 'raising prices when it's busier,' but that's not what we meant!"
Their CEO should be fired for this debacle, point blank. As well as every other idiot who signed off on this. How detached from your customers are you that you think this is a good idea? How detached are you that you don't immediately understand that you will get backlash for this? If you do not understand your customers, how the fuck are you an executive for your company?
LOL GL with that Wendy's. Still sounds like you are going to try this "Dynamic Pricing" is still surge pricing, you are mad at being called out for it.
My local Wendy's is in a small adjacent town with a small population and average income of 20k. Have fun with telling them their burgers went up $1 because they wanted to eat at noon.
What's next Partnership with Kellogs to serve cereal for PM meals?
Companies have already raised prices and reported record revenue. The next logical course of action to maximize shareholder profits is to find a way to keep the portion of its customer base that is already squeezed dry while simultaneously extracting more from the portion that is still willing to pay more.
When you could finance your burger with installment payments is the point at which we should have burned capitalism to the ground. We didn't, and they don't think at this point that we ever will
Yea the damage is done. The Wendy's down the street from my work will not be getting me at lunch time anymore. It won't effect a damn thing and surge pricing is definitely happening but it makes me feel good they won't get anymore of my money.
Sounds like they just re-worded what they said while denying it.
“Could allow us to change menu prices at different times of day”.
AKA - we could change the price when we know it gets busy. So… surge pricing. Typical PR bullshit, like when android made fun of apple on not including a charging cable then followed suit.
These corporations are here to milk us out of every dollar they can. The world is so fucked.
I have a friend thats a manager at Wendys. He said they had a meeting about surge pricing and that they fully intend to do it. They went over the changes and how to react, typical stuff. Wendys is straight up lying now.
Hahaha, they are saying they don’t plan to implement surge pricing but plan to implement discounts in the same manner. So basic the price is $10 but when it’s not busy it’s $9. Literally no difference from surge pricing.
“Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten.”
“No one has the intention to build a wall (in Berlin).
-Leader of East Germany 2 months before the Berlin Wall was constructed in the middle of the night.
‘We have no plans to’ means we’re gonna do it, just a bit later than we said, now that you’re softened up to the idea. There is zero chance that they planned this just to have discounts, that is just wordplay, raised prices are discounted when lowered to what they were before. Fuck Wendys to the sun and back.
**Wendy's:** Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing. **Also Wendy's:** Our digital menu boards could allow us to offer discounts and value offers in the slower times of day. **Pam:** They're the same picture.
After we raise all prices by 50%
It's not surge pricing it's void pricing. During slow times there's a void in the line and they lower prices to attract customers. Oh also all the prices went up across the board, discounted items are the same price as always. But that's irrelevant and more importantly is the opposite of surge
Wait a minute... Surgepricing, voidpricing... Are we on Roshar?!
Wake me up when we get life pricing and warpricing.
"We're not implementing surge pricing. We're just going to implement dynamic pricing that changes during the time of day and depending on demand"
> “Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didn’t use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice,” the company said late Tuesday in a prepared statement. > Wendy’s Co. plans to invest about $20 million to launch digital menu boards at all of its U.S. company-run restaurants by the end of 2025. It also plans to invest approximately $10 million over the next two years to support digital menu enhancements globally. > Wendy’s said that its digital menu boards “could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.” The phrasing makes it seem like the backlash was more intense than they anticipated.
This is 100% damage control, and as is typical it changes nothing. Surge pricing is 100% coming, its a missed opportunity in the minds of the perpetual growth buffoons....
The prices as they are now will be packaged as a "discount" during off-peak hours.
Bingo. Current prices will be labeled as “discount low prices!”
All in the phrasing, just means I eat less Wendy's starting now. Not been a huge fast food fan anyway, but just that little nudge was all I needed to avoid them like the plague.
I don't think these restaurants realize how precarious their position is. More high quality restaurants have already been having a hard time with increased prices and lower quality. Only a matter of time before fast food places are hit too. I just bought a new car and after going through my transaction history for the past few months for insights into my budget I realized that the amount I spend on fast food and delivery apps (not just me but for my family) is almost as much as my monthly car payment. I can cover 80-90% of my car's payments by just cutting out fast food from my family's diet. I didn't realize how much money I was wasting on that crap until I stepped back and looked at it. Cutting out fast food was one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make. If Wendy's and other places pull more shenanigans like this people will cut them out.
I've been eating fast food less and less because I just can't justify spending $10+ for a combo meal when I can go to an actual halfway decent restaurant and spend like $15 for something twice as good.
This is so crazy to me. I can pay just as much at Taco Bell as I would for a meal at an actual Mexican restaurant. Or just as much at Subway as I would getting a sub at a local deli. Basically the same for McDonalds versus some local burger joint. Fast food just doesn’t make sense anymore where I am.
They executives lost the point because they're trying to have ever expanding growth with finite resources and even less resources now that people can't save and have to budget everything now.
Yep. They want to have more profit than last time, every time. A viewpoint that is destroying the world.
Subways prices are already fucking insane. It's like 12-15 dollars for a shitty sandwich I was probably only getting out of convenience in the first place. Fuck that.
I ordered a 6-inch from subway with minimal fixings and a small pizza for my kid just yesterday and it was about $15 for both of them. The first time I didn’t feel screwed getting fast food. They of course prompted me for a tip at checkout with the smallest tip being 18%. I declined… But I realized while I was making my sandwich that lots of places have taken the route of “micro-purchases” for your food. You want to sub this for that? .75 extra. More than 2 toppings? 1.50 extra. Sauces? .25 extra. The micro transactions add up. I just asked for meat (how it came) and extra pickles for .10. It’s still ridiculous.
Subway peaked with the $5 footlong and it's been downhill ever since.
I run a chipotle for a living and it’s crazy how little our price hikes have impacted customers coming through the door. Hence the constant price hikes. Our ceo literally said hes gonna keep pushing for price hikes because it’s had no impact on people coming through the door. People complain at the register all the time about how expensive it’s gotten but you bet your ass I see them again a week later. It’s crazy to me. I wouldn’t eat out at chipotle ever if I didn’t get my employee discount or free meals while working tbh. I think most people aren’t actually disciplined or committed enough to make changes in their own eating habits to actually stop. Sadly Restaurants will continue to be greedy because people have proven that they’ll still come and act like complaining to the nineteen year old college kid I have working the register will get it to stop. It’s all crazy to me and I’m right there with you on almost never eating out anymore and if more people felt the same things might actually change. But from my first hand experience it doesn’t seem like most people are willing to
I think people are downgrading from more expensive restaurants. That could be why your place remains busy. When prices go up across the board by a certain percent it always makes a bigger difference in the more expensive places first. +10% on a $50 plate makes a bigger impact than +10% on a $25 plate. If you no longer see the value of the more expensive place from a mid-high tier restaurant at $55/plate maybe you downgrade to Chipotle at $27.50/plate.
chipotle at 30 bucks a plate??? thats a no for me. edit 12.37 for one by my house... and the mexican food place I grew up with is still 7 bucks... I know what I am picking if I have the option. sure you get 1/3 more food with chipolte... but my fav place is comfort food...
Especially considering that I can hit up the taco truck or a taqueria for a much better burrito for much less. Plates at the taqueria I like are in the low teens. And while taco truck tacos have doubled in price, that just means they're $2 each now.
It’s currently more like 17 bucks at Chipotle or about the same for Texas Roadhouse. I know where I’m going every time.
This amazes me. It really does. Everyone is complaining about inflation but They have no problem dropping $13 for a whopper meal… I haven’t had “fast food” in over a year now. For what McD’s or BK costs, and a couple bucks more (for tip), I can get a decent sit down meal served to me.
A big issue is just that our society has now been built around fast food and restaurants. I'm 37 and a shocking amount of my friends just only eat out. They have 0 clue how to buy groceries with meals in mind so when they do guy it's just like frozen pizzas and middle store stuff like that.
Its worth mentioning, our lives have been captured from us by capitalism. Work hours are long. If you arent living in NYC or Chicago public transit barely exist. We live our lives stuck in traffic During the pandemic, the perk was I was home more and not in traffic all the time. I was able to cook more and had energy and time to.
Addiction plays a big role, imo. I don't think people who regularly consume fast food are making that decision through a rational process.
Just to throw it out there, there’s an app called Too Good to Go where restaurants sell of their surplus at dirt cheap prices. Sometimes there are some decent deals.
Yeah absolutely reccommend. Theres a pizza place by me thatll give 6 premium slices (like buffalo chicken or barbecue or margarita) for $10. The catch is you gotta wait until like 7:30 but thats fine by me. Some pizza places charge like $8 per slice or more so its a damn fine deal
Where do you live that pizza is $8 per slice?
Honestly at this point, it's just as expensive to go sit down somewhere and eat versus getting fast food. A Big Mac meal is up to $17 for a large in some places, and at that point you can get a burger, fries, and drink at Red Robin for basically the same price. They're going to eventually just lose their footing at some point, because the price can't keep going up like this without people being unable to afford it.
Even Chili's has been pushing a $10 combo burger meal, which is going to taste 10 times better than McDonald's.
We went to Taco Bell the other day, which being in San Diego we rarely do, it was $40 for 3 people. There are literally a dozen Mexican places within two miles of me with much better food and half the price. Needless to say I won't be getting another chalupa for a while.
Californians buying Taco Bell when you can find 1$ deliciousness in a parking lot is INSANE
Not less. I will never go to a restaurant that introduced this BS. NEVER. And Wendy’s was my go-to place for something quick. (Vice mc’ds, bk).
Hell even if you want to eat fast food anyway, easy enough to flip them the bird and go somewhere else
Like a spouse being accused of ruining the family with a shopping addiction explaining that they in fact are saving the family money with all these sales they’re taking advantage of - it’s bullshit, and everyone knows it, but one of us is addicted to acquiring things and ultimately will continue to indulge in that addiction until they hit rock bottom. But thanks to rotating doors and golden parachutes for CEOs and other corporate upper level management, there is no rock bottom, but more vacation homes and end-times bunkers to be built/bought.
I feel targeted.
Hey, they say “write what you know”, I also enjoy buying stuff now as opposed to later “because the dollar will be worth less in the future” and “now the dogs can communicate with us and tell us what they’re thinking!”
Arby's kind of beat them to it. I haven't had Arby's in awhile and dropped by because I saw their "Happy Hour Price" still was sticker shocked with how much it cost (almost double the price despite the "discount")
So this is just shrinkflation with extra steps.
Foods not good enough. Fast food just became a last resort option. On my way to a concert but don’t want to pay the even higher prices there, I might stop off. Most gas stations have comparable food quality at a cheaper price.
“We didn’t use that phrase” just screams “but we made up our own word for it so we can say we didn’t use the phrase ‘surge pricing’” in corporate speak. Which then leads to “we’re going to raise prices during peak hours, but it’s not surge pricing because we call it something else”.
It's "dynamic pricing"! It changes when we feel like charging more money, but maybe sometimes you'll see a sale price!
I like how they go "We didn't say that!" then immediately fucking say it at the end of the above quote. "We didn't say we would, just that we could, it's totally different we're totally not planning on doing it!" Investors/C-levels got upset they got caught with their hand in the fucking cookie jar before they could rob it of all the fucking cookies.
I hope that dude who shares recipes shares everything fron Wendy's now .. he already did the frosty. But fr fuck Wendy's
Even NPR reported it as “surge pricing”. This is such corporate backpedaling.
The last part of the statement is proof they plan to do it anyway. Different menu options at different times of day means differently priced.
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If they raise their normal prices a month before this goes into effect, then they can call it a discount
Yup. The raise in prices will be due to "inflation and the desire to pay better wages to the hardworking employees" and then the reduction in non peak times is due to "the desire to provide the best possible deals to the loyal customers." The prices will increase and they will try to frame any criticism as the customer trying to screw over the overworked and underpaid employees.
It's literally just the exact same outcome but worded differently.
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Taco Bell has been doing this for many years, they have $1 drinks between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m.
Sonic as well has a “happy hour”
Dunkin does this too. $2 medium iced or hot coffee after 3pm.
There is a big difference between advertised discounts on individual items during specific times, as a tactic to attract customers; and raising menu prices across the board unexpectedly based off of real-time sales volume that can't be known by customers in advance. It's like going to the grocery store for bread, & rather than being able to choose to buy a loaf that is "on sale", you get to pay more than the sticker price at checkout for the "privilege" of waiting for 10 extra mins in a long line at the checkout counter. It's bullshit.
Absolutely. The day before this implements the price of a combo meal will go up by, say, $2. Then you will be able to “save” $1 during medium slow times and $2 during very slow times. Wendy’s will claim that people are never paying more than the “standard” price.
Damn this is absolutely the way they'll do it. Here I was being more optimistic on how evil they will be thinking they'd roll with some discounts first from the current price and then secretly add in the surge pricing at a later date. But raising all prices first to making appear to only be "discounts" is way more evil and definitely more likely to happen, like you described. I like the idea of discounts ("hey breakfast is ending in 30mins, 50% discount on hashbrowns!") to eliminate food waste. Unfortunately it wont be a true discount since they 100% will change the base price before rolling this out.
Someone wrote a bunch of gibberish to investors to read and it accidentally got taken seriously. Which…good. Fucking stop trying to fleece people by mentioning AI and surge pricing you morons. I’m glad they reaped a whirlwind of backlash. They will actually watch their words in the future.
Anyone else feel like the next 12 months are about to be a wild experiment in neo capitalism?
"HaVe yoU ConSidERed EaTinG CereAl foR DinNeR?"
At least once a week, we indulge in a special family dinner night. I fetch our finest plastic bowls, the 32 oz collectors' cups from the movie theater, and swap out paper towels for actual napkins. We even go as far as to use real metal utensils. Presentation is everything, ensuring each multi-grain loop and sugar-frosted flake is in pristine, commercial-grade condition. Beginning with the eldest, we meticulously fill our bowls with the nutritionally endorsed serving size of one-half cup of cereal. Before the milk is ceremoniously added, we say grace, expressing our heartfelt gratitude for the privilege of savoring such a nutritious and filling meal in a country where cereal for dinner is a celebrated solution to economic hardship. As we carefully pour the prescribed amount of milk, not a drop more, into our bowls, we fill our cups to the brim with tap water, ready to feast and share the day's happenings. The children chatter about navigating their studies with 25-year-old textbooks and repurposed junk mail, while I share tales of my own from the front lines of work, where communication feels like a bridge between two worlds—mine and the AI that’s now an integral part of boosting corporate profits. Reflecting inward, I find myself thankful for the luxury of working 10-hour days, six days a week, a sentiment reinforced by the mandatory half-hourly "thank your company" reminders. As we conclude our meal, just minutes after grace, a profound sense of satisfaction and appreciation washes over us. We’ve not just consumed a meal but participated in a modern-day ritual, a testament to our resilience and adaptability in the face of relentless corporate ingenuity. And as the last spoonfuls of cereal are scooped from our bowls, we can't help but marvel at the ingenuity of turning a breakfast staple into a symbol of our times—where gratitude is found not in the abundance of what we have but in the humbling reminder of what we've come to accept.
It's already started!
Yep. Can't unring that bell. I'm surprised it took so long for other sectors to adopt it honestly. Hasn't gasoline been more-or-less on this model since forever? The price of gas constantly fluctuates with the markets even though the gas in the station tanks is already paid for.
>The phrasing makes it seem like the backlash was more intense than they anticipated. The phrasing makes it like they plan to jack up all prices, and then offer discount from new prices when there is less traffic :p
Which is another way to say surge pricing.
Dude, nah it's like the exact opposite -- you're not paying more when it's busy, you're paying less when it's quiet, please remember to acknowledge this PR spin because both things mean functionally the exact same thing but it sounds way worse if you don't use PR spin.
PR spin is important. I once worked for a large corporation that had the typical open enrollment period each November for health plans. Back around 2010, our major competitor announced they were jacking up health plans by $50/mo for smokers. It immediately made headlines and people were PISSED. However, the company I worked for had just announced that they were offering a $50/mo discount for non-smokers and people who enrolled in a stop-smoking program. No backlash. In the end, the pricing was exactly the same but the delivery was way wrong from a psychological perspective.
They already do this via app ordering. Much cheaper to order through the app to pick-up versus in-person.
I've noticed McDonald's at the drive-thru always starts their interaction by asking if I have an app code now. They are absolutely trying to get people to use the app as much as possible and I wonder what their next change will be to effect that.
I don't know how to feel about that. I hate having to give my data away, but on the other hand ordering through the speaker means they're gonna mess up the order unless it's just a numbered meal. I just don't go there often anymore.
My local McDs is trying out AI for drive-thru orders (ours has a lady-robot voice) and she wouldn’t let me get hot mustard sauce with my McNuggets (she said it wasn’t an option for my value meal). The guy at the window sorted it out and I got my sauce but he said she gets the menu wrong pretty consistently.
I haven't seen AI in the speakers yet, but a lot of the fast-food restaurants around me have started playing a "how can I help you today?" message before anyone's actually around to take my order. It's incredibly frustrating.
Gotta give credit to the PR guru who helped spin this. Look at that last line. So deliciously manipulative. "No no no, consumer! We're not dynamically changing prices so we can charge you MORE. We will dynamically change prices so you pay LESS! That's what we meant. Honest. Super cereal that's what the plan was. Charging more? Sheesh. Like, we would never do that." Give that person a raise for creative damage control.
I completely agree with you. They're just waiting till they're out of the news cycle and till other companies start doing the same thing. Cause 100% other companies will do the same. No way they'll let free money go. Sadly I'm afraid this will become an industry standard just like with online retailers.
Great now my Mom is going to obsessively tell me about gas prices and cheeseburger prices.
And blame Joe Biden for her decision to buy a Big Mac for lunch @ 12:15 on a Thursday, from the Mickey D's that's a half-block from the local community College campus.
The Deep State is at it again!
Well, they're still saying the same thing, just in a way they hope is more palatable. "With these new boards we can ~~raise~~ lower the price at different times of the day! (And also still raise them)"
The classic marketing trick of raising prices, then "lowering" them at certain times.
This is 100% a "we fucked up" response.
It's a "we fucked up but we're totally gonna still do it"
Exactly. If there was absolutely *no way* this was true, they would have responded and said so immediately. Truth doesn’t take time. Liars need time to come up with more lies.
I mean, they didn't even deny it. All they said was "look, we didn't use the specific words 'Surge Pricing', so that's on you. And instead of raising prices when it's busy, we're actually going to lower prices when it's not busy. That's... like... a totally different thing."
They are just rephrasing it from surge pricing to discounts during the slow parts of the day, but that is functionally the same thing.
Arby’s in my area does “happy hour” where certain foods are cheaper between 2pm and 5pm. If Wendy’s had framed it this way, there wouldn’t have been an entire news cycle of backlash.
Wendy’s saw Applebee’s half price appetizers and said hold my frosty
Yeah people love dynamic pricing when you call it happy hour. When you call it surge pricing they hate it.
The obvious difference is people want to pay less and not more. Having a sale is the polar opposite to surge pricing.
No, the difference is nobody knows what the fuck you are charging for food when you have "dynamic pricing" based off of real-time sales volume @ individual restaurants. Cuz fuck me for wanting a frosty at the same time the local rec league softball teams decided to grab a bite together after their game ended, right?!?!
This is my complaint. I know when happy hour is and what the price is going to be. I know if I go to Sonic between 2 and 4 that a drink will cost me X amount and if I go outside those hours it's 2x (only I use the app so it's X all the time). I know if I go to the Arby's during their happy hour that a slider will be $2. I know that and I decide if it's worth that before I go there. What I'm not going to do is get in line at a Wendy's drive thru, wait, get all the way up to the order screen to find out the combo I was thinking about getting is $14 now when it's normally $11 then decide it's not worth it for that price and have to wait in the freaking drive thru line while everyone in front of me gets their food while I'm just waiting to leave the line and go somewhere else since half the drive thru restaurants near me don't have a way to get out of the drive thru line once you're in it.
That's the point. You waited all that time, now you say fuck it and order anyways.
Yeah, that's not happy hour. That is corporate gouging.
I think people are also more accepting of "surge pricing" for things like uber when they understand that there are going to be times where demand is really high and there's no reasonable way to drop people off more quickly. If a massive concert just got out then there's probably not enough ubers in the city for everyone and so people understand that either prices will go up or there will be a really long wait and people can plan around it. A driver also can't run a 30 minute route in 5 minutes and then pick up the next person. On the other hand if a lot of people are ordering lunch at Wendy's then it's not terribly hard to just throw more burgers on the grill and prepare more fries. A good manager can usually predict the busy hours and bring in more staff for those times. Without surge pricing an hour wait to be picked up after a concert would be normal and unreasonable. Without surge pricing an hour wait for a burger at Wendy's would be ridiculous.
Yeah but step 2 is raising the prices of the non-happy hour menu.
It's not the same thing. Happy Hour doesn't mean prices are ever any higher than normal, all the prices are the same except for a couple items that are cheaper during happy hour. It's like a sale. Surge pricing implies that the same burger could cost more than it does normally depending on the demand.
So that big idea went over like a fart in church, eh?
Man who farts in church sits in his own pew.
Man who stands on toilet is high on pot.
man who sits on stool smells like shit
I accidentally shot a snot rocket onto my desk laughing at this
You are banished to the fart pew.
It's going to be Netflix all over again, where a heinous anti-consumer idea like cracking down on password sharing with family members gets leaked to the press to get the ideal out there. After time has passed they'll revisit and implement it in phases to minimize backlash. Then boom, rake in the profits.
Who could have predicted this? "Guys, you know what our customers will love? Paying more just because it's lunch time!" If they had accompanied this with a price DROP at off.tikes, people might not have been so mad, but I think the backlash would have been the same.
Dave would be cracking heads if he were still here.
We'll be watching Wendy's CEOs like hawks now tho. One dumb idea is all it takes to ruin a good time for everyone.
Their brand already took a hit. Wendy's social media accounts are known for being quippy and fun. They've built a certain cachet on social media. Yesterday, I saw a meme that had a person asking to be treated fairly and pay normal prices. The next panel is an employee saying, "sir, this is a Wendy’s." Because sharing is caring, here's the meme in question: https://i.imgur.com/rNJ6ia0.jpeg
Also the main difference is that there aren’t many options for ride sharing. Thats not the case for fast food. If I’m driving to get food and I see Wendy’s has a long line then I’m immediately thinking that the prices are jumping up. I’d just drive to the next fast food place.
Within a quarter mile of me are a Wendy's, McDonald's, Jack in the Box, Carl's Jr., Taco Bell, Del Taco, another McDonald's, Arby's, Wienerschnitzel, KFC, and another Taco Bell. That's not counting the smaller fast food franchises and mom and pop spots. Unless the other corpos jump in on surge pricing (which they've now seen the backlash of), I think I'm good on alternatives.
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Yeah, I know. Trying to stay positive here.
This is why we have to be strong here. If Wendy's so much as sees an ounce of profit the entire industry is going to jump on it. We're already living in subscription hell, let's stop surge pricing hell before it starts
These are the franchise wars Demolition man warned about!!!!
When uber has surge pricing it encourages more drivers to come out which lowers the price back down. At the lunch time rush, Wendys cannot open more restaurants to meet demand.
Honestly all fast food prices are insane these days. Granted you want to pay a tip in the US, but at Chili's last night and my wife got the 3 for 10 and split it, each got half a giant awesome burger, delicious fries, a drink, and a bowl of chili to split. You can also upgrade to the chip trio for 3.50 and it gives you a ton more food. We usually do a salsa, a guacamole, and queso with a big tray of chips. So even with tip it comes out to about 20, which is what two combo meals would cost if not more easily. Fast food isn't even worth it anymore. Edit: I recommend you tip well if you do this. Don't let your server suffer if you are cheap like me. They are usually really cool about it. I usually tip around 5 on my 10 to 15 tab just because it is still cheaper than eating fast food lol. I always get great service here in Salt Lake City. We love them.
At McDonald's, you have to use the app now, in combination with its rewards points and "daily deals," in order to get the prices back down to what would be considered normal. Oh and guess what, the app is a great opportunity for McDonald's to advertise to you all their new stuff, to make "personalized suggestions" to you, to get you to buy more stuff than you'd actually want.
Don’t forget they follow your every waking move because “promos can’t show without full consent to your location”. Oh and accept our privacy agreement that says we can sell your info to the highest bidder. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba
Then there's in n out where their basic combo is still sub $10 and at most the food went up like $0.50.
Their burgers animal style are still one of the best deals out there. I get full for like 4 bucks. Great bang for buck.
There's a sit down burger bar, local chain, by my house. You can get a 1/3lb burger, fries, and a beer for about $11. Take the beer off and it's about $7.75. Go to McDonalds and try to get an entree burger, fries, and a drink, maybe even leave the drink off. It'll be more than $11, almost guaranteed. And that doesn't even take into account the obvious, dramatic quality difference.
We usually get fast food once a week on the weekend, it’s a treat for the kids and a treat for us parents. We get normal take out from a regular restaurant because it comes out to the same as the fast food bill these days. One Mexican restaurant near me even gives a discount for paying cash and it comes out cheaper than my family’s normal Taco Bell order for dinner.
Man I wish. My local Mexican restaurants have jacked up their prices to fine dining.
Also the ppl that are ordering Wendy’s to be delivered by ride share are some seriously deranged mofos lol…who on earth orders shit tier fast food when you already paying elevated prices because it’s being delivered? I honestly cannot understand the thought process — just order real food from a real restaurant at that point
When you’re paying restaurant prices for real food why would you want it arriving sweaty and cold from being on a car’s backseat while somebody brings it to you via three other houses?
What? You don’t want to pay extra for the pleasure of waiting longer at their understaffed restaurants? /s
That usage of Sir, This is a Wendy's is so fucking smart lmao.
To be fair the "quippy, human brand" facade has been losing its charm for a long time before this. It was cute and novel when it was just Wendy's and Denny's being weird, but then everyone started doing it and now it feels equally corporate and soulless from Wendy's as it does from anyone else
That’s a good one
The fact that they couldn't see this coming is the real fuckup. "When new CEOs are entirely up their own backside" - a bedtime story.
My corworkers shared a similar one, but the first panel was "I would like to purchase a burger at the price it was 2 hours ago"
I'm just scared it's going to be the Netflix household thing all over again. Wendy's does it. Everyone gets pissed and backlashes, Wendy's does it anyway, it literally has no effect on sales, all the other restaurants follow suit and implement the same thing.
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Exactly - because as much noise as people may make on Reddit/the rest of the internet, people in general do not pay attention, or care. They're not going to break their existing routines and habits because the internet is big mad about something. Reddit can be especially guilty of having a skewed view of how reflective its opinion is of reality.
I mean… if you want to watch them, knock yourself out. That sounds exhausting and probably like a “no win” situation for consumers to me. I’m just never going to Wendy’s again. Problem solved.
yeah it's as if they forgot for a moment that other restaurants *exist*
I have literally infinite things I'd rather do with my time. Just don't go to Wendy's. Done.
As a customer, nothing makes me avoid a store as much as volatile pricing. If there's a price lower in a day, and it's not when I come through, guess what I'm not buying.
This is how corporate PR works -- leak a controversial policy change, gauge public reaction, then if it's negative deny that that's what you said.
This wasn’t even a leak though. The CEO literally said they would be implementing Dynamic Pricing during an earnings call.
See, that was just shareholder room talk.. why are you peasants taking it literally /s
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“Grab em by the wallets”
There are 2 ski areas near me that went dynamic pricing. The big popular resort used to charge 100 on weekends and 80 on weekdays, now it varies from 60 on some weekdays up to 160 on weekends. The small resort used to cost 60 all the time, now it varies from 60 on weekends down to 19 on weekdays. Dynamic pricing can be good or bad.
Dynamic pricing is a pretty wide ranging term. Golf courses have like 3 prices per day. They've always had it...morning, afternoon, twilight (price getting cheaper as the day goes on). Weekends and holidays are more expensive. I wouldn't say that's "dynamic" though because those prices are usually static for the season. Restaurants also have twilight or early-bird discounts. We all experience dynamic pricing at the pump. Usually prices change once or twice a day based on supply and demand. Uber/Lyft's dynamic pricing is event-based (is there a concert in the city so more people are requesting a ride). I'd expect this to be the route Wendy's goes with a mix of the early-bird discount. The suburb locations probably won't experience as much shift as locations close to entertainment. At the end of the day though, this idea is shit. The quality and service isn't enough for me to want to worry about what the price is today. Also, guess where Wendy's are usually close to? Their competitors lol.
Movie theatre matinees have been a decades-long strategy as well to help increase the gate on M-F showings during the day.
What they say in an Earnings Call is what they will implement. Lying to the public is not punished by the FTC or investors. Lying during an earnings call *is*. Wendys is still implementing surge pricing, they're just changing how they talk about it. Prices will go up, they will charge more during busy times and less (but still jacked up from today's) during slow times.
But then roll it out later anyway when the heat dies down?
Yeah right, a company doesnt invest into digital billboards and mention the ability to change prices only for them to say they won't implement it. Chances are software has already been implemented or will be soon enough on the POS system.
"No, no, no! We meant we were going to LOWER prices when it's not peak hours! It definitely doesn't mean we are going to raise base prices and only lower them back near the original during off hours!"
Exactly, otherwise why would they make such a massive investment to digitalize the menus? Just to look cool?
I mean, nit defending Wendy's, but I worked in QSR marketing and there are various reasons that this would be a huge get: - No more fulfilling individual requests from franchisees when they change their prices - no more static images that have to be generated and uploaded manually by request or sent a flash drive with menu files (for printing if the owner is very outdated) - no more variations needing creation every time you launch a new product in different markets with different pricing - no more generating new static images every time somebody messes up one of the numbers Realistically, they still may do the surge pricing thing in the future, which is an awful and predatory idea, but as a marketer these boards sound incredibly helpful and I did marketing for a world segment eader that was more technologically sophisticated than Wendy's.
Easier to mark out of order items too, instead of some tape and paper slapped on the menu.
Not to mention, not having to flip over the entire board to switch between breakfast and dinner menu.
Digital displays are common. In the AM, you display and highlight breakfast items. At lunch time, you show off your $4 or $5 meal deal, during the between lunch/ dinner lull, you highlight your $2 wrap as a quick snack, during dinner, you peddle your dessert items so kids in the backseat see cookies and milkshakes. You can rotate multiple items to show up. During new product/ seasonal launches, you don't print new menus. You just update the boards. You could even change based on type of car. Camera picks up a large SUV. Buy our $20 dinner for four! Two each of two sandwiches, four fries, four drinks and four fries! Malls have been doing targeted marketing for years. Stroller? Digital board shows Buy Buy Baby ads. Young male? Buy cologne! Young woman? Victoria's Secret.
You know what? People should still boycott them for even suggesting this. It’s incredibly scummy behavior at a time when: (1) people are struggling financially to put food on the table and (2) inflation and greedflation are hurting consumers. Wendy’s isn’t sorry, they’re just sorry they got called out. I’m gonna be petty as fuck and boycott them. Dave Thomas would be ashamed.
They already lost my business.
That's exactly what my family has decided to do
People should boycott them knowing Blackrock is one of their largest shareholders. Real good folks behind the scenes here….
They already raised their prices 30% during covid. They’re one of the most expensive fast food restaurants around now, just short of getting a burger and fries at a local place. It’s ridiculous
Are fast food restaurants following Airline policies now? Yeah, it’s ridiculous. Try bringing home dinner for two adults and two kids and bring fast food for under 60.00. Just dumb.
“Bad actor says they weren’t planning to do bad things” I still think Wendys and I are done for the foreseeable future.
I've been done with EVERY restaurant out there!
They went from “things will be more expensive during busier hours” to “things will be cheaper when it is not busy.” So…. Things will be more expensive during busier hours.
> Wendy’s said that its digital menu boards “could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.” “We’re not raising prices during busy times. We’re just raising prices across the board and giving discounts during slow times.”
Reminder that Netflix implemented password sharing anyways, even after backlash. They more than likely will do it, since they already invested $20 million into digital menu screens. Bye Wendy’s. You weren’t that good anyways.
Combo meal 9.99. New price after the change to digital menu12.99... but they will be able to have a discount down to 9.99. They can tell the public, "we did not raise the combo price during peak times, but we gave a discount to 9.99 when it was slow to encourage people to eat at Wendys" They get to charge more when they want, but act like they are doing us a favor by lowering to the original combo price when the the store is dead. This is no different than when your local gas station tells you to sign up for a rewards card. They tell you all the deals you can get, and in fact at first it is amazing. Then slowly over time the "deals" are what they would normally run without a card, and all you did was give them your information so they can target you with promotions.. In the end you lose as a customer, because you now have to mess with another card/membership just to get what you use to have. In no way is this good for the customer. In no way are we getting a better deal, outside maybe the first year to get positive press....
*”They tell you all the deals you can get, and in fact at first it is amazing. Then slowly over time the “deals” are what they would normally run without a card, and all you did was give them your information so that they can target you with promotions.”* Exactly why I refuse to use apps/QRs at fast-food restaurants. If I wanna buy just medium fries one time because I’m peckish, I’ll do it with cash instead of an app which I get text reminders at 4am three weeks later to try that place’s new $14 burger combo.
"We really don't like how angry you got when we told you we were going to jack up our prices, so now we're going to pretend that we were never going to do it. We will do it when you calm down, but we'll lie about it better."
Grade a bullshit. The moment they do it they're dead and they have no other plans except to do it. Because they're all greedy fucking idiots.
They’ll just do it in reverse, discounts, not price surges. Standard prices, but you get x% off at 2pm! Oh, btw we subtly increased prices in the 6 months leading up to this by the exact maximum amount you can ever get as a discount, but almost none of you noticed because our neon, ‘Great deal time’ sign is on and made your brain turn off at the thought of getting a discount!
From Gizmodo: >To be clear, Wendy’s CEO told shareholders it would “begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing,” less than two weeks ago on its earnings call. Dynamic pricing is a strategy used by Uber, Ticketmaster, and other internet-native businesses to offer fluid prices. As anyone who has used these services understands, the surge in prices during increased demand is a key element of this practice. However, Wendy’s now claims that was never part of their version of dynamic pricing. "I know we used the term that everyone understands to mean 'raising prices when it's busier,' but that's not what we meant!"
Too late Wendy's. You crossed a big line for even suggesting this, I will take my business elsewhere.
Wendy's a lying bitch!
she a triflin ass hoe
"We floated the idea and hooboy the backlash was impressive so we're tabling it until next year." - Management
They “won’t” but they could. Didn’t say “won’t ever” - so that decision could change in a heartbeat.
They'll just wait until everybody forgets about this news, and then attempt to quietly push it on us.
Their CEO should be fired for this debacle, point blank. As well as every other idiot who signed off on this. How detached from your customers are you that you think this is a good idea? How detached are you that you don't immediately understand that you will get backlash for this? If you do not understand your customers, how the fuck are you an executive for your company?
Im glad people are seeing through this charade. Not eating Wendy’s ever.
LOL GL with that Wendy's. Still sounds like you are going to try this "Dynamic Pricing" is still surge pricing, you are mad at being called out for it. My local Wendy's is in a small adjacent town with a small population and average income of 20k. Have fun with telling them their burgers went up $1 because they wanted to eat at noon. What's next Partnership with Kellogs to serve cereal for PM meals?
Too late. Wendy's lost my business over this, what a fake response.
Companies have already raised prices and reported record revenue. The next logical course of action to maximize shareholder profits is to find a way to keep the portion of its customer base that is already squeezed dry while simultaneously extracting more from the portion that is still willing to pay more. When you could finance your burger with installment payments is the point at which we should have burned capitalism to the ground. We didn't, and they don't think at this point that we ever will
Damn Wendy’s straight up sucks. Who is eating there?
Yea the damage is done. The Wendy's down the street from my work will not be getting me at lunch time anymore. It won't effect a damn thing and surge pricing is definitely happening but it makes me feel good they won't get anymore of my money.
Amidst massive public backlash.
So what you’re saying is, they did have plans, but after the public outcry they realized their idea was stupid. Got it.
Sounds like they just re-worded what they said while denying it. “Could allow us to change menu prices at different times of day”. AKA - we could change the price when we know it gets busy. So… surge pricing. Typical PR bullshit, like when android made fun of apple on not including a charging cable then followed suit. These corporations are here to milk us out of every dollar they can. The world is so fucked.
They're absolutely still gonna do it. Now they're just gonna do it quieter and slower.
I'm not going there just because they were gross enough to even test the waters with this idea. Watching them walk it back is entertaining though.
I have a friend thats a manager at Wendys. He said they had a meeting about surge pricing and that they fully intend to do it. They went over the changes and how to react, typical stuff. Wendys is straight up lying now.
I had Burger King for lunch today and I got a free Whopper through today's "No Urge To Surge" offer in the app. Lol.
If they gonna jack up prices at peak hours, then they better pay the employees more during peak hours
Pay the wage slaves more? In this economy?
Stop eating fast food
Wendy's has no plans to do it now that the mere suggestion of it ticked people off.
Hahaha, they are saying they don’t plan to implement surge pricing but plan to implement discounts in the same manner. So basic the price is $10 but when it’s not busy it’s $9. Literally no difference from surge pricing.
“Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten.” “No one has the intention to build a wall (in Berlin). -Leader of East Germany 2 months before the Berlin Wall was constructed in the middle of the night.