this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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Fast food restaurant Wendy’s plans Uber-like surge pricing, with digital menu boards that change prices depending on demand::The price of a Wendy’s Frosty could soon fluctuate throughout the day as the chain looks to introduce Uber-like surge pricing on its menu.

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I might be ok with this if they also had "ebb" pricing. If I could walk in at 8pm and get a burger for a buck, it might be worth it never to go at lunchtime again.

This, of course, will never happen.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Also, does that mean the worker's pay also scales along with the prices?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago

Hahahahahahahaha

No

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

An extra $0.25/hr during peak. Which of course is done by subtracting the $0.25/hr from the base and adding it back during peak.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No, but we'll be expected to leave larger tips.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

… tips? Yall tip at fast food places?

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 9 months ago (2 children)

So if they raise prices at lunchtime, when everyone else is also eating (because we're human meatbags that require food daily), they could raise prices due to the higher demand?

Yeah that's a huge turnoff. Part of the appeal of fast food is that you know the cost of the things you like to order.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

the first time someone not expecting this surge pricing finds out they have to pay more because it's lunch time, they will not be coming back to wendys ever again

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'd be ok with it if it actually dropped below the baseline a similar amount off peak

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

spoiler warning: it won’t

[–] [email protected] 39 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And here i thought fast food enshittification already happened

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Fast food will always be at the forefront of enshittification. Ghost Kitchens are yet another innovation that takes advantage of the fact that you, as the customer, have no idea how much of a horror show their operation is because they aren’t a physical presence you can just walk into (I guess you could pretend to be a doordasher). You have to put complete faith in the health inspector.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

https://youtu.be/KkIkymh5Ayg?si=UNBOxVx5mjXCvLqO

Been a bit since I watched this, but I'm pretty sure they discover the health inspectors can't even keep up with them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And just like that any (s)urge I had to go there ebbed and disappeared.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

My thoughts exactly.

Though I rarely eat fast food already, this will be yet another reason not to.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Good thing Wendy's announced this today so I can ignore them forever

No seriously how do they recover from this

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They recover by everyone else realizing there's profits to be made, and following suit. Once greedy corpo assholes come up with an idea to fuck the consumers harder, there's usually no going back. Hopefully I'm just being cynical.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

I can't wait to be strongly incentevised not to eat out

Imma save so much money

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I could see something like this being useful if it was keyed to stock they needed to get rid of. Like they have extra chili or salads, so they temporarily drop in price. They would waste less food which would make them more money, but of course that's not how it's being used...

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago

Dave would be disappointed!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There is no way this would hold up in my country if they are advertising prices and you get there and the price is more from a legal perspective. They would not be able to advertise if they did this. Also we don't have Wendy's...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Sure they can "Wendy's lunch menu, up to X" or "Wendy's night snack, as low as Y"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

I imagine it'd be handled kind of like how McDonald's "1,2,3 Dollar menu" doesn't have a single item under 2 dollars in my area.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Apparently the backlash was strong enough, that they have announced that they have "abandoned the idea."

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68427039

I suspect they're just going to stick it in a drawer and try again in a couple years, without a massive announcement beforehand

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They will still do it as planned. They were morons for bragging about it. Papa john's already let's you pay like $2 or $3 during peak to have your delivery bumped to the top of the list. But they sold that as a feature Wendy's isn't offering you anything but the chance to get fucked over.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they also looked at how much it would cost to update every Wendy's with digital signage when they barely have enough money to staff the stores.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Oh. They have the money. They just don't want to spend any of "their" profits.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

I feel like this would only work if all the other fast food places did the same thing... please, please don't do that! Seriously, if it's peak time like lunch, why would I ever pick Wendy's, which is now super expensive, or just get shitty food from the other place a block away for half the price?

Also, it's going to be even more insulting when they no longer offer the cheapest items they have today, which I will assume will never be this low again, even at low points of the day. I really hope this campaign is a huge failure and the people who pitched it are fired because I really don't want to see a future where this is possibly the standard one day.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Imagine sitting in front of stock like ticker menu. Wife yelling BUY LOW, and you watching the cents drop.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I saw that post yesterday actually. It was a cartoon posted somewhere here.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Oh! That's what it was about. Thank you.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I can't imaging having to check the time before going to a fast food joint to avoid "surge pricing." (Fast food prices are already in rip-off territory.)

Couldn't be any easier to avoid though - we'll just cross Wendy's off our list entirely and problem's solved, with absolutely no negative impact on us.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

there's a lesson that I learned in college that I still follow today: never eat lunch at lunchtime. unless I'm traveling I'm not eating at peak periods anyway so I really wouldn't be affected by this pricing change.

I still don't like it though. unless that wendy's is the only game in town (literally) this isn't going to be good for business.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What do you mean when you say you “learned” to not eat lunch at lunchtime? We’re you punished?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Getting lunch at 12:30: long lines, long wait times, too many people, waste most of your break time.

Getting lunch at 11:30: short lines, get food quickly, avoid the crowd, eat sandwich at a park and enjoy the sunshine.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Who's gonna go to a restaurant where they never know how much it's going to cost? Stupid idea.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (6 children)

I feel like the easiest way to stop this bullshit is for states with EBT programs to take away Wendy's ability to charge EBT cards.

Wanna dabble with surge pricing? Fine, but you'll lose all your customers that are on welfare.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wow, I didn’t know that some states allow fast food to be purchased by a EBT card. Can’t get away doing that in the south.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

I don't think you can buy any fast food with EBT...? I'm actually surprised they let you buy soda with EBT. EBT doesn't pay sales tax so they limit what you can spend it on.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Maybe workers would be able to upcharge rude customers, at least.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

My local Wendys is busy often.

This just means I'll never go. Let alone... Pretend I might?

Guess I'll buy puts on WEN.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Great, I cannot wait for not eating it there, like I always do.

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