Wendy's is introducing Uber style surge pricing.

Dear Wendy’s CEO,

This is not Uber. This is a Wendy’s.

This new CEO of Wendy's would be wise to remember that fast food is a convenience not a necessity. I've got a nice little propane grill in the backyard and I know how to make a square patty. I don't need you, you need me.

Where I am, the price of fast food is just about equal to some restaurants. There's no point in doing fast food anymore.

I remember when Dave Thomas was still alive. I loved Wendy's quality over most everyone else, so I would prefer them even if something else was closer or cheaper.

THE VERY NEXT WEEK after Dave died, there was a very noticeable drop in burger patty size and quality. I basically stopped eating at Wendy's after that.

I'm sure this is also what Dave would have wanted.

We're so bad at employee management and don't want to pay a living wage, so we'll charge you extra when we're busy. But wait, there's more, we're still not going to pay a living wage to hire more employees, so you're not only going to pay more, but your wait will still be the same.

Damn, I like some of their food. I guess this is a good reason to stop going there.

Fuck you, Wendy's.

Yeah, and I'm introducing "no more eating at Wendy's" pricing.

In an environment of painful (almost insulting) food price increases everywhere, Wendy’s decides to remove price predictability from the equation, ensuring that I never know what I’m going to pay, except that I can guarantee I’m going to be gouged when I most want to eat.

Yeah, I don’t care what they sell. I don’t want to be treated like that.

The next logical step is to use facial recognition to discriminate estimate how much money is in each customer's wallet to dynamically price the food.

Imagine walking in, seeing a price on the board, waiting behind someone with a big order, and by the time you get to the counter the price has increased. I forsee yelling and fights happening in lines.

People are not gonna like that. They will pull into the drivethrough line to buy the same thing they paid $3 for the day before, and leave or buy something cheaper when they see it's $4 right now.

What a bullshit idea. I fucking hate this timeline we’re on.

A Dave's Single combo already costs 12 bucks here. Fuck off Wendy's, like hell we're paying more for that.

Edit: And that's for a small combo. Want a large? Fuck you, pay 15.

... planning to invest approximately $20 million to roll out digital menu boards...
Wendy’s will also invest an additional $10 million over two years...

Have you tried not spending $30 million dollars to sell hamburgers?

I mean, holy shit. You sell burgers and fries. Does everything need to be digitally and AI enhanced?

A spokesperson for Wendy's confirmed the news with Food & Wine, stating the company is focused on providing "great-tasting" food and is "making a significant investment" to grow its digital business, including rolling out digital menu boards in some U.S. restaurants. "Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing a variety of enhanced features on these digital menuboards like dynamic pricing, different offerings in certain parts of the day, AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling based on factors such as weather. Dynamic pricing can allow Wendy's to be competitive and flexible with pricing, motivate customers to visit and provide them with the food they love at a great value. We will test a number of features that we think will provide an enhanced customer and crew experience."

Baconator ain’t worth it

Wendy’s won’t last. Their quality is so bad, their menu is terrible, they deserve to die and this will help.

Cool, guess I will continue to avoid fast food.

Because only rich people are entitled to access to food.

Wouldn't this run afoul of most states weights and meaures?

A combo anywhere I go is over 10 bucks. What do they want from us, consumers are already being overmilked like a skinny cow

This is great! Considering I haven't had Wendys for years and this is another reason not to!

At least with Uber it made some sense. Higher prices and this payments to drivers was meant to compel more drivers to head out to pick up the increased demand.

But here, there are no surge wages, nor are employees coming in to cover a rush.

Even McDonald's is seeing lowered sales due to these high prices. People are only willing to pay so much for grease with a side of "chicken."

This should be illegal.

Wendy’s has been going downhill ever since Dave died.

No thanks Wendys lol

I just go to local burger joints now, it's the same price and the food is better, and (probably) someone local is getting money and not some ceo across the world who doesn't care about my local economy or people.

Guess I'm going to Taco Bell.

ITT: people who didn't eat fast food anyways stroking themselves at the thought of the poors getting poorer. The only people eating Wendy's go here because it is their comfort food and they probably feel like it's the best option. They will pay the higher prices.