An early bird special is meant to attract more people to your restaurant at a time when it would be otherwise under capacity. Surge pricing doesn’t attract more customers - it either drives existing customers into spending their dollars outside peak hours, or it squeezes more money out of folks that don’t change their habits. It’s not like the base price is going to get cheaper outside of peak hours.
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Is that still the case? This was my understanding of things when they introduced it years ago. I’ve never driven, but saw a recent thread where someone said prices may surge but the pay methodology is fixed.
That’s one half of the equation. In the energy sector surge pricing is to discourage energy consumption, since power plants are at their peak production and can’t generate any more (and it will take 5 - 20 years and billions of dollars to build additional plants).
Methinks Wendy’s is about to find out that their “surge” pricing plan will have an impact more like the energy sector than Uber and Lyft.
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I already felt Wendy’s was on the expensive side versus fast food competitors. This would just rub some salt on that drive-through wound.
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The idea that customers will be ok with not knowing how much their food will cost until they get to the restaurant is absurd. Maybe they think people will order through an app for pickup? If I order at 9 am, and set pick up for noon-if that’s possible-do I pay the 9am price or the 12pm price? I suspect this will die an ignominious death about a month after it starts.
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If they implement this terrible idea, you will see a lot of TikTok videos of the prices changing in realtime, there will be widespread consumer disgust, and sales will fall. Wendy’s will backtrack and apologize, but it will be too late: customers will have proof of the company’s contempt for them, and will no longer trust the brand. This is a corporate disaster in the making.
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In my state, in a retail setting, this is called price gouging, which is illegal, and my state prosecutes price gougers vigorously. It hasn’t mattered if the AG is a Democrat or Republican, this is FAFO territory in Michigan.
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FTFY.
I mean, Dave Thomas is already spinning in his grave fast enough to generate a couple KW of electricity if there was a generator attached to the corpse… /sarcasm
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My local Wendy’s has barely remained operational for the past several years. This may be the thing to finally finish the store off.
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I’m sure this idea will get a frosty reception from customers.
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They could have avoided most of this kickback by announcing that they were going to discount pricing during off-hours.
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I don’t know either and haven’t kept up with how the pay is being set with ride sharing apps.
I just remember the initial justification for surge pricing given was related to the economic theory about increasing the supply of drivers.
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Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
How stale would you like your fries?
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Can the price change between when the tray of greasy bits are slid down the chute and the debit card is tapped? When was the ‘contract’ agreed upon? (“You fool! the contract doesn’t include a set price! the nugget-mcblockchain are fungible!” (soylent green is people!))
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So, I walk in, and am now the third customer in-line, and pick out a meal. By the time I place it, it has gone up in price, because a fourth diner showed up, and its now “Surge” time. Or, far more likely, as the restaurant owner sees someone walk in they hit the “surge” button, every time, so as to maximize their profits. But no customers? Lower the prices to lure them in. Surely the courts will agree this is just the best business practice, right? And not price gouging, false advertising, consumer fraud, and an attempt to con customers into spending more money.
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it’s always good to have a justification for increasing profit.
the ride-sharing apps actually dole out different rates to different drivers: the more you drive, the less you earn. they do this to entrap drivers who get pulled into full time driving: making them drive more and more to keep earning the old wages.
so whatever extra for high demand times is charged, you can rest assured the drivers only see a small piece of that. the rest is pure profit
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I wonder if this ever sees the light of day.
Corporations are able to float ideas like this to gauge public reaction without spending money.
Their next meeting might be a little different.
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Also weird to me because the inefficiencies to captured here – waiting times – are already (more or less) happily borne by most customers sitting in their cars and would not be readily handed over.
Just because I’m willing to spend, say, $10 of productive time in the drive through, doesn’t mean I’m willing to pay Wendy’s – say – half of that $10 to not wait in line at all.
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This just shows how stupid they have been about the way they’re structuring and promoting this plan.
People don’t get angry at bars for having “happy hour“ prices that end just as the bars start to get busy, because that pricing structure has been framed as a discount for early customers rather than a surcharge for everyone else. Functionally it is the same thing, but the framing makes all the difference.
Forget the algorithms and the hard-to-understand “dynamic” pricing plan. All Wendy’s needed to do to avoid this PR nightmare was to let their regular prices continue to rise gradually and then introduce “discount” prices for the off-peak times.
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I don’t like this at all. It’s just fucking people over, especially on lunch breaks.
Wendy’s is my go to fast food burger. I do eat later than most people, but I still feel like this is a bad idea.
And if it “works” EVERYONE is going to copy it.
That’s a good point. Sonic does (or did? I dunno, haven’t been there in awhile.) have it where their big drinks are really cheap during this off peak time, which entices people to grab one, and maybe something else while they are there.
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