Have no patience for companies that try this crap and will avoid them at all times.
Outside of Hotel prices in a sports market, etc. Or Airlines who probably invented this originally.
But not for Food or maybe Gas next?
Really, what is next?
Ever since the companies began pandering to stock prices the unending need to efffff the customer just never ends and it gets old quick.
Vote with your wallet, it’s the only thing they understand.
If the Wendy’s around here starts surge pricing in 2025, then I’ll just avoid Wendy’s during the surge hours.
Wendy’s is my favorite fast food place.
The thing that I order offers a lot of bang for the buck.
As long as Wendy’s offers a lot of bang for the buck during certain hours, then I’ll continue going there during those hours.
Unno, I haven’t touched fast-food (other than the local choinese-food place) in years and years, and then only with BOGO coupons or the like.
I did quite like their grilled-chicken, and used to stop off on the way home for a BOGO when coupons would come out in the local fishwrappers.
Arby used to have decent coupons, too. Would stop on my way to work for some quick eats for when I’d get into work. Nothing like a pair of reubens for breakfast+lunch.
McDs used to have (might still; dunno) the “rate your visit” where you do that and get the code to write on your receipt, and get a free ¼-pounder, which was nice.
Full-price? Ain’t worth it. Never was.
Surcharge? Yeeeeeah, no. Charge me less for the ag of waiting in line and I’ll consider it.
Only way this “surge pricing” would fly is by counting on the general idiocy of those who happily pay double or more for their orders via UberDash and other schemes (vs getting off their arses to actually get their food), in which idiots are willing to pay to be lazy.
So, with that last point in mind, it may actually be viable.
Not much of an article there. Surge pricing is an interesting economic topic, although I don’t think I’ve seen it applied to something like this. You can call it a cash grab but, at least in other industries, it’s more complicated than that. It’s related to supply and demand.
Think of Uber. During the busiest times there’s lots of demand, but the supply of drivers may be fixed. Surge pricing incentivizes more drivers to become available to meet the demand. It also dissuades people from using the service during the busy times, thus lowering demand. The end result is you pay more as a customer, but if you are willing to pay, you will actually get the service. The alternative is there is too much demand, not enough supply, and you may not get your ride.
Other examples are electricity rates and paid parking.
So imagine you’re running a fast food place. You get slammed a couple times a day. Long lines, angry customers, not good. What can you do? There’s probably no way you’re going to find some minimum wage workers who will reliably come in for just an hour or two at a time during the peaks. You may not even have physical capacity (space, equipment, etc.) to increase your throughput. If the supply is fixed, you need to influence the demand. Normally it’s self-limiting - you see that line out the door and you turn away, right? But apparently not, I guess. With surge pricing, if you really want that Wendy’s during peak times, and you’re willing to pay, maybe you’ll get it without waiting too long.
Lastly, one key piece of surge pricing is you need to be able to convey it to the customer before they get too invested. If I stand in line for a few minutes and then realize I’m going to pay a premium, I’m going to be super unhappy (personally I wouldn’t go back). Ideally the customer would know before they even turn into the parking lot. So how will they do that?
I disagree. Uber has finite amount of vehicles. Only so much to go around. Wendy’s can order more, make more, etc. There is absolutely no reason other than pure corporate greed to charge more during certain times of the day. This practice should be illegal.
I think it’s not black and white but I can logically see there being at least a small about of truth in what @James_C says…
I’m not sure it’s feasible to pump more burgers out with the same equipment and staff?
Rail travel in London, UK has peak and off-peak times, it’s an incentive for those who can, to travel outside of rush hour.
I think for junk/fast food, which isn’t a necessity, I’m pretty okay with the concept, it’ll either work or flop and be quickly reversed.
My bigger concern is with “peak charging” creep, there’s already electricity tariffs you can go onto if you think you can offset your usage to outside of the high demand times.
But where does it stop? Healthcare? Oh you wanted to see a doctor outside of 9-5hours? That’ll be 15% more, please…
Ever notice Amazon playing with their prices. Shop for something but not buy it. log out and back in and it is cheaper. Surge pricing could be looked at as a form of coupon good for non peak hours without the coupon. Typically restaurants offer deals during slow periods. Gas station already raise and lower prices for holidays and weekends. Vote with your wallet folks.
Exactly, this is supply elasticity, or lack thereof. Rail stations, electricity, these have fixed capacities. You need to build more tracks/trains, and generators to increase the supply.
It costs a lot of money to build to accomodate the peaks. Influencing demand to trim the peaks is much preferable to increasing supply. You can charge the peak users a little more to dissuade them from using the service at peak times, or you can charge the entire user base more to increase capacity.
At least this is the case with infrastructure. Now, fast food? Seems kind of silly to be talking about this. But I do believe it is more complicated and interesting than just a cash grab.
