The Wendy’s in my neck of the woods are already on their last legs. Last time I was there I waited for 30 minutes in the drive-through and didn’t even get to the order station. I just drove away and haven’t been back since. It’s too bad because their menu is more appealing to me than comparable chains.
Seems like they are unwilling to pay staff well because business is slow and business is slow because they don’t have enough staff. Whoever is running these must be a moron. If they actually increased prices at ANY time around here, I think they’d be empy in short order.
Businesses have been doing this for a long time. Gas prices here increase in the Spring/Summer vs Winter because more people drive long distances (out and about more=use more gas…charge more). Airlines do this (have for decades). Food prices fluctuate, sometimes a lot. Here in WA State our gumment passed a law saying stores can’t sell non-cage free eggs anymore. The price of eggs went up 60% (actually 150% in some cases-used to get a dozen eggs for $1) in a week. Now we pay $4.00 for a dozen eggs. McDonald’s has slowly increased prices or decreased size in some items over the last 20 years also. So has Wendy’s, Arby’s, Burgerville (to a lesser extent-they’ve always been expensive anyway), Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc. It’s inescapable really. As costs increase to businesses, those are passed down to consumers as a % of profit/loss according to sophisticated beancounter AI/Bots.
It’s only a shorter time frame than, say, Big Box Stores jacking up prices right before some huge sale (Prez Day, Friday Of Color, July 4, etc.), only to “slash prices” for the sale itself.
sit-down resturants charge more for dinner
than for lunch for the same menu item.
they also have Early Bird Specials, etc.
that looks like Surge to me.
Well, if you want to order a hamburger seven o’clock in the morning, stink up the place while everyone is eating breakfast, you should pay a penalty for the extra work the workers need to endure to clean the cook top from just one hamburger.
This is why for the longest time, you could not order from the lunch menu before 11:30AM at most fast food joints. That may have changed now.
Yeap like it or not there’s nothing illegal about it. If people don’t like it they can just not eat there. Here in San Francisco the parking meters have different prices for different hours and days. If demand pricing for food places are illegal then the parking meters should all be removed
Plus matinee prices at movie theaters should be the most they can charge forever and ever
I don’t even think it rises to the level of immortal as long as the prices are known ahead of time.
I can’t help but feel like they messed this up by not also reducing/incentivising off-peak prices, discounts on drinks or larger portions or something, at least get the “off-peakers” on side… what they’ve essentially done is said “we are raising prices” but in a complicated manor.
On the subject of places that do time-based pricing, “happy hour” in pubs/restaurants where discounts or promotions are offered, is long established, I’ve always assumed it’s to get the early crowds in and hope they stay for more drinks/food.
Yes. For sitdown restaurants, if you’re not hitting 100% capacity at dinner peak then you want those happy hour people to stay. If you are hitting 100% then you want some of the would-be dinner people to go to happy hour instead, and then leave before dinner. Your happy hour menu can help influence the behavior you want.
The worst part imo, is that they caved in. they would not lose many customers if they stood their ground, not for 10% , some would complain a little then they would forget and go anyway, they should have blame it on push for $20 min wage, they would be able to simply raise prices. very poorly thought out decision, on top of caving in, weak management imo,
To me there is no value in fast food. Makes you sick, has no real positive nutritional value and seems to breed the same kind of low pay, crappy conditions, employment. I just don’t eat any of it.
Ya’ll can have it. You’d feel much better without it.
“Fast food” is an ambiguous phrase, as it’s not necessarily reflective of food quality or health.
You can buy a prepackaged salad from McDonalds, and its made with iceberg lettuce, flavorless tomatoes, a few bits of onion, maybe some peppers, and a cheap quality ranch dressing. Or, you can pick up a premade salad from a deli that has quality ingredients and made with romaine, mescaline mesclun lettuce, avocado, roasted peppers, radishes, and a tasty low-fat balsamic vinaigrette. They’re both “fast,” but with very different outcomes.
Pizza is another one of those… because you can get a mediocre plain cheese slice heated up in just 2 minutes that had been sitting out for over an hour, or a fresh slice just out of the oven with really tasty toppings on it. Both fast… but miles apart.
Surge pricing is so fraught with problems. You define a time range… and you can bet you’ll have people clamoring to get their order in before the surge begins. So the Wendy’s would have these horrible concentrated order points, preceded or followed by anemic sales.
Speaking of which… NYC is going to try out congestion pricing in a few months. You cross into NYC from the Lincoln, Midtown, 59th St. bridge, or Holland Tunnel during certain hours? Your EZ-Pass is going to trigger a charge, or you’ll be photographed and a fee sent to your address. Outside certain hours, the fee is a good bit less…
But, what if you’re driving around and accidentally go 1 block too far? DING! Fee. What if you’re looking for parking and driving around streets, crossing over the “congestion zone” a number of times? DING, DING, DING! Fee, fee, fee. It’s insanity.
The purpose of off-peak discounts (i.e. happy hour/off season) is to increase utilization of constrained assets. Properly applied, these discounts will turn but reduced profits and better distribute fixed/indirect costs. Any customer habituation that leads to on-peak purchases is icing in the cake.
Basically any establishment where service is principally via the counter - ordering, pre-payment, food delivery - that’s made (or available to be served) quickly is fast food. The drive-through is complimentary to the genre but neither mandatory nor exclusive to it.
The formula strongly favors less healthy food, but exceptions can be found.
Yes that is what appears gonna happen, As long as you stay on fdr or west side highway, past 60st, and exit above it, you are not paying anything, or if you passing nyc thru to either GWB or go past it, you are not charged.
Now if you are a commercial vehicle or a taxi/uber, you claim the toll as you business expense on your income tax form, just like they do with other tolls. deliveries will have to raise rates, but then if they deliver 1000 loaves of bread, charge a store 36 bucks more, they split it between 1000 items, your bread now costs 3.6c more. not terrible on the price scale today.
The saddest part is, that money will go to MTA who will waste any amount of money, and get no result. and these tolls will be going up regularly.
There was no “surge” and there was no “cave”. The media used words that Wendy’s never did. The media often gets things wrong or misinterprets or “misconstrued” as Wendy’s said. The media does not want to admit they got it wrong and they are the ones spinning the story and everybody is buying in to what the media is saying or said.
