- DailyMail.com this week revealed Wendy’s plans to introduce price increases
- Wendy’s fans objected, and outrage over the pricing strategy went viral.
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Wendy’s fans have expressed outrage over the fast food chain’s plans to test an Uber-like ‘price surge’.
It comes after DailyMail.com this week exclusively revealed what that would look like in practice and spoke to economists and retail experts who questioned how consumers would respond.
A huge stir on social media on Tuesday seemed to answer that question.
“Wendy’s is barely worth it as it is,” one X user wrote in response to the news. ‘Who’s going to pay the price increase for a mediocre burger?’
Another wrote on Reddit: ‘The opposite of Happy Hour?’
A quarter pound of Dave’s Single currently costs about $5.99 at Wendy’s in Newark, New Jersey. Under the new system that may vary throughout the day depending on demand.
One X user shared a Wendy’s stash in their refrigerator and joked that they avoided price increases.
Many Wendy’s fans made comparisons between Wendy’s dynamic pricing and “price surge.”
The franchise’s CEO said this month that starting next year it will test dynamic pricing, which could cause the cost of menu items to vary throughout the day.
The pricing system It could mean that at busy times, such as breakfast, lunch and dinner, the prices you advertise on a digital menu would be higher and at quieter times they would drop.
Another user on Tuesday shared a photo of a refrigerator full of Wendy’s takeout bags.
“I just got 110 burgers from Wendy’s,” they joked. “Nice try, but your price increase won’t convince me, I have stock for the whole year.”
Almost all the reactions on social media indicated that people would not tolerate changing menu prices.
“I haven’t eaten Wendy’s in a few weeks and this pricing strategy will backfire,” one person wrote on Reddit.
“Fast food is dying” wrote author David Dennis Jr. on X. ‘And it’s not because there’s no demand. It’s because of greed. “They are going to put a price on themselves for not being a feasible food service.”
Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner said the fast-food chain would use “digital menu boards” as a way to alter the listed cost of its menu items.
So-called dynamic pricing could mean that at busy times, such as breakfast, lunch and dinner, prices would be higher than at quieter times.
Pictured is a caricature of restaurant-goers protesting Wendy’s dynamic pricing plans.
Many social media users suggested that Wendy’s would do more harm than good by introducing such a pricing system.
“This is one of the dumbest corporate decisions I’ve seen in a long time,” another X user wrote.
The outrage over the pricing strategy was anticipated by retail analyst Neil Saunders of GlobalData, who said regular customers might not tolerate it.
“If regular customers pay $5 for something one day and $6 the next, it’s likely to cause confusion and annoyance,” he said.
Last year, 52 percent of more than 900 consumers surveyed by the software company Capterra They said they considered dynamic pricing in restaurants to be price gouging.
