Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Super S
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Post by Super S »

Stopped at the Wendy's in Longview, WA last night, which is one of the more reliable places in this town. They had certain items crossed off on the menu. When I tried to order a Dave's Double (which was not crossed off), they told me that they are selling Singles only due to a beef shortage. Whatever. So I get to the window and get my food. The burger was hot, but tasted more like it was cooked ahead of time and kept in a warmer, and was kinda dry, and the fries tasted old. (due to food allergies I order burgers plain or just with cheese) Nothing seemed as fresh as it usually does. I am wondering though if Wendy's is sourcing beef from other suppliers now. I doubt this Wendy's is closing any time soon (They just put up all new signs with the updated logo about a week before all the closures took effect) but will say that things really seemed a bit "off" last night.
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Post by storewanderer »

I would expect between the beef shortage, ongoing "free" Spicy Chicken, "free" Breakfast Baconator, and the overall breakfast roll out that Wendys franchisees are in some pretty serious financial trouble right now. You can't offer your most premium/highest profit "double" menu items due to a beef shortage. You are offering a money losing breakfast program at a time when people are not commuting as much. You keep giving away other "premium" offerings like the Spicy Chicken and Breakfast Baconator free. You can't or won't operate your dine in and I am not sure what % of sales Wendys does via dine-in but with offerings like chili and baked potatoes which do not lend well to "eating in the car" I think it may be a higher % of sales than a sandwich and fried finger food heavy place like Jack in the Box.

I noticed last night while driving through Carson City, NV there are two Wendys one on each end of town. Both were open for drive through only, but the dining rooms were so dark that the locations appeared closed. One location had none of its exterior signage lit up either. I know this is a struggling franchisee as they have the highest prices and most limited hours of the 3 in the area, but "looking closed" will only hurt more. These franchisors need to come down on these franchisees with these closed looking locations. They should be forced to allow take out. This is hurting the image of the brands as well as the royalties to the franchisors.

Serving old food that is dried out, will only hurt more.
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Post by Alpha8472 »

I went to a Wendy's that said that they don't take mobile orders even though I ordered and already paid. That is probably a violation of the franchise agreement. I can see why the individual restaurants don't want to take mobile orders. The free sandwiches and kids meals are a money loser.

Some restaurants have listed the Spicy Chicken or the kids meal as not available on the app. That is another way to not honor the free sandwich deal.

I was able to cancel the prepaid mobile order since it was not picked up.

I have noticed that some of the food is not freshly made anymore. The chicken nuggets were lukewarm instead of burning hot. The fries have dark dirt spots. It is as if they use dirty or moldy potatoes and don't bother to check the quality.
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 24th, 2020, 11:33 pm I went to a Wendy's that said that they don't take mobile orders even though I ordered and already paid. That is probably a violation of the franchise agreement. I can see why the individual restaurants don't want to take mobile orders. The free sandwiches and kids meals are a money loser.

Some restaurants have listed the Spicy Chicken or the kids meal as not available on the app. That is another way to not honor the free sandwich deal.

I was able to cancel the prepaid mobile order since it was not picked up.

I have noticed that some of the food is not freshly made anymore. The chicken nuggets were lukewarm instead of burning hot. The fries have dark dirt spots. It is as if they use dirty or moldy potatoes and don't bother to check the quality.
So the location was set up that you were able to place and pay for the mobile order then you couldn't tap "I'm here" to pick it up? I'd definitely report that to the main office. They should be able to track the whole thing.

Once you tap "I'm here" the order prints out a receipt at the delivery area and goes onto the prep screen in the kitchen and bagging area.

Wendy's is putting a lot of marketing money into the whole app and mobile order thing. I find their app to be the easiest to use mobile order app, straightforward layout, moves between screens and customization areas really seamlessly, and just overall is a really well done order app compared to some of the others I've used which are a real trying experience if you can get them to work at all (Panda Express and McDonalds- yikes).

I've never had great luck with Wendy's chicken nuggets or fries being overly fresh. You may be able to ask for the fries extra crispy (sometimes that gets you the old fries refried for a minute or two, sometimes it gets you a small batch of fries made with an employee standing there shaking the fry basket in the oil the whole time, sometimes it gets you nowhere and the request is ignored, but there is a button on their register for WELL DONE which is not an option on the app)- may want to remind them not to re-salt them if they go the refried fry route.
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Post by Alpha8472 »

I never use check in on the app. I just drive up and tell them that I am here.
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 25th, 2020, 4:39 am I never use check in on the app. I just drive up and tell them that I am here.
Oh, I've never tried that at Wendys (have done that at McDonalds, back before I uninstalled their app).

Anyway I wonder what the location refusing mobile orders would do if you tapped the "I'm here" and the kitchen already started to prepare the order.
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Post by Alpha8472 »

The drive thru employee said that if I had already submitted a mobile order that I would have to go to the Wendy's website to request a refund. Luckily, I didn't click "check in" on the app. In this case, the order was easily canceled on the app and my credit card was not charged.

The Wendy's in my area are having problems. Two of them closed recently. One had a toxic sewage gas problem and the owner did not want to repair it. He just closed down the restaurant. The other Wendy's in a heavily crime ridden neighborhood converted to El Pollo Loco.

This Wendy's that does not accept mobile orders is doing very badly. They are across the street from California Grand Casino and a bowling alley. They used to do very good business. Now that the casino and bowling alley are closed until further notice, they have virtually no customers. This Wendy's completed a total remodel not too long ago that included a fireplace, and it looks like it cost quite a bit of money.

I tried to order something else, but the menu was all crossed out. They again were limiting everyone to 1 burger patty. Cars were angrily driving off without ordering anything as most of the menu items were not available.
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

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Alpha8472 wrote: May 25th, 2020, 11:49 pm The drive thru employee said that if I had already submitted a mobile order that I would have to go to the Wendy's website to request a refund. Luckily, I didn't click "check in" on the app. In this case, the order was easily canceled on the app and my credit card was not charged.

The Wendy's in my area are having problems. Two of them closed recently. One had a toxic sewage gas problem and the owner did not want to repair it. He just closed down the restaurant. The other Wendy's in a heavily crime ridden neighborhood converted to El Pollo Loco.

This Wendy's that does not accept mobile orders is doing very badly. They are across the street from California Grand Casino and a bowling alley. They used to do very good business. Now that the casino and bowling alley are closed until further notice, they have virtually no customers. This Wendy's completed a total remodel not too long ago that included a fireplace, and it looks like it cost quite a bit of money.

I tried to order something else, but the menu was all crossed out. They again were limiting everyone to 1 burger patty. Cars were angrily driving off without ordering anything as most of the menu items were not available.
Man, I would think the Wendys website getting all those contacts for refund requests would cause something to be done with this location. But who knows. Maybe they have no control. It sounds like a struggling franchisee assuming all of these locations you mention are the same franchisee.

The renovations are not cheap and chances are the ROI on the renovations has been less than satisfactory.

They did develop a lower budget version of the renovations and that was applied to a couple locations of the local struggling franchisee in my area. It really cleaned up the locations for a few weeks after the remodels were done. Business does not appear to have increased, that franchisee really needs to figure out how to serve hot food like the other two Wendys franchisees in Reno/Sparks do.

I would guess El Pollo Loco is generating a lot more sales volume than Wendys did in the converted location.
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Post by storewanderer »

A bit floored by the pricing of Wendys in Sacramento area. Oddly they still have some low priced promotional items.

Spicy or Homestyle Chicken is 5.99 (sandwich only) or you can get 2 for $5 with the app deal...

They still have the 4 for $4 meals (Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger is 3.09 ordered alone).

Single Burger is 5.69

Jr. Fries are 1.69; large fries are 3.29

Yikes...
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Re: Wendy's Takes Beef Off The Menu

Post by Alpha8472 »

They throw out a few good deals, but the rest of the prices are way too much. You can get $1 medium curly fries or $2 onion rings at Jack In The Box in the app exclusives. You always get a choice of free food items every few days at Jack In The Box. Burger King has a $3 meal deal on their app. Other restaurants are way better on price.

Wendy's says that their beef supplies are near normal now. However, the increased price of beef is something that they did not mention. They have shifted to advertising chicken for now.
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