Wendys Dynamic Pricing

[storewanderer]

https://www.nrn.com/news/trending-week- ... ffers-2025

https://www.the-sun.com/money/10469739/ ... c-pricing/

Okay, some chains already do this sort of thing with "Happy Hour" offers like Sonic 50% off drink, Steak N Shake 50% off shake/drink, Arbys "happy hour" various items... but those are discounts with clearly posted prices and time windows and it is very transparent to the customer what they need to do and when they need to show up to get the price deal. You show up at 4:58 PM that drink is $1.29 but if you show up at 5:02 PM that drink is $2.59 again.

But as a customer to not know if a Single will cost 6.19 or some other random amount when I go in and eat, I think this is a bad idea.

If I am an infrequent customer and just so happen to order at the "top price" time window, how am I to know it may be cheaper at a different time? I may assume it is always that "top price" and never go there again assuming the place is overpriced.

BAD idea. If I were a franchisee I would opt out of this type of pricing model. But the problem is if surrounding locations opt in it would cause damage to the customer perception of the brand and still impact units who are trying to run with straightforward transparent consistent pricing.

And that is another issue: this causes another big inconsistency to the customer...

[Super S]

This is one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard about.

The potential is there to do things like raise prices during lunch hour and other busy periods, raise prices when the dining room is open, raise prices to push people to use an app/loyalty program, etc.

Wendy's seemed to be doing ok, and has finally got breakfast right, only to come up with something that will potentially alienate a lot of people....

[storewanderer]

They're counting on people who pay no attention to price.

Wendys historically has focused on value menus, 4 for 4 meals, 2 for $3 breakfast, $5 Biggie Bags, etc. In some cases a very large percentage of their sales come from value options like that.

This means the typical Wendys customer is price conscious and pays attention to prices. This isn't the Starbucks customer who doesn't want to hear the price and doesn't care what the price is. This concept could work for Starbucks perhaps but not Wendys and it is a dumb idea all around. I wouldn't suggest this to any fast food chain. Or grocer.

Terrible idea I agree.

[cathandler]

After a swift and brutal backlash, the dynamic pricing plan is dead
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail ... 024-02-28/

[SamSpade]

I felt like this was never really going to happen, but it brought a lot of attention to the #2 hamburger quick service restaurant in the United States... albeit somewhat negative attention.

[Alpha8472]

Wendy's is obviously trying to calm the backlash. The app seems to still be offering the Dave's Single for $1 and the Double for $2. There is also a free drink and free Frosty with salad purchase.

[SamSpade]

The app seems to still be offering the Dave's Single for $1 and the Double for $2.

This is a tie in to their major sponsorship of the NCAA mens' and womens' college basketball tournaments "March Madness." Hopefully it sticks out all the way until early April for the finals.

[storewanderer]

The offer is valid once a week. You can get 1 $1 Single and 1 $2 Double per week.

The "week" by their definition resets on either Wednesday or Thursday.

This will run through early April unless they pull it early.

You can also do an additional order about 5 minutes after that order, to redeem an additional app offer on the same visit. So you can easily redeem two app offers per visit.