Wendy's

Super S
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Re: Wendy's

Post by Super S »

Brian Lutz wrote: January 2nd, 2020, 7:39 am As noted above most of the Wendy's locations around here are either remodeled or in new builds (one location in a former Rax in Kirkland was torn down and rebuilt, another in Renton closed and moved to a new build in a different location nearby) but there's still not much in the way of consistency. There's one on Evergreen Way in Everett that did an interior and partial exterior remodel but opted to keep their "Old-Fashioned Hamburgers" signage on the building. Service can also be inconsistent from one restaurant to another, which often seems to be the result of understaffing (My guess is that some of them, especially in less densely populated areas, are having trouble finding enough workers.)

The Wendy's in Longview was remodeled just before they went to the current model. It is nice enough inside and the food is consistently good and the store is clean. However, the old logo is on the outside and the road sign actually has some paint worn off. It's an older location (1970s?) which is in a weird spot sandwiched between a former auto parts store and a former Kinney shoe store which now has a restaurant and real estate/loan office. Because of the design it has a small parking area.

Washington's minimum wage just jumped to $13.50 per hour on Jan. 1st. This could be a factor in not finding enough workers at some locations.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by Bagels »

Super S wrote: January 3rd, 2020, 10:28 amWashington's minimum wage just jumped to $13.50 per hour on Jan. 1st. This could be a factor in not finding enough workers at some locations.
With California's minimum wage continuing to progress to $15, coupled with lack of available quality workers, most retailers are intentionally short staffing themselves and cutting operating hours. A local Wendy's relinquishes quite a bit of lunch business due to its slowness. I don't think I've seen a Wendy's with ordering kiosks yet, whereas many McDonald's are now "forcing" you to order through one (or the app) if you choose to eat inside.

One location I was in even removed the traditional ordering counter, and replaced it with an area (covered with floor-to-ceiling windows) in which "fresh produce" is stored. Looked cool and appetizing, but wouldn't surprise me to discover it was just fake.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by veteran+ »

Bagels wrote: January 3rd, 2020, 2:59 pm
Super S wrote: January 3rd, 2020, 10:28 amWashington's minimum wage just jumped to $13.50 per hour on Jan. 1st. This could be a factor in not finding enough workers at some locations.
With California's minimum wage continuing to progress to $15, coupled with lack of available quality workers, most retailers are intentionally short staffing themselves and cutting operating hours. A local Wendy's relinquishes quite a bit of lunch business due to its slowness. I don't think I've seen a Wendy's with ordering kiosks yet, whereas many McDonald's are now "forcing" you to order through one (or the app) if you choose to eat inside.

One location I was in even removed the traditional ordering counter, and replaced it with an area (covered with floor-to-ceiling windows) in which "fresh produce" is stored. Looked cool and appetizing, but wouldn't surprise me to discover it was just fake.
The lack of available quality workers is not indigenous to California. Minimum wage increases that result in ANY retailer or restaurant or business reducing their hours and short staffing is quite telling of the business itself (and it's NOT good). They do these things at their own peril and damage and is very short sighted.

Wendys is what it is now because of how it runs its business and has nothing to do with minimum wages that they must comply with. McDonalds is all about increasing profit and if they can do that with tech and NOT employee benefits then thats what they will do.

Companies love to cry about wage increases instead of looking at their business model, changing demographics, internal management skills, etc. and OVER THE TOP need for glutinous profits for their shareholders and executives.

Sorry but that really is the issue and it takes a huge amount of humility for a business to go back and revisit their Model and the Market and make those changes even if its uncomfortable, painful and embarrassing. It also takes Executives and shareholders to adjust (even temporarily) their appetites for wealth.

I was also a small business owner TWICE! I can tell you that if one properly executes an extensive and comprehensive business plan and commits to real R&D and has the trained skill set to run the operation YOU CAN take care of your employees and be profitable (things that humans {your employees} need like a living wage and health insurance, etc.).

This sounds harsh and I apologize in advance but, if you cannot properly take care of your most valuable asset (employees) you should NOT be in business. There is something wrong with your company and its leadership.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by BillyGr »

Bagels wrote: January 3rd, 2020, 2:59 pm I don't think I've seen a Wendy's with ordering kiosks yet, whereas many McDonald's are now "forcing" you to order through one (or the app) if you choose to eat inside.
Not really sure at this point that they can force anyone to use the kiosk, since (at least the ones I've seen here) they are unable to process all types of payments, so an employee is required for that anyway.

Thus, if someone stands there they can't say you must use that kiosk, since they don't know how you plan to pay.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by storewanderer »

McDonalds have been trained to force people to use the kiosks. Basically there is an employee that stands between the kiosks and the registers and routes all customers to use the kiosks. If a customer is paying cash, they input that on the kiosk and then a small receipt prints which is taken to the order counter and then the cashier (second employee from the one who is standing between the kiosks and registers) only handles the cash part of it, does not input any element of the order.

I am not convinced this saves any labor and also not convinced these kiosks are more efficient than a cashier. Also I find these kiosks or parts of these kiosks are frequently broken and/or dirty. The past two times I've gone to the location near me the two kiosks are shut off and broken. Lately that location has its dining room closed by 7 PM so I am not sure if they have fixed anything or what is going on there. The past two times I've gone to the location near where I work, of the 4 kiosks, only 1 was fully functioning; 1 was off entirely and 2 had broken credit card readers. The kiosks are cumbersome and seem to interface slowly.

I have used kiosks at Wendys, Panera, and Taco Bell (these are cashless only and there is no option for cash payment- either you swipe a card or your order doesn't go through) and those kiosks seem to interface better and work more quickly. The Taco Bell one however has no way to issue you a paper receipt, only e-mail. The Wendy's one, the paper receipt has to come from behind the counter, the kiosk does not print one.

I think these order kiosks are the way of the future, but they need a lot of work.

At the new build Wendys here, the kiosks are in the front (like closest to the street) of the dining room, basically across the entire dining room from the counter near the front entry door that is by the drive through speaker. The parking lot is surrounded by the side door that is in the middle of the side of the building and when you walk in there, you don't even see the kiosks. I am confused by the placement, but at least it does not give the perception of forcing orders through the kiosk (gave me the opposite perception).
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Re: Wendy's

Post by klkla »

veteran+ wrote: January 4th, 2020, 9:02 am The lack of available quality workers is not indigenous to California. Minimum wage increases that result in ANY retailer or restaurant or business reducing their hours and short staffing is quite telling of the business itself (and it's NOT good). They do these things at their own peril and damage and is very short sighted.
Good post. I agree 100%.
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Re: Wendy's

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klkla wrote: January 4th, 2020, 3:23 pm
veteran+ wrote: January 4th, 2020, 9:02 am The lack of available quality workers is not indigenous to California. Minimum wage increases that result in ANY retailer or restaurant or business reducing their hours and short staffing is quite telling of the business itself (and it's NOT good). They do these things at their own peril and damage and is very short sighted.
Good post. I agree 100%.
I do think in some cases these labor shortages force businesses to take a much needed hard look at their operation. Many of these fast food franchisors push the operators to stay open longer hours (like, must stay open until 10 PM). Of course the franchisor who is getting a % of sales wants them open as long as possible doing as many sales as possible to get more royalties.

At the same time, maybe it doesn't make sense to keep the fast food place open until 10 PM if you only do $40 of sales between 9 PM and 10 PM. Add a labor shortage situation to the scenario and it makes even less sense to stay open that extra hour. Especially for a format like a KFC or Popeyes with a bunch of ready made food that ends up being thrown away after a certain amount of hold time.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by Bagels »

veteran+ wrote: January 4th, 2020, 9:02 am The lack of available quality workers is not indigenous to California. Minimum wage increases that result in ANY retailer or restaurant or business reducing their hours and short staffing is quite telling of the business itself (and it's NOT good). They do these things at their own peril and damage and is very short sighted.

Wendys is what it is now because of how it runs its business and has nothing to do with minimum wages that they must comply with. McDonalds is all about increasing profit and if they can do that with tech and NOT employee benefits then thats what they will do.

Companies love to cry about wage increases instead of looking at their business model, changing demographics, internal management skills, etc. and OVER THE TOP need for glutinous profits for their shareholders and executives.

Sorry but that really is the issue and it takes a huge amount of humility for a business to go back and revisit their Model and the Market and make those changes even if its uncomfortable, painful and embarrassing. It also takes Executives and shareholders to adjust (even temporarily) their appetites for wealth.

I was also a small business owner TWICE! I can tell you that if one properly executes an extensive and comprehensive business plan and commits to real R&D and has the trained skill set to run the operation YOU CAN take care of your employees and be profitable (things that humans {your employees} need like a living wage and health insurance, etc.).

This sounds harsh and I apologize in advance but, if you cannot properly take care of your most valuable asset (employees) you should NOT be in business. There is something wrong with your company and its leadership.
Fast food operators have far less leverage than independent small business owners. They're bound to contracts that set (often variable, based upon sales) percentages owned to Corporate. They have little, if any, choices for wholesale food, paper, equipment, furniture and fixture pricing. Of course, Wendy's operators have more leverage than McDonald's -- simply because the chain needs operators -- but in recent years, they've been struggling to control their pricing, as Wendy's continues to hammer out national promotions (via aggressive coupons, pushing toward app usage, 4-for-$4, etc.).

In California, minimum wage has raised an extra $3.25/hour (including employer taxes) compared to when Wendy's introduced the 4-for-$4. Almost unquestionably, wage expense is rising much faster than revenues.

A pair of Wendy's near me use to be open until 1AM and 2AM, and now close at 9PM and 10PM respectively. It's understandable... the bare minimum they'd be paying in wages for those four extra hours is nearly $120 (assuming minimum wage, employer-paid taxes, and a minimum of two workers, which is required by the company). At Wendy's, on average, the cost of food/paper is about a third of the average check. This means that, at the minimum, a restaurant would need to record nearly $200 in sales (including other fixed expenses) over those four hours just to break even. Obviously, in stores where promotion sales are higher (higher food costs to the operator), where wages are higher (some operators require a shift leader at all hours) or where cities use a formula that requires more than two people to be onsite, that number is going to be much higher.

There are plenty of Wendy's that don't come anywhere close to $200 in sales over those hours (even if it seems like a small number). So yes, because operators can't pass on the wage increase to consumers, they're closing their restaurants earlier, even if they're otherwise good operators.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by veteran+ »

Yep, sounds logical! I would do the same after doing the math.

Close your business earlier or perhaps there are too many Wendys in your area for the market OR too many duplicate type competitors in your area.

OR......maybe your franchise contract needs to be remodeled (maybe you should not have signed it) OR perhaps one did not research (contracts, competition, market changes, tech changes, law changes, et al) thoroughly before signing on.

There are a plethora of legitimate reasons (requiring new strategy) and several popular scapegoats that defers accountability and responsibility (pay people properly and I have to close my business or force my customers to pay?).

I'm not buying the latter!

P.S. I sincerely understand the difference with typical small business and these structured franchise agreements (sounds like they need tweaking). One of my small businesses had extremely regulated conditions by the State and the Unions.
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Re: Wendy's

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: January 5th, 2020, 9:03 am Yep, sounds logical! I would do the same after doing the math.

Close your business earlier or perhaps there are too many Wendys in your area for the market OR too many duplicate type competitors in your area.

OR......maybe your franchise contract needs to be remodeled (maybe you should not have signed it) OR perhaps one did not research (contracts, competition, market changes, tech changes, law changes, et al) thoroughly before signing on.

There are a plethora of legitimate reasons (requiring new strategy) and several popular scapegoats that defers accountability and responsibility (pay people properly and I have to close my business or force my customers to pay?).

I'm not buying the latter!

P.S. I sincerely understand the difference with typical small business and these structured franchise agreements (sounds like they need tweaking). One of my small businesses had extremely regulated conditions by the State and the Unions.
These businesses exist to show a perception of a strong economy and serve some other remote functions too. If all the (I won't name franchises but am thinking of many) sandwich shops, dry cleaners, and package drop off/"mail box rental" shops shut down that barely scrape out a profit either paying their employees minimum wage or by having their owners work in the shops 14 hours a day, then other unintended consequences take place. Beyond the locations closing and not providing the needed service for customers (I think we can figure out how to get a sandwich some other way, but an alternate to the dry cleaning may be a little trickier, or the package drop off/mail box rental would involve driving 5-10 miles of additional distance to a post office or worse, a physical UPS corporate "customer counter" location attached to their local distribution hub that may be 30 miles away and that is not only inconvenient to the customer but bad on the environment due to all the extra driving). Shopping centers would then have more spaces that go vacant. So that impacts the shopping center owner with less rent and less funds to maintain the overall shopping center. So cycling these businesses out of business that survive off of low wages and are barely profitable would have a lot of unintended consequences.
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