Would You Pay More For A Wendy’s Burger During Peak Times?
What is the world coming to when you can’t trust the price of a Baconater? If you have ever used Uber you are familiar with the practice of surge pricing, when the ride-share service increases the prices during especially busy times, such as after a major event like a concert or large-scale sporting event. Wendy’s is proposing to introduce digital menu boards that will have the ability to modify the prices of their food items throughout the day based on the demand.
According to our friends over at Food and Wine “Businesses are able to change prices based on algorithms that take into account competitor pricing, supply, and demand, and other external factors in the market,” Investopedia explains. “Dynamic pricing is a common practice in several industries such as hospitality, travel, entertainment, retail, electricity, and public transport. Each industry takes a slightly different approach to repricing based on its needs and the demand for the product.”
This means a Wendy’s burger may sell at a higher price point during a busy lunch rush, then come down in price during an afternoon lull, and go back up again at dinner time. A spokesperson for Wendy’s confirmed the news with Food & Wine, stating the company is focused on providing “great-tasting” food and is “making a significant investment” to grow its digital business, including rolling out digital menu boards in some U.S. restaurants.
“Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing a variety of enhanced features on these digital menuboards like dynamic pricing, different offerings in certain parts of the day, AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling based on factors such as weather. Dynamic pricing can allow Wendy’s to be competitive and flexible with pricing, motivate customers to visit and provide them with the food they love at a great value. We will test a number of features that we think will provide an enhanced customer and crew experience.”
I’m just going to say right off, as a consumer, I’m not thrilled about this prospect as part of fast food is that it be 1. fast and 2. generally familiar. Based on this plan, you won’t know the cost of the items on the menu until you actually ride up to the drive-through. No word yet on how significant the price fluctuations will be. I just would like to say Dave Thomas would never.
