Fast Food pricing..Part 2: Dynamic (surge) Pricing model

[mson]

Update:

The burger chain clarified its stance on how it will approach pricing after various media reports said that the company was looking to test having the prices of its menu items fluctuate throughout the day based on demand.

“Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didn’t use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice,” the company said late Tuesday in a prepared statement.

* * *

Wendy’s said that its digital menu boards “could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.”

Wendy's team after seeing unhappy responses...

They did say "dynamic pricing" and everyone just happened to interpret that as surge pricing, which isn't an unreasonable conclusion. Not sure why Wendy's didn't just make it more explicit to begin with and say it allows them to offer discounts at different times of the day.

 

[That post]

Update:

The burger chain clarified its stance on how it will approach pricing after various media reports said that the company was looking to test having the prices of its menu items fluctuate throughout the day based on demand.

“Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didn’t use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice,” the company said late Tuesday in a prepared statement.

* * *

Wendy’s said that its digital menu boards “could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.”

Translation:

Sorry everyone on earth hates our terrible idea. Our bad.

 

[PuffChippy]

That's just corpospeak for "We're going to raise prices across the board, then fool people into thinking they're getting a deal by offering marginally lower pricing during periods of slow demand".

 

[Bosco...]

Wendy’s said that its digital menu boards “could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.”

This makes a little more sense, basically like happy hour kinda thing. Works for Sonic and their slushies.

Dave stopped rolling in his grave. The Frosty is back!

 

[jbb2388]

Such BS

 

[War Eagle]

Update:

The burger chain clarified its stance on how it will approach pricing after various media reports said that the company was looking to test having the prices of its menu items fluctuate throughout the day based on demand.

“Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didn’t use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice,” the company said late Tuesday in a prepared statement.

* * *

Wendy’s said that its digital menu boards “could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.”

This is what we call a corporate cop out.

Holy crap boys, we got busted, back pedal!

 

[DataDude]

Wendy's social media team reading Twitter on Monday:

"Our CEO said what?????"

 

[tequila4kapp]

Wendy's team after seeing unhappy responses...

They did say "dynamic pricing" and everyone just happened to interpret that as surge pricing, which isn't an unreasonable conclusion. Not sure why Wendy's didn't just make it more explicit to begin with and say it allows them to offer discounts at different times of the day.

There is no way they are spending 20M to help themselves improve revenues by more efficiently offering discounts. For me that falls into the category of laughable Corporate CYA talk.

 

[SVonhof]

I cant tell you how pissed off I would be if I wanted to grab lunch real quick, and all of a sudden a $4.00 item was $7.00 because they were busy.

I would probably not got back ever.

This is not a problem for me since I eat fast food probably on average one time a year.

BUT, I do not agree with it at all.

Think of it this way: If you charge more during the busy times, then you truly are gouging the customers because with the additional throughput, you are easily covering your costs. Yes you need more employees at that time, but you are selling a lot more product.
What would make more sense is to charge more when it's NOT busy, since you have all this overhead that you don't really need at that time. but since the slow times surround the busy times, you need the staff.

 

[War Eagle]

This is not a problem for me since I eat fast food probably on average one time a year.

BUT, I do not agree with it at all.

Think of it this way: If you charge more during the busy times, then you truly are gouging the customers because with the additional throughput, you are easily covering your costs. Yes you need more employees at that time, but you are selling a lot more product.
What would make more sense is to charge more when it's NOT busy, since you have all this overhead that you don't really need at that time. but since the slow times surround the busy times, you need the staff.

I can guarantee their "surge" only goes one direction, up. I highly doubt they would all of a sudden hit a lull and say, discount everything!

 

[echico]

 

[kiwichris]

Buy 1 get 1 for the same price! I solved it everyone!