alt-text: Woman ordering food (photo): “I would like to buy a hamburger for the same price that it was 2 hours ago.”

Cashier (sketched): “Sir, this is a Wendy’s”

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    I actually like Wendy’s, but if they implement this at my local store I’m boycotting. The cost for you to make the food per item doesn’t fucking change if there’s 1 person in line or 100, just the wait time. It’s pure profiteering.

    • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The effort the employee has to put forth to meet demand changes during a rush, not that they will see a penny of the higher revenue they are directly responsible for generating.

      • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It changes in that there are economies of scale involved. It actually becomes cheaper and more efficient for the company to make 20 cheeseburgers at once than just one. That’s why this surge pricing thing is a joke. Would the company really like to introduce friction to customers buying more food?

        • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 months ago

          Only way I can make any sense of it is to try balance the day. Get more business on quiet time, and less on rush hour. But I don’t get how it would make any sense from the business perspective since usually you’d want to optimize for the rush hour, not push customers away with higher pricing

          • Adramis@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Because people just show up at rush hour for shits and giggles, and not because that’s their non-negotiable lunch break or their trip home. This is a stupid move.

        • Nommer@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          I’ll just demand everything be made to order and be fresh. I encourage everyone to do the same and tank their numbers. If they’re going to charge extra during peak hours then you bet your ass I’m demanding fries fresh out of the frier and burgers right off the grill. I can wait 3 minutes for the fries.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I like Wendy’s also and this really fucking torques my tacos. Well, fuck them. I’m not going to be ripped off because I choose to eat at a popular time of day.

    • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      I mean, I don’t think the entire concept is flawed. I want to wait and see what it actually means - especially if it’s cheaper to grab food outside of surge hours.

      I understand it likely won’t be, but I won’t damn them until we have more information.

      • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 months ago

        especially if it’s cheaper to grab food outside of surge hours.

        you really don’t understand how corporations work, do you.

          • Nommer@sh.itjust.works
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            10 months ago

            Because in the last 5,000 price hikes there has never been a decrease in pricing. There’s a bit of a trend. Corps are always guilty until proven innocent. Hint: they’re never innocent.

          • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            9 months ago

            because there’s no need to wait, corporations are predictable… it does not matter how much they say they care about quality or the consumer. they will fuck over every single person on the planet at a moment’s notice if it means 0.15% additional profit.

  • asteriskeverything@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I feel like this is one of those memes that in the future historians and sociologists will use to gleam context and the human element to major life periods after the collapse of society as qe know it.

    Shit I mean lul

  • ramble81@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    So what happens if the price changes while you’re waiting in line? Will they post the prices to the last car in line or do you have to wait till you get up to order. What about drive throughs that don’t have enough space for someone to get out of line? Are they gonna try to guilt people into paying whatever price they’re given?

  • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    As long they don’t keep the “lowest price” the regular base price, this does have the potential to disrupt fast food purchasing habits. Imagine people always trying to game Wendys to see if they can get the burger cheaper, you’d theoretically see a sine wave develop over a month or so. Then that sine wave would translate laterally as time further progressed and people adapted to the shifting surge pricing. It also has just as much likelihood to ruin Wendy’s sales, but time will tell.

    • Revonult@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The fluxuations will be dampened by the fact people get hungry around 12 and 5. When people are able to buy food (lunch breaks and end of work day) will also limit such fluctuations. Maybe a sine wave will form but there probably isn’t enough people with the ability or forsight to try and game the system.

  • davidgro@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Watch me predict the future: There will be sites/apps that monitor prices so you can order at the least expensive times.

    The restaurant chains will sue those sites/apps.

    • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Kinda reminds me of the GasBuddy app that informs customers of varying gas prices in their area, and of course GasBuddy realized how much power they were weilding with this app, and has sold its soul to the devil and now incorporates customer psychological manipulation & data mining into the app.

      • Landless2029@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yeah… I was an early adopter of GasBuddy and kept my locals up to date. Made more people use it and it was great for a bit. Then enshittificaiton happened… Big corps pull a bait and switch. Small companies sell out…

      • davidgro@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yup. Have to change a setting to see stations that don’t have a GasBuddy deal. Such as Costco, which Always has much cheaper prices where I live than anything else.

        • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The only way I’ve been able to find Costco gas prices is to go to the Costco website then search each location separately, quite a time-consuming headache, but I spent a couple hours doing that one day a couple summers ago to figure out which Costcos in California have diesel.

    • frunch@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      That’s gonna be the dumbest lawsuit, which means it’s very likely to come to pass

  • Demosthememes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    Steps to creating your own “Bullish Burger” Stock Market

    1. Bulk order just before peak,
    2. Resell those orders as demand rises.
    3. Profit
  • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I’ve already long since acquired a severe case of app fatigue to the point that I refuse to order from a place if I’m required to download an app to get whatever price.

    Now I’m going to have in person timing fatigue.

    You could argue that happy hour is surge pricing already in place, and I suppose that’s true, but the perception is that it’s a lower price than regular.

    Wendy’s is presenting this as a higher price than regular.

    • AtmaJnana@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      You’re right, it seems like they’d be smarter to offer a discount during off-peak hours. It should accomplish the same thing.

  • Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Like, is this a self-imposed excise tax? Too many people in line! Let’s knock the poors out since our food is unhealthy. (I know that I am conflating an excise tax with capitalist class aggression, but I’m tired, so whatever.)

    • AtmaJnana@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Not a tax, basically just a price-signal. But maybe also a markeing push since it gets attention by being novel. Its functionally similar to happy hour specials or loss-leaders.

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    There’s an altruistic future I could envision where this software goes towards selling burgers for cheap to lower-income people coming in at odd times, in order to avoid food waste where the burgers get thrown out. Similarly, nice restaurant owners do this the simple way: Low prices for good food, always. But, I definitely don’t trust chains like Wendy’s with this.