Fast food restaurant Wendy’s plans Uber-like surge pricing, with digital menu boards that change prices depending on demand::The price of a Wendy’s Frosty could soon fluctuate throughout the day as the chain looks to introduce Uber-like surge pricing on its menu.
God damn this is ridiculous. People need to read the transcripts it’s not surge pricing.
I haven’t read the transcript of the earnings call, but I read the article(s) and the Wendy’s blog post in response.
It seems like there was indeed some misunderstanding somewhere along the way, in that the “dynamic pricing” that was referenced was not to be construed as surge pricing in any way, and was intended to reflect decreased (ebb? discounted? receding?) pricing that would be presented during off-peak hours to drive business.
The practice in itself isn’t inherently bad, but I can see this as an incremental move towards true surge pricing across the industry - which for the record I am against - and there isn’t really a way to position it in such a way as to be seen as a benefit to the consumer.
As with everything else, customers will vote for this practice with their wallets, and by the state of several other industries in which similar models have been adopted and begrudgingly accepted as the norm, I’m not holding out a lot of hope for a positive outcome here.