Fast Food and "Dynamic" Pricing

Basically a concept where restaurants can choose to increase their prices during surge/busy times.

If Wendy’s/McDonalds/Insert-Your-Pleasure made a habit of charging you say 25% more for your burger between 12 and 1pm - are you still pulling through the drive through at 12:15 - or are you beating the crowd - and price - at 11:30am or waiting until 1:30pm?

How far could this go? Increase coffee prices between 8am and 10am? Increase delivery prices between 6-7pm??

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/27/food/wendys-test-surge-pricing/index.html

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This is no go for me. We have already been cutting back on fast food because I don’t see the value. We can make a quick meal at home much cheaper.

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Maybe Wendy’s can also change to “New Coke” while they are at it! :crazy_face:

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I can’t remember the last time we got fast food - if traveling, we bring a cooler and drinks like our parents did when we were little lol.

I cook a lot at home, and any “fast food” we have is from the grocery store (for example, frozen fish patties). It’s just not worth it to spend $25 for McDonald’s for two people.

So … the high prices have effectively broken us out of whatever fast food habit we may have had. Not knowing the price from hour to hour isn’t going to make us come back.

Now excuse me while I go yell at those kids on my lawn lol.

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Someone recently told me that if I ordered online I could get a Whopper, fries and a drink for $7, so I gave it a shot. Not bad for $7.

I agree with all of this! I sometimes wonder who IS doing all the fast food buying…I don’t think my kids (20’s and 30’s) are.

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Looks like I’ll have to buy my “Baconator” and Frosty in non-peak hours. Bummer. :grimacing:

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I’m trying to understand the thought process here.

Is this to incentivize people to come at off hours?

Is this to persuade people to make different choices of what they get to eat?

Is this is just purely to profit and Wendy’s has research that shows people won’t leave the store or the line without buying during surge pricing (aka their customers are ‘locked in’)?

I mean, I understand surge pricing for an Uber [sort of], but trying to imagine Wendy’s being considered the ‘only show in town’ for enough people to make this work and not change customer behavior negatively towards Wendy’s.

Lots of questions…

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Moderators, feel free to merge this thread with the inflation thread if you like. :slight_smile:

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It makes absolutely no sense to me, and I don’t see it working out for the fast food stores.

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I’m sure it’s a mix of profit gouging the diehard peak rush crowd, while attempting to divert anyone possible to the less highly trafficked times.

Feels like it would be easier to just go to a competitor than worry about if you’re going to get hit with surge pricing.

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I am sure they just trying to survive. In two weeks minimum wage for fast food workers going to be $20 per hour in California with some locations as high as $25. We have not been eating fast food for years but those who do, will pay pay the price

Exactly. I hit a threshold that I just can’t see going over. But for Arby’s… Maybe. :joy:

Ask for it fresh and “off the grill”. You will thank me later :hamburger:

Just saw a piece on the local news describing when Coke tried dynamic pricing in Atlanta a few years back—as temperature rose, price of a soda from a Coke machine rose as well. Unmitigated disaster, sales tanked. There are enough fast food places around that I imagine folks would just drive to another brand that didn’t do dynamic pricing.

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Okay, spoke with some people who deal with pricing and sales…and their theory is this is Wendy’s trying to drive ordering/purchasing to/thru their proprietary app.

Basic theory - prices will be fixed if you order via their mobile app by a certain time (so they can both data mine ordering information and patterns while also organizing staffing more efficiently). If you don’t want to use their app, you will be subject to their surge pricing uncertainty.

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It’s an interesting concept. Perhaps the purpose is to spread out the crowds, make it easier to plan adequate staffing. But the above theory about encouraging app usage makes sense.

We eat out a fair amount, but not much fast food (unless travelling). But since we are retirees and not keen on crowds…., we’d clearly opt for off-peak options.

I’ve been already thinking that with the increases in fast food prices, they were already adequately dynamic.

I remember in the early 2000s when the double cheeseburger and mcchicken were $1 at McDonald’s.

Then they took a slice of cheese off the double cheeseburger, called it the McDouble, and priced that at $1. They raised the price of the double cheeseburger and mcchicken briefly remained on the dollar menu.

That was about 20 years ago – not quite long enough for the usual 25-30 year 50% devaluation of the dollar via inflation.

Today, the double cheeseburger in Iowa is like $3.29 and the McChicken is about $2.59. This represents an increase of 229% for the double and 159% for the McChicken.

Had McDonald’s been following inflation, those prices would be around $2.00.

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At the very least, this seems like a failure of messaging. Restaurants have been offering “early bird specials” for ages. If Wendy’s wants to try to even out demand with pricing differentials, why not frame it as a discount during off times? A “surge pricing” surcharge is just going to alienate people.

For me, going when a restaurant isn’t crowded is its own reward! But I haven’t been to a Wendy’s for over a decade, so clearly I’m not who they’re worried about. Overall, this just sounds complicated for staff and off-putting for customers, but I guess we’ll see if it works for them!

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