8 ms·

"Dynamic pricing is a relatively new concept in the fast-food world, with little precedent" Yes, because they're are lots of options. You charge too much and I'

"Dynamic pricing is a relatively new concept in the fast-food world, with little precedent" Yes, because they're are lots of options. You charge too much and I'll just go next door.

catchnear4321 3y ago
right, but check back tomorrow. it might be cheaper than next door then. no promises on the next day.
- gremlinsinc 3y ago
  who has the attention span for that? After 1-2 times I'd just give up and default to the competitor - and Wendy's is by far my favorite fast food restaurant.
  - catchnear4321 3y ago
    what if competitors all adopt the model? less fear of doing so if w takes the l.
    - throwitaway222 3y ago
      realpage for fast food is probably coming and the execs probably don't even understand the legal implications of that. The fact that the realpage domain name even resolves right now suggests to me that collusion won.
    - red-iron-pine 3y ago
      they offer made to order sandwiches at the grocery store now. hot food, too. fast food is, well, fast, and deisgned to really hit that fat/salt/sugar creaving, but if I can't predict what it will cost me I'll head to places that will give me that promise. it's a big market and none of it is exclusive.
ramesh31 3y ago
>Yes, because they're are lots of options. You charge too much and I'll just go next door. Sure, but thats how all markets work. When I want a Spicy Chicken Sandwich™, I want a Spicy Chicken Sandwich™. And there are no substitutes. The whole point of this would be that Wendy's dynamically accounts for this to an acceptable degree I don't cancel altogether. People who want a cheaper meal can go elsewhere, and I can get my Spicy Chicken in a reasonable amount of time. I can honestly see this catching on as crews are blown out to the max with mobile orders these days.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  > crews are blown out to the max with mobile orders these days Why would the way the order is made make any difference?
  - ramesh31 3y ago
    >Why would the way the order is made make any difference? It's the volume. Fast food work used to come in rushes, with a volume limited by the physical location. Now for many locations it's a nonstop queue of online orders from half a dozen systems from the first minute you open to the last minute you close. Great for business terrible for humans.
    - giraffe_lady 3y ago
      It's the decision of the business to understaff relative to the expected demand in order to minimize labor costs. They could so easily have another one or two people working to make it better for everyone, they simply choose not to so they can squeeze that little extra bit of profit out.
      - WalterBright 3y ago
        Understaffing has become the norm with the rise in wages.
        3y ago
WalterBright 3y ago
> You charge too much and I'll just go next door. It's almost like Supply & Demand is the Law.
- Server6 3y ago
  Isn't that what they're trying to do though? Perfectly price their product for demand at any given time? Not saying I like the idea, but it seems like pure supply and demand in action.
  - cameldrv 3y ago
    Yeah but it's more like the prisoner's dilemma vs. the iterated prisoner's dilemma. Some people think that what makes the modern world work is hyper-optimization, but what really makes the modern world work is reliability. If my counterparty, the hamburger stand, is trying to hyper-optimize their profit by doing dynamic pricing, now I have to run my own optimization loop to find the best value hamburger stand for that particular hour, and maybe I don't want to waste my time/energy trying to figure out what the best hamburger stand is at any given moment, so I just go to the one that charges the same prices all the time.
  - meowfly 3y ago
    Wendy's doing this almost seems predatory. They know people will show up and not pay attention to the prices. I do, however, like the idea of surge pricing for sit-down restaurants. If restaurant prices raised to guarantee available seats (like hotel rooms), there are plenty of instances where I would pay a premium to eat near an event I'm attending.
slt2021 3y ago
any idiot can hike prices arbitrarily, but the true art of pricing is to hike a price but still keep you as a customer.
readthenotes1 3y ago
The question is will you notice, and will you stay because you spent 10 minutes in the line already anyway?

"Dynamic pricing is a relatively new concept in the fast-food world, with little precedent" Yes, because they're are lots of options. You charge too much and I'll just go next door.

catchnear4321 3y ago

right, but check back tomorrow. it might be cheaper than next door then. no promises on the next day.

gremlinsinc 3y ago
who has the attention span for that? After 1-2 times I'd just give up and default to the competitor - and Wendy's is by far my favorite fast food restaurant.
- catchnear4321 3y ago
  what if competitors all adopt the model? less fear of doing so if w takes the l.
  - throwitaway222 3y ago
    realpage for fast food is probably coming and the execs probably don't even understand the legal implications of that. The fact that the realpage domain name even resolves right now suggests to me that collusion won.
  - red-iron-pine 3y ago
    they offer made to order sandwiches at the grocery store now. hot food, too. fast food is, well, fast, and deisgned to really hit that fat/salt/sugar creaving, but if I can't predict what it will cost me I'll head to places that will give me that promise. it's a big market and none of it is exclusive.

ramesh31 3y ago

>Yes, because they're are lots of options. You charge too much and I'll just go next door. Sure, but thats how all markets work. When I want a Spicy Chicken Sandwich™, I want a Spicy Chicken Sandwich™. And there are no substitutes. The whole point of this would be that Wendy's dynamically accounts for this to an acceptable degree I don't cancel altogether. People who want a cheaper meal can go elsewhere, and I can get my Spicy Chicken in a reasonable amount of time. I can honestly see this catching on as crews are blown out to the max with mobile orders these days.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
> crews are blown out to the max with mobile orders these days Why would the way the order is made make any difference?
- ramesh31 3y ago
  >Why would the way the order is made make any difference? It's the volume. Fast food work used to come in rushes, with a volume limited by the physical location. Now for many locations it's a nonstop queue of online orders from half a dozen systems from the first minute you open to the last minute you close. Great for business terrible for humans.
  - giraffe_lady 3y ago
    It's the decision of the business to understaff relative to the expected demand in order to minimize labor costs. They could so easily have another one or two people working to make it better for everyone, they simply choose not to so they can squeeze that little extra bit of profit out.
    - WalterBright 3y ago
      Understaffing has become the norm with the rise in wages.
      - 3y ago

WalterBright 3y ago

> You charge too much and I'll just go next door. It's almost like Supply & Demand is the Law.

Server6 3y ago
Isn't that what they're trying to do though? Perfectly price their product for demand at any given time? Not saying I like the idea, but it seems like pure supply and demand in action.
- cameldrv 3y ago
  Yeah but it's more like the prisoner's dilemma vs. the iterated prisoner's dilemma. Some people think that what makes the modern world work is hyper-optimization, but what really makes the modern world work is reliability. If my counterparty, the hamburger stand, is trying to hyper-optimize their profit by doing dynamic pricing, now I have to run my own optimization loop to find the best value hamburger stand for that particular hour, and maybe I don't want to waste my time/energy trying to figure out what the best hamburger stand is at any given moment, so I just go to the one that charges the same prices all the time.
- meowfly 3y ago
  Wendy's doing this almost seems predatory. They know people will show up and not pay attention to the prices. I do, however, like the idea of surge pricing for sit-down restaurants. If restaurant prices raised to guarantee available seats (like hotel rooms), there are plenty of instances where I would pay a premium to eat near an event I'm attending.

slt2021 3y ago

any idiot can hike prices arbitrarily, but the true art of pricing is to hike a price but still keep you as a customer.

readthenotes1 3y ago

The question is will you notice, and will you stay because you spent 10 minutes in the line already anyway?