4 ms·

Wendy's Is Introducing Uber-Style 'Surge Pricing'

34 points by vector_spaces 3y ago

SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
The more this becomes standard, the more mental fatigue we'll all be enduring. It feels like most innovation in modern capitalism the last, say, just under 10 years, is about outsourcing more and more mental and physical effort and labor to consumers, e.g., self-checkout.
- sneak 3y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmGRGv2jEkg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmGRGv2jEkg People want lower prices above almost all else.
  - Shog9 3y ago
    For the benefit of others who don't want to click an opaque video link: > Ryan Tubridy grills Ryanair mogul, Michael O' Leary, on the multiple rumours, observations and comments surrounding the low fare airline and he certainly has some interesting things to say!
- Shog9 3y ago
  I'd argue not just outsourcing, but ensuring that nobody gets to benefit from past labor or collective effort. By constantly varying prices and tailoring prices to the time, location and even the individual, efforts to shop around to find the best price for a given item are defeated, or enough confusion is introduced to lead to exhaustion.
- wenc 3y ago
  I hear what you're saying, but I have a different experience. I prefer to order from a kiosk and to scan my own groceries. It's not like I don't like the human interaction, but when I have only a few items, or I want to be able to browse the menu a little, I like some personal space rather than feeling rushed.
gremlinsinc 3y ago
[flagged]
- sneak 3y ago
  The existence of fast food? The fact that you can get a hot meal in minutes for pennies without getting out of your car? The fact that dynamic pricing means it will be cheaper in the middle of the night? There’s absolutely nothing dystopian about retailers and merchants trying to maximize gross revenue. This is the basis for almost all that is good in our society.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - malfist 3y ago
    > it will be cheaper in the middle of the night Are you taking bets on that? I'm betting it'll be the same price as it is now in the middle of the night.
  - JaimeThompson 3y ago
    >This is the basis for almost all that is good in our society. You have a rather interesting definition of good that doesn't include helping others for reasons other than profit and a great many other things that keeps society a society.
  - gremlinsinc 3y ago
    if by cheaper, you mean the current or "mean / base price" ..i guess? there is no time it'll be cheaper, a jr bacon cheeseburger will never be "cheaper" than it is right now. It may be cheaper compared to peak times, but over a long enough time span you'll be paying 2-3x the cost you were paying.
- Reason077 3y ago
  Not sure how it's dystopian. If people can get a cheaper meal by eating at off-peak times, that doesn't seem a bad thing. It's already the case at some restaurants: I can think of several breakfast places that offer early-bird specials before a certain time. And IKEA does it at their restaurants with cheaper deals on Monday-Friday etc. And of course many bars do "happy hour" deals. Dynamic pricing ultimately makes more efficient use of scarce resources (staff time, tables, etc), which benefits everyone.
Scubabear68 3y ago
I’m surprised they don’t already have digital menu boards at all locations, they are really good at driving promotions.
geor9e 3y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39518718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39518718
Always42 3y ago
Personally have no problem with dynamic pricing, its how the rest of the world operates, lol. But, not a fan of touch screen order kiosks. Not sanitary, and I work on tech all day the last thing I want to do is use a computer at a restaurant. But, im sure there are a bunch of people who hate interacting and probably love it. When I go to mcdonalds, I will wait extra for a person to come up to the register.
- javajosh 3y ago
  I also hate using kiosks. And yeah those screens are gross. But worse than that is that I have to learn their UI, and it gives them a chance to shove a set of screens between me and my food. I'm going to coin the term "sellutainment" to describe "entertaining the customer with their buying experience".
  - fragmede 3y ago
    that's a pretty good word! wanting to buy a car immediately comes to mind, with manufacturers hosting web apps to configure the exact BMW that you're gonna get when you make it.
    - MetaMonk 3y ago
      Nearly every computing system geared toward consumers has to provide some form of stimulation ("entertainment"), IMO, because the more time we spend on computers, the less human interaction we have, but our brains still need the simulated interactivity. I think it's why LLMs are so popular and will probably continue to be in the future, regardless of them ever getting "good".
- kobalsky 3y ago
  > Personally have no problem with dynamic pricing if you don't care paying for the premium then it's obviously a privilege for you. not fun for the people on the other end of the spectrum, though. next stop, pricing depending on how hungry you are!
lulznews 3y ago
Does Wendy’s even exist outside of airports?
- Reason077 3y ago
  Yes. Might depend what country/region you're in. It's more common in some areas than others.
- geor9e 3y ago
  You traveled enough to be familiar with the food offerings of multiple airports, yet somehow lived a life inside a microcosm devoid of Wendy's restaurants. Fascinating. My guess is you live in Alaska and commute to Vermont https://locations.wendys.com/united-states https://locations.wendys.com/united-states
MichaelMug 3y ago
When you eat at Wendy's and other fast food you are paying twice. The first time is for the food. The second time is when you're getting your triple bypass at the tune of $150k. I hope this surge pricing will encourage people to seek better quality food with higher nutritional value.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
e_y_ 3y ago
Time-of-day pricing is a bit different from unpredictable dynamic pricing. If the customer can reasonably anticipate the expected pricing, that's different from being suddenly surprised at a price hike -- like with Uber-style surge pricing, which sometimes lines up with rush hour but sometimes at completely non-obvious times. Also, in terms of customer psychology it would be better to display the maximum price at lunch time (or whenever the peak is) and the lower prices as a discount. Fees are bad, discounts are good, even if it works out to exactly the same prices.
neilv 3y ago
A fast food restaurant could adjust their pricing based not on time of day, but on which customers are looking at the board. It could be based on individual unique identity (from facerec, and the umpteen ways a smartphone sells out the user), and/or on factors they can pick up from cameras alone (like gender, ethnicity, age, style of dress, class). From there, you can learn price tolerances, including how price affects repeat visits. Hook it into promotions, loyalty programs, etc. For extra dystopia, if there's any demographic you'd rather not have in a particular store, you can discourage them with pricing. If someone gets better pricing than you, it must be an algorithmic oddity, or they they got better promo rewards from retweeting a post, or their (upcoming) AR glasses outward-facing ads display got better impressions, or something. "Sir, this is a Wendy's... halt, and submit to AI socio-biometric scanning, citizen!"
- matthewfelgate 3y ago
  This is going to happen. It's happening already. For example the McDonalds App (that you use to order and pay) gives custom offers to people.
- Reason077 3y ago
  They already do most of this stuff. All that in-store face recognition would do is mean they no longer need an app/loyalty scheme to do it.
geor9e 3y ago
I get fast food infrequently enough that I'm shocked every time I look at their menus' price increases since my last visit. So nothing will change for me.
therealdkz 3y ago
next up. wendys lobbying to ban gas grills. in the name of saving the plnet of course.
janalsncm 3y ago
It never ends. Price hikes, shrinkflation, reducing employees until there’s only a couple in the whole store, self checkout, replacing customer service with buggy chatbots, service fees, taxes, pandemic surcharges, mandatory “tips”, suggested tips (up to 30% at the kiosk yesterday!) junk fees and now surge pricing. Consumers are slowly drowning in charges and it seems like rather than correcting for gouging, the free market seems to be colluding.
- kibwen 3y ago
  > the free market seems to be colluding Markets are just machines that respond to incentives. In the absence of regulation, the only incentive of the market is profit. What you're observing is that just because a market is efficient at seeking a profit, it doesn't mean it does anything good for society at large.
  - EchoChamberMan 3y ago
    There is also actual collusion, for instance, between kroger and albertsons: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/bombshell-potential-criminal-activity https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/bombshell-potential-crimi...
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
[dupe] More discussion earlier over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39514464 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39514464

34 points by vector_spaces 3y ago

The more this becomes standard, the more mental fatigue we'll all be enduring. It feels like most innovation in modern capitalism the last, say, just under 10 years, is about outsourcing more and more mental and physical effort and labor to consumers, e.g., self-checkout.

sneak 3y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmGRGv2jEkg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmGRGv2jEkg People want lower prices above almost all else.
- Shog9 3y ago
  For the benefit of others who don't want to click an opaque video link: > Ryan Tubridy grills Ryanair mogul, Michael O' Leary, on the multiple rumours, observations and comments surrounding the low fare airline and he certainly has some interesting things to say!
Shog9 3y ago
I'd argue not just outsourcing, but ensuring that nobody gets to benefit from past labor or collective effort. By constantly varying prices and tailoring prices to the time, location and even the individual, efforts to shop around to find the best price for a given item are defeated, or enough confusion is introduced to lead to exhaustion.
wenc 3y ago
I hear what you're saying, but I have a different experience. I prefer to order from a kiosk and to scan my own groceries. It's not like I don't like the human interaction, but when I have only a few items, or I want to be able to browse the menu a little, I like some personal space rather than feeling rushed.

gremlinsinc 3y ago

[flagged]

sneak 3y ago
The existence of fast food? The fact that you can get a hot meal in minutes for pennies without getting out of your car? The fact that dynamic pricing means it will be cheaper in the middle of the night? There’s absolutely nothing dystopian about retailers and merchants trying to maximize gross revenue. This is the basis for almost all that is good in our society.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- malfist 3y ago
  > it will be cheaper in the middle of the night Are you taking bets on that? I'm betting it'll be the same price as it is now in the middle of the night.
- JaimeThompson 3y ago
  >This is the basis for almost all that is good in our society. You have a rather interesting definition of good that doesn't include helping others for reasons other than profit and a great many other things that keeps society a society.
- gremlinsinc 3y ago
  if by cheaper, you mean the current or "mean / base price" ..i guess? there is no time it'll be cheaper, a jr bacon cheeseburger will never be "cheaper" than it is right now. It may be cheaper compared to peak times, but over a long enough time span you'll be paying 2-3x the cost you were paying.
Reason077 3y ago
Not sure how it's dystopian. If people can get a cheaper meal by eating at off-peak times, that doesn't seem a bad thing. It's already the case at some restaurants: I can think of several breakfast places that offer early-bird specials before a certain time. And IKEA does it at their restaurants with cheaper deals on Monday-Friday etc. And of course many bars do "happy hour" deals. Dynamic pricing ultimately makes more efficient use of scarce resources (staff time, tables, etc), which benefits everyone.

Scubabear68 3y ago

I’m surprised they don’t already have digital menu boards at all locations, they are really good at driving promotions.

geor9e 3y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39518718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39518718

Always42 3y ago

Personally have no problem with dynamic pricing, its how the rest of the world operates, lol. But, not a fan of touch screen order kiosks. Not sanitary, and I work on tech all day the last thing I want to do is use a computer at a restaurant. But, im sure there are a bunch of people who hate interacting and probably love it. When I go to mcdonalds, I will wait extra for a person to come up to the register.

javajosh 3y ago
I also hate using kiosks. And yeah those screens are gross. But worse than that is that I have to learn their UI, and it gives them a chance to shove a set of screens between me and my food. I'm going to coin the term "sellutainment" to describe "entertaining the customer with their buying experience".
- fragmede 3y ago
  that's a pretty good word! wanting to buy a car immediately comes to mind, with manufacturers hosting web apps to configure the exact BMW that you're gonna get when you make it.
  - MetaMonk 3y ago
    Nearly every computing system geared toward consumers has to provide some form of stimulation ("entertainment"), IMO, because the more time we spend on computers, the less human interaction we have, but our brains still need the simulated interactivity. I think it's why LLMs are so popular and will probably continue to be in the future, regardless of them ever getting "good".
kobalsky 3y ago
> Personally have no problem with dynamic pricing if you don't care paying for the premium then it's obviously a privilege for you. not fun for the people on the other end of the spectrum, though. next stop, pricing depending on how hungry you are!

lulznews 3y ago

Does Wendy’s even exist outside of airports?

Reason077 3y ago
Yes. Might depend what country/region you're in. It's more common in some areas than others.
geor9e 3y ago
You traveled enough to be familiar with the food offerings of multiple airports, yet somehow lived a life inside a microcosm devoid of Wendy's restaurants. Fascinating. My guess is you live in Alaska and commute to Vermont https://locations.wendys.com/united-states https://locations.wendys.com/united-states

MichaelMug 3y ago

When you eat at Wendy's and other fast food you are paying twice. The first time is for the food. The second time is when you're getting your triple bypass at the tune of $150k. I hope this surge pricing will encourage people to seek better quality food with higher nutritional value.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

e_y_ 3y ago

Time-of-day pricing is a bit different from unpredictable dynamic pricing. If the customer can reasonably anticipate the expected pricing, that's different from being suddenly surprised at a price hike -- like with Uber-style surge pricing, which sometimes lines up with rush hour but sometimes at completely non-obvious times. Also, in terms of customer psychology it would be better to display the maximum price at lunch time (or whenever the peak is) and the lower prices as a discount. Fees are bad, discounts are good, even if it works out to exactly the same prices.

neilv 3y ago

A fast food restaurant could adjust their pricing based not on time of day, but on which customers are looking at the board. It could be based on individual unique identity (from facerec, and the umpteen ways a smartphone sells out the user), and/or on factors they can pick up from cameras alone (like gender, ethnicity, age, style of dress, class). From there, you can learn price tolerances, including how price affects repeat visits. Hook it into promotions, loyalty programs, etc. For extra dystopia, if there's any demographic you'd rather not have in a particular store, you can discourage them with pricing. If someone gets better pricing than you, it must be an algorithmic oddity, or they they got better promo rewards from retweeting a post, or their (upcoming) AR glasses outward-facing ads display got better impressions, or something. "Sir, this is a Wendy's... halt, and submit to AI socio-biometric scanning, citizen!"

matthewfelgate 3y ago
This is going to happen. It's happening already. For example the McDonalds App (that you use to order and pay) gives custom offers to people.
Reason077 3y ago
They already do most of this stuff. All that in-store face recognition would do is mean they no longer need an app/loyalty scheme to do it.

geor9e 3y ago

I get fast food infrequently enough that I'm shocked every time I look at their menus' price increases since my last visit. So nothing will change for me.

therealdkz 3y ago

next up. wendys lobbying to ban gas grills. in the name of saving the plnet of course.

janalsncm 3y ago

It never ends. Price hikes, shrinkflation, reducing employees until there’s only a couple in the whole store, self checkout, replacing customer service with buggy chatbots, service fees, taxes, pandemic surcharges, mandatory “tips”, suggested tips (up to 30% at the kiosk yesterday!) junk fees and now surge pricing. Consumers are slowly drowning in charges and it seems like rather than correcting for gouging, the free market seems to be colluding.

kibwen 3y ago
> the free market seems to be colluding Markets are just machines that respond to incentives. In the absence of regulation, the only incentive of the market is profit. What you're observing is that just because a market is efficient at seeking a profit, it doesn't mean it does anything good for society at large.
- EchoChamberMan 3y ago
  There is also actual collusion, for instance, between kroger and albertsons: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/bombshell-potential-criminal-activity https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/bombshell-potential-crimi...

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

[dupe] More discussion earlier over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39514464 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39514464