Wendy’s, a fast-food chain in the United States, plans to experiment with fluctuating prices of its menu items throughout the day based on demand, a practice already common among ride-sharing services and ticket vendors.
During a conference call this month, Wendy’s CEO, Kirk Tanner, announced that the Dublin, Ohio-based burger chain would begin testing dynamic pricing, also known as surge pricing, as early as next year.
“Starting as early as 2025, we’ll test more advanced features like dynamic pricing and daypart offerings, alongside AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling,” he stated.
“As we continue to demonstrate the advantages of this technology in our company-operated restaurants, we anticipate increased interest from franchisees in digital menu boards, which should further support sales and profit growth across the system.”
Wendy’s intends to invest approximately $20 million to introduce digital menu boards at all its US company-operated restaurants by the end of 2025. Additionally, it plans to spend about $10 million over the next two years to enhance digital menus globally.
Tanner, a veteran executive from PepsiCo, took over as Wendy’s CEO this month, succeeding Todd Penegor, who had been Wendy’s president and CEO since 2016.
Last year, Penegor announced a restructuring aimed at accelerating decision-making and increasing investment in new restaurant development, especially abroad. The chain and its franchisees run about 7,000 restaurants worldwide.
Shares of Wendy’s experienced a slight decline in Tuesday morning trading as the announcement sparked backlash, with the New York Post featuring the news on its front page and dubbing it “inflation’s next frontier.”
On the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, numerous users criticized Wendy’s, with some stating they would no longer patronize the burger chain.
“Surge pricing works for Uber because they’re about the only choice. You’re not. Rest assured I won’t be returning to your restaurant… if this is something you move forward with,” one user commented.