Wendy's announced that it has no plans to raise prices during the busiest times following a comment made by the CEO, Kirk Tanner, about "dynamic pricing," which refers to surge pricing based on product demand, especially during peak hours of the day.
On a call with investors, Kirk said that starting as early as 2025, Wendy’s would begin testing features including "dynamic pricing and daypart offerings." Immediately, Wendy's lovers took to social media to share their disagreement with the planned changes, prompting the company to circle back on the comment.
In a statement on February 28, 2024, the fast-food chain said that it “would not raise prices when our customers are visiting us most.” In a blog post, the franchise wrote, “This was misconstrued in some media reports as an intent to raise prices when demand is highest at our restaurants,” it said. “Digital menu boards could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.”
The CEO's choice of wording definitely backfired. “Whoever called it surge pricing made the worst marketing mistake you can think of,” said Juan Castillo, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. “Surge pricing sent the message to everybody that this is mostly about increasing prices. That created a very negative reaction from the public.”
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Some of the comments expressed their opinions on the entire "misunderstanding."
"Wendy’s is going to have fluctuating customers had they employed this scheme,"
one person commented. "CEO should get sacked for suggesting such a pitiful plan."
Another person commented: "Yeah, they walked that back pretty quickly. But you can guarantee they are going to make it happen eventually. It's just going to be a slow rollout so you don't notice it. It will start with the discounts, like he said, but they will have to raise something somewhere to offset the price for the discounts."
