I might be ok with this if they also had "ebb" pricing. If I could walk in at 8pm and get a burger for a buck, it might be worth it never to go at lunchtime again.

This, of course, will never happen.

So if they raise prices at lunchtime, when everyone else is also eating (because we're human meatbags that require food daily), they could raise prices due to the higher demand?

Yeah that's a huge turnoff. Part of the appeal of fast food is that you know the cost of the things you like to order.

And here i thought fast food enshittification already happened

And just like that any (s)urge I had to go there ebbed and disappeared.

Good thing Wendy's announced this today so I can ignore them forever

No seriously how do they recover from this

I could see something like this being useful if it was keyed to stock they needed to get rid of. Like they have extra chili or salads, so they temporarily drop in price. They would waste less food which would make them more money, but of course that's not how it's being used...

Dave would be disappointed!

There is no way this would hold up in my country if they are advertising prices and you get there and the price is more from a legal perspective. They would not be able to advertise if they did this. Also we don't have Wendy's...

Apparently the backlash was strong enough, that they have announced that they have "abandoned the idea."

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68427039

I suspect they're just going to stick it in a drawer and try again in a couple years, without a massive announcement beforehand

I’m hungry but can’t afford to eat right now because we are in surge pricing.

The thought reminds me of the Carl’s Jr machine in Idiocracy.

I feel like this would only work if all the other fast food places did the same thing... please, please don't do that! Seriously, if it's peak time like lunch, why would I ever pick Wendy's, which is now super expensive, or just get shitty food from the other place a block away for half the price?

Also, it's going to be even more insulting when they no longer offer the cheapest items they have today, which I will assume will never be this low again, even at low points of the day. I really hope this campaign is a huge failure and the people who pitched it are fired because I really don't want to see a future where this is possibly the standard one day.

Imagine sitting in front of stock like ticker menu. Wife yelling BUY LOW, and you watching the cents drop.

I can't imaging having to check the time before going to a fast food joint to avoid "surge pricing." (Fast food prices are already in rip-off territory.)

Couldn't be any easier to avoid though - we'll just cross Wendy's off our list entirely and problem's solved, with absolutely no negative impact on us.

there's a lesson that I learned in college that I still follow today: never eat lunch at lunchtime. unless I'm traveling I'm not eating at peak periods anyway so I really wouldn't be affected by this pricing change.

I still don't like it though. unless that wendy's is the only game in town (literally) this isn't going to be good for business.

Who's gonna go to a restaurant where they never know how much it's going to cost? Stupid idea.

I feel like the easiest way to stop this bullshit is for states with EBT programs to take away Wendy's ability to charge EBT cards.

Wanna dabble with surge pricing? Fine, but you'll lose all your customers that are on welfare.

Maybe workers would be able to upcharge rude customers, at least.

My local Wendys is busy often.

This just means I'll never go. Let alone... Pretend I might?

Guess I'll buy puts on WEN.

Great, I cannot wait for not eating it there, like I always do.