Will Minnesotans Still Eat at Wendy's During "Surge Pricing"?

If you're not yet convinced that CEOs are out to squeeze every last penny out of your broke (and with the U.S. healthcare system, likely also broken) body, this should finally convince you.

The CEO of Wendy's says that the company will introduce digital billboards at their (reminder: fast food) restaurants; billboards that can display "dynamic pricing". If "dynamic pricing" sounds familiar, it's the practice that Ticketmaster used to price gouge high-demand tickets.

Consistency is Getting Inconsistent

The attraction of fast food restaurants is knowing what you'll get, how long it'll (usually) take, and how much it's going to cost. Start leaving any of those up to chance (or algorithms) and you'll turn off customers.

Wendy's to Introduce "Surge Pricing"

If you take a lunch break when most everybody else takes a lunch break - like at noon - the price of that Baconator will be higher than stopping by at 3pm...until everyone starts doing that instead.

That's the advantage of a digital billboard: it can be "adjusted" on-the-fly.

Squeezing Every...Last...Penny...Out of You

Wendy's also plans to introduce, "A.I.-enabled suggestive selling". Don't you just love the fancy phrases they come up with? A.I.-enabled suggestive selling = automatic upselling, such as "Customers usually add a Frosty to orders similar to these".

If you can't teach a worker how to upsell, your management sucks. Get gooder management.