Wendy’s has spoken to its manager after suggestions that it plans to introduce “surge pricing” to its menu received a decidedly frosty response this week, with the company scrambling to clarify that it has no intention of making itself the Uber of fast-food chains.
Why do people hate this idea for Wendy’s but give zero fucks when Uber does it to them?
The concept of surge pricing for something that was supposed to be a side job for drivers makes sense. During a blizzard, if driving Uber is my side hustle, there’s no way I’m getting in the car to pick up some schmuck after he drank too much at Applebee’s. But if I can charge more for that ride, I will start to consider it.
But then the “gig” job became people’s full time job and everything, as it must, went to shit.
But for Wendy’s? The meat is there. The employee is there. Everything is already there, ready and waiting to make burgers. So surge pricing isn’t correcting a supply/demand imbalance - it’s just on-demand price gouging.
They do hate when Uber does it, but they already let the taxi companies with regulations die, so they don’t have a choice if they want that type of service.
Because waiting a few minutes longer for food isn’t the same as waiting 10+ minutes for a ride. People need to get places quickly.
Have you considered that the two businesses may be different? Guess what, electric companies do the same thing!
As it turns out, supplying electricity and taxi services are different than food service.
Surge pricing for Uber and Lyft is partially passed along to the driver and used as an incentive to get more drivers on the road. Drivers get a special notification on their screen that rides are worth more than usual, which might cause them to start driving if they’re not already on the road, which decreases the wait times for riders.
The equivalent for Wendy’s would be if they also increased employee salaries during that time to encourage more workers to come in and make burgers faster, not just to gouge the customer.
Though even when surge pricing was active I made shit money when I was side hustling Uber and Lyft.