Fast Food Company Looking To Apply Uber-style Surge Pricing Where In Demand Menu Prices Fluctuates

Fast food company Wendy’s is looking to trial a new Uber-style surge pricing, that will see menu prices fluctuate depending on the time of day.

New CEO and president of Wendy’s, Kirk Tanner, announced the company would be rolling out new plans to improve company profits, including digital menu boards that will be more easily able to change the prices of items and testing an Uber-style surge pricing strategy.

“Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing and daypart offerings, along with AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling,” he said.

“As we continue to show the benefit of this technology in our company-operated restaurants, franchisee interest in digital menu boards should increase, further supporting sales and profit growth across the system.”

Tanner later came out to clarify he didn’t mean “surge pricing” when he said “dynamic pricing.” The company spokesperson told NBC there are “no plans” to raise prices at high-demand times.

“We said these [digital] menu boards would give us more flexibility to change the display of featured items. This was misconstrued in some media reports as an intent to raise prices when demand is highest at our restaurants,” the Wendy’s spokesperson said. “We have no plans to do that and would not raise prices when our customers are visiting us most.”

“Any features we may test in the future would be designed to benefit our customers and restaurant crew members,” the spokesperson sadded. “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.”