The Economy

I get the concept of dynamic pricing. It sucks for the consumer, but it's slightly more reasonable when it's something where you can justify greater demand leading to more scarcity and thus a greater cost.
When it comes to food, though — and especially fast food — a customer doesn't want to spin the wheel to see how much your burger is going to cost. One of the reasons you go to Wendy's is because you know you can get a meal for a steady price of about $10. You certainly don't want to walk in wondering if the burger is going to cost you $10 or $20 because four people walked in at the same time and an AI algorithm suddenly decided it was a peak period.
Not to mention it'll take all of about 30 seconds for restaurants to figure out how to manipulate that algorithm to artificially create a peak period (like ringing up multiple orders in a short span, or playing around with the timing of orders to trick it into thinking there is more demand than there is).
If they stick with this plan in the face of public backlash, I think we'll look back in a few years at this being one of the great miscalculations in business history.

 

The Waffle House is gonna charge $19 per waffle every Saturday morning at 1 am.

 

"To improve your customer experience!!"

 

Fair. Should have said, generally rising slower year-over-year and far better than the rest of the world.

 

Yeah. Tough to find that small outfit called the Associated Press that reports it without the anger/Post agenda. Since it's tough, here it is:

Wendy's is looking to test having the prices of its menu items fluctuate throughout the day based on demand, implementing a strategy that has already taken hold with ride-sharing companies and ticket sellers.
During a conference call earlier this month, Wendy's CEO Kirk Tanner said that the Dublin, Ohio-based burger chain will start testing dynamic pricing, also known as surge pricing, as early as next year.
“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.”
Wendy's Co. plans to invest about $20 million to launch digital menu boards at all of its U.S. company-run restaurants by the end of 2025. It also plans to invest approximately $10 million over the next two years to support digital menu enhancements globally.
Tanner, a longtime PepsiCo executive, became Wendy's CEO earlier this month. He succeeded Todd Penegor, who had served as Wendy’s president and CEO since 2016.
Last year, Penegor announced a restructuring intended to speed decision-making and invest more in new restaurant development, particularly overseas. The chain and its franchisees operate about 7,000 restaurants worldwide.
Shares of Wendy's fell slightly in Tuesday morning trading.

 

The Shitty NY Post had reaction to numbers that don't exist at this point, or haven't been revealed.

 

You said it fine. Inflation by definition is rising prices. So "inflation is falling" means the rate is falling to most non-nit pickers.

 

True, but there was a slight tick-up year-over-year in January in some areas. So for that sliver, it's a fair point. But yes, the larger point is that it's in much better shape that the last couple of years and largely better than the rest of the world since it started.

 

RIP downtown San Francisco:

San Francisco Macy’s to close in devastating blow to downtown