Wendys is clarifying what the company's CEO meant in a recent call with analysts when he said the fast-food chain plans to roll out dynamic pricing.
In mid-February, Kirk Tanner, the new CEO and president of Wendys, shared with analysts that they 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, as well as testing dynamic pricing and daypart offers, according to Nations Restaurant News.
Tanner explained that they plan to invest about $20 million to roll out digital menu boards to all U.S. company-operated restaurants by the end of 2025 and approximately $10 million over the next two years to support digital menu board enhancements for the global system.
To clarify, Wendys will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didnt use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice, a spokesperson said in an email to NBC News. They added 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. We have no plans to do that and would not raise prices when our customers are visiting us most, the Feb. 26 statement reads. Any features we may test in the future would be designed to benefit our customers and restaurant crew members. 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.
A Wendys spokesperson had initially confirmed the digital menus, as well as dynamic pricing, in a Feb. 26 statement to TODAY.com, noting the company's future ability to change prices at different times of day. The initial statement did not say the fast-food chain would only lower prices with the new dynamic pricing model.
Sure.
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