The McD’s app is a pain in the ass. I like the kiosks because I can pause to consider what I want and whether I want something else. Especially since McD’s has pretty much abolished all its menus elsewhere and just have flashing screens showing whatever sandwich they’re currently promoting.
It’s not about failure to anticipate, it’s about making best use of resources. You can definitely anticipate what the peak demand of your new restaurant will be and then build a restaurant with ten registers, a half-acre kitchen and a half-acre dining room so that no customer waits more than a minute even during those peak demand hours, but most of that capacity will sit idle most of the time; the result is that you’re paying for a lot of restaurant with a few burgers, and those burgers then need to be really expensive.
Or… we could learn to expect delays at peak times, like we’ve always done.
Smart customers could think “Hey, it’s noon… isn’t that the time when almost EVERYone goes to lunch? Hmm, I might have to wait a bit longer then. If that’s unacceptable, maybe I could take my lunch hour at 1 or 1:30 if I hate waiting.”
Last company I worked for, I made a note for my cubicle that I’d changed my lunch hour to 1-2pm. It was great! I got so much done without interruptions from 12-1, and then I could waltz into any fast food place, or even a real diner.
FWIW, if I’m going to Panera with one of my Gen-Z daughters, she’s usually zipped through the kiosk ordering for both of us while the boomers ordering at the counter are still asking what comes on each sandwich, even though it’s clearly listed on the menu board. So YMMV.
Yes, that certainly is what we’ve always done. Wendy’s is trying something different with dynamic pricing, and if it works, it could be better for everybody:
- Prices overall stay down because they don’t have to build massive restaurants to accommodate short-term peak traffic (because some demand gets shifted away from the peak);
- People who insist on dining during peak hours have a shorter wait (because some demand gets shifted away from peak); and
- People who choose to dine during off-peak hours receive a discount on their meal (because they did everyone else a favor by not showing up during peak hours).
Apart from just being different, why is this solution worse than the thing we’ve always done?
They’re not getting a discount, they’re just not being gouged for eating at a normal time.
OTOH, it could be seen as basically status quo, with prices status quo, except people who show up at quiet times get offered a “deal” which encourages them to spend more money.
Oh, large fries are $1 off? Hm, I was going to get a small fries for $2, but I’ll take the large for $3 instead since it’s such a good deal.
FWIW - a lot of people have vision issues and “clearly listed” often isn’t for those with less than perfect vision. Probably not the whole issue, but guarantee some of those “boomers” are asking what’s on the sandwiches because no, they can’t “clearly” see what’s on the board.
Eh, I don’t care why people at a fast food counter are taking so long, just that they are, and there’s now a procedure to bypass them.
People get very tied to the clock,* especially where their stomachs are concerned. When I first moved back to Phoenix-metro I was living way east, on the border between Mesa and Apache Junction in an area rife with tin cities filled with winter visitors, mostly from the Midwest. Dinner is served at 5pm, period. I quickly learned that between Thanksgiving and Easter, if I went out to eat at 5, I’d be eating around 6:15. If I waited until 6:20, I’d be eating by 6:30.
*This is why we have “daylight savings” instead of saying, “Why don’t we come to the office at eight for the next few months instead of nine? That way we’ll have more light in the evening when we’re off and want to do stuff.”
I order at the counter mainly so I can see if they have any bear claws left. Gotta get a bear claw.
“gouged” is awfully melodramatic, especially for something that’s not a necessity. Airlines charge more for popular flight times (e.g. mid-day near Thanksgiving or Christmas) compared to unpopular flight times (e.g. a red-eye in late January), and this is a normal, understood thing.
I guess it’s a matter of perspective as to whether one is getting a discount or the other is paying a premium . But the premium/non-discounted price buys you a meal at the most popular time, and also reduces your wait time (since some cheapskates have decided to eat at a less popular time): you pay more, you get more.
Not only is it not a necessity, it wouldn’t make any sense to do so. If you want to “gouge” people just raise the prices. The whole exercise is an attempt to selectively charge more as an alternative to gouging. Accusations otherwise are just ignorant.
What are you, some kind of commie?
The Early Bird Special has found its way to fast food!
That’s only the half of it, as it’s coupled here with a Late Bird Special.
Didn’t I see something about Wendy’s was not, in fact, going to be doing surge pricing? Yeah, the corporate mouthpiece didn’t really make it non-obvious it was a lame walkback.
They’re trying to draw a distinction between raising prices during peak hours and offering a discount during off-peak hours. AIUI they’ll be leaving the prices during peak hours as they are now, and lowering prices at other times. Presumably both prices will be subject to inflation adjustments.
Especially if their employers don’t let them break for lunch whenever they want.
That certainly sounds better but it seems like the same thing.
Say, you jack up the price of the whole menu by a dollar. And during peak hours, that’s what everything costs. When it’s slow, it lowers a bit, maybe up to a full dollar when it’s really slow.
The good thing is that you won’t get sticker shock at the restaurant. They advertise a $6 burger and at lunch you pay for a $6 burger. It’s the late night $5 burger that’s a bonus. Though before these changes, that burger always cost $5, so you’re not better off.
It seems easier to just offer a discount during certain times, I remember Taco Bell having a certain time windows when their “freezes” (frozen slush drinks) were cheaper than the rest of the day, and that’s how they tried to get customers in during slow times. I don’t know how well the idea of some uncertain discount of an uncertain amount at uncertain times is going to work for consumers.
Hey, they could lower the prices from say, 3 to 6 pm, and call it… ummm… “Happy Hour”!
(I just invented that; think it’ll catch on?)