alt-text: Woman ordering food (photo): “I would like to buy a hamburger for the same price that it was 2 hours ago.”
Cashier (sketched): “Sir, this is a Wendy’s”
I’ve already long since acquired a severe case of app fatigue to the point that I refuse to order from a place if I’m required to download an app to get whatever price.
Now I’m going to have in person timing fatigue.
You could argue that happy hour is surge pricing already in place, and I suppose that’s true, but the perception is that it’s a lower price than regular.
Wendy’s is presenting this as a higher price than regular.
You’re right, it seems like they’d be smarter to offer a discount during off-peak hours. It should accomplish the same thing.
As long they don’t keep the “lowest price” the regular base price, this does have the potential to disrupt fast food purchasing habits. Imagine people always trying to game Wendys to see if they can get the burger cheaper, you’d theoretically see a sine wave develop over a month or so. Then that sine wave would translate laterally as time further progressed and people adapted to the shifting surge pricing. It also has just as much likelihood to ruin Wendy’s sales, but time will tell.
Also, if they start to sell cheaper that what use to be the regular price in off-peak hours, it could attract some people.
As long as they are transparent about which hour you’ll find which price, that’s not so much a problem for the customer. But transparency is important, I don’t want to see the illegitimate son of Wendy’s and SNCF pricing algorithm. Never.
The fluxuations will be dampened by the fact people get hungry around 12 and 5. When people are able to buy food (lunch breaks and end of work day) will also limit such fluctuations. Maybe a sine wave will form but there probably isn’t enough people with the ability or forsight to try and game the system.
Time constraints or not I think most people will just go next door to Burger King.
What’s the name of the guy who do this comic? I had it blocked on reddit, how can I block him here?
it looks like OP/[whoever made the template] removed the artist’s name, but it is SrGrafo. I doubt that the artist would be on lemmy though, considering it’s still quite a small platform.
Srgrafo is chill. I wonder why this guy dislikes him.
They probably just aren’t interested in seeing the comics, rather than disliking the artist personally
Fair enough
We are probably better off not knowing.
So what happens if the price changes while you’re waiting in line? Will they post the prices to the last car in line or do you have to wait till you get up to order. What about drive throughs that don’t have enough space for someone to get out of line? Are they gonna try to guilt people into paying whatever price they’re given?
deleted by creator
Yes they will guilt you. The McDonald’s in my town has it so you can’t get out of line once you reach the signs with the prices. If you don’t have it memorized and realize you can’t afford it… well sucks to be you
Like, is this a self-imposed excise tax? Too many people in line! Let’s knock the poors out since our food is unhealthy. (I know that I am conflating an excise tax with capitalist class aggression, but I’m tired, so whatever.)
Not a tax, basically just a price-signal. But maybe also a markeing push since it gets attention by being novel. Its functionally similar to happy hour specials or loss-leaders.
I feel like this is one of those memes that in the future historians and sociologists will use to gleam context and the human element to major life periods after the collapse of society as qe know it.
Shit I mean lul
There’s an altruistic future I could envision where this software goes towards selling burgers for cheap to lower-income people coming in at odd times, in order to avoid food waste where the burgers get thrown out. Similarly, nice restaurant owners do this the simple way: Low prices for good food, always. But, I definitely don’t trust chains like Wendy’s with this.
Why do people genuinely care about this? You couldn’t pay me to eat at wendy’s, I don’t care how they price their products.
It’s a sign of the times. We are fighting change. Humans like having expectations met and standards upheld so we can predict our reality.
Wherever you do like to eat might adopt this one day.
You must see how one fast food chain implementing anti-consumer practices can affect an industry at large, right?
the cashier can’t change the price, why would you ask them?
I feel like people are getting a little too up in arms for something that hasn’t even happened yet. If it ends up happening, so be it. Let the market decide. There are many of us who will just stop eating at Wendy’s but let’s face it, the general population will not.
Im OOTL whats going on?
Wendy’s will be using surge pricing to increase their prices when it’s busy.
Thank you :D
If you still frequent an establishment that does this, you’re the problem
Bingo!
I’m looking at you Apple fanboys!
deleted by creator
If you frequent than establishment with all the bullshit it pulls, you’re the problem.
The fuck kinda cherry picking stupid you gotta be to miss that?
deleted by creator
Do you know what sucks about there being SOOOOOO many people? It’s that there’s always a certain percentage that are morons and they still go for shit like this, ruining it for everyone else.
It’s an interesting spin on the tragedy of the commons. There’s no public or shared resources here, but the few are still ruining it for the many.
The tragedy of the commons is all capitalist nonsense from the 60s anyway. People are quite good at balancing resources within their communities, and sharing spaces and resources makes everyone’s experiences better. It’s only with the “profit at others expense” capitalist mindset that the cooperative model falls apart.
https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth
The few will always ruin it for the many where capitalism is involved. It’s inevitable.
But it’s not the few you think it is. It’s not normal people just trying to get by, it’s the people who set it up this way in the first place. They know not everyone will stop. It’s squarely on them.
That appears to be an opinion piece based on anecdotal evidence, which, while the original claim is not based on science either, does not provide adequate evidence to dismiss it as “capitalist nonsense”.
It is merely another claim in the opposite direction. They are equally valid takes, but one does not refute the other.
deleted by creator
That only happens in one country, where people are stupid enough to put up with it. Which was my point
maybe some day someone will implement hamburger futures
Since beef futures are already a thing, you could invest in that and then use the profit for hamburgers, money being fungible and all that.
Just wait until Wendycoin drops
Steps to creating your own “Bullish Burger” Stock Market
- Bulk order just before peak,
- Resell those orders as demand rises.
- Profit
that might not be entierly legal,
you cant legally sell onions on the futures market since 1958Huh, son of a bitch. Can’t wait to use this one
The Onion Futures Act is a United States law banning the trading of futures contracts on onions as well as “motion picture box office receipts”
Lol. Wut?
in 1956 some guy sneakily trough shell companys and such stuff, used the futures market to controll 98% of the onion suply and screwed over a lot of people.
the onion futures act was the goverments absolute brilliant idea for a fix.
i have no idea what the box office receipts thing is about
Yeah no, I get the Onion thing, it’s usually taught in collegiate finance courses… but the Box Office thing threw me off. Apparently the MPAA lobbied to have it added. I am just amused that it’s attached to Onion Law.
From a couple minutes on Wikipedia, it was added to the law as part of Dodd-Frank in 2010, which overhauled the US financial system after the recession. The MPAA lobbied heavily on it
