Cheap - Fast - Good
You only have to pick 2 for be successful as a fast food joint and they picked none.
I was eating something I made at home for lunch today and pondering how much it cost me for what was a good, hearty, healthy meal. Even eating in generous proportions, I was eating for about $2 a meal. I had carbs, fats, protein, fiber, and various minerals as well vitamins. I don’t think I could get a single cheeseburger from Wendy’s for that price. Even their cheap ones. As well it’s not just them, it’s all fast food. They forgot the idea is you go there, spend like $5 for a meal that you don’t have to make at home. Giving some variety.
Have they thought about not charging exorbitant prices on their food? I mean, a salad shouldn’t cost ten bucks. Especially when they halved the god damn thing out of nowhere and pretended like they didn’t. As one of the three people who enjoyed Wendy’s salads, I fucking saw what you did.
Have they thought about not charging exorbitant prices on their food?
I’m sure they have. But when rental prices are skyrocketing and margins on meals are collapsing, there’s not a ton of wiggle room. One of the smart long-term moves that McDonalds made - way back in the 1980s - was to make sure they owned the real estate under all of their corporately owned restaurants. This was an expensive move up-front, but it paid enormous dividends long term.
Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell & KFC, etc - they’re all largely operating out of a retail rental market that’s consolidated into a handful of mega-REITs. And as those REITs demand steadily increasing ROI, the cost of operating storefronts has driven quite a few of these storefronts out of business.
Sir, this isn’t a Wendy’s anymore.
Sir, this was a Wendy’s
I still don’t get why I don’t see anything but wendys in news articles. Its actually one of the better ones overall. Why not bk or mcdonalds or kfc?
BK has already plunged into bankruptcy.
Yum! Brands (the owner of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut) is currently $4B delinquent on taxes.
McDonalds has largely beaten out the competition.
Wendy’s is just the next franchise that mass media is clustering around (possibly because the number of media outlets is consolidating, causing everyone to echo one another).
Why did Wendy leave? The bacon ate her.
I’m eating out a lot less, these days. I used to head out for the day with the idea of grabbing lunch first, but now I usually eat lunch at home first. At the price of eating out, with the quality of fast food slipping so badly at the same time, it’s cheaper and far more satisfying to eat at home anyway. I found myself eating some poor approximation of food, and wishing I had just made a sandwich at home, so that’s what I started doing.
Wendy’s has always my favorite burger joint, after Culver’s, so my change in eating habits is directly contributing to their downfall.
The other lesson here is that if Wendy’s is slipping this badly, so are all the others.
AND finally, this: If they are slipping so badly, and much of it due to rising labor costs, this will motivate them to start automating their fast food operations. Every fast food company has been researching robotic preparation, and they could easily implement it tomorrow. The only reason they haven’t is because there will be a huge outcry when the first one does it. After that, they fall like dominos, and with a few years after the first one, ALL fast food restaurants will be mostly automated, and MILLIONS of fast food workers will lose their jobs. It is inevitable.
AND finally, this: If they are slipping so badly, and much of it due to rising labor costs, this will motivate them to start automating their fast food operations. Every fast food company has been researching robotic preparation, and they could easily implement it tomorrow. The only reason they haven’t is because there will be a huge outcry when the first one does it. After that, they fall like dominos, and with a few years after the first one, ALL fast food restaurants will be mostly automated, and MILLIONS of fast food workers will lose their jobs. It is inevitable.
And the price will stay the same or go higher allowing corporations to fatten their bottom line.
Absolutely. Just like these tariffs. When the tariffs are eventually removed, will we see lower prices in the retail stores? Here and there, maybe, but generally, this will be the new price baseline. And the saving from the tariffs will just go to the corporate profits, not to lower prices, or even higher wages, just bigger executive bonuses.
Not Wendy’s, but 3medium whoppers at burgerking costs more than 3 family sized entrays, crab ragoons, and eggrolls at my Thai place. Bk is a single sitting, the Thai place is 3 meals worth of food for the family and cooked by a sweet old lady that lives in my neighbourhood. Why would I ever eat corpo trash if it’s not cheap, fast, or easy to get?
As for Wendy’s, they dug their grave when they mentioned surge pricing. I’m just pissed that it took them this long to lay down in it.
But in Wendy’s defence, the little line for the stock holders went up for one more quarter. Who needs long term success when you can just make line go up by a 1/4 of a percent for a few more months?
Don’t forget they were also cool and funny on the internet once upon a time. So they definitely should get a pass here and we should bail them out as loyal customers.
They aren’t closing due to rising labor costs. If anything, the US gov is making sure the hourly rates don’t move with inflation. Didn’t we hear lately of a state that actually LOWERED the minimum wage for teenagers ?
When is the last time you saw a Wendy’s ad?
Honestly Wendys is the one I would go to if I were to eat fast food regardless of ads. I am just eating a lot less fast food. Prices have converged with sit in dining so it’s just not worth it anymore. Plus the health stuff obviously.
A better question for some is - when was the last time you saw an ad online or tv.
Thanks to my PiHole and a VPN, almost never.
Shoutout to the PiHole team!
Last I heard of them online was the fluctuating prices bull shit.
I used to eat there multiple times a week when you could get a salad instead of fries. The moment they stopped that was the moment they lost probably one of their most dependable regulars.
Just raise your prices more, I’m sure that’ll help!
Honestly, the ridiculous prices of fast food has been the best thing for my health. I never ate it a lot, but I would sometimes grab something if I didn’t have time to cook or make something at home, now that’s totally off the table, if I wanted to spend $45 for burgers for two people I would take us to an actual local restaurant and get higher quality food that supports a local economy.
I haven’t touched fast-food since before covid.
I never ate it a lot, but I would sometimes grab something if I didn’t have time to cook or make something at home
If your health was an issue due to you barely eating out to begin with, it wasn’t what you were eating that was affecting your health.
Yep we went in the last time for 4 for 5, used to be 4 for 4. Found it was 10 dollars for same thing. Said nope and walked out. Not going back.
I literally stopped going there after spending $15 and still being hungry.
Good riddance. I haven’t given them a dime since their new CEO tried to make his mark at the company by introducing
dynamic pricingprice gouging.Apparently that POS left Wendy’s in July 2025 and now works at The Hershey Company, but the damage is done. I’m never going back. There are better local burger joints around here anyway.
this was the last time I had wendy… after the variable price story I went elsewhere for my fast food burger. everywhere has a big bacon burger… so no loss.
And before that, PepsiCo, so if “CEO” wasn’t enough indicator that he was a complete ghoul.
Yeah Pepsico 2019-2024… And Pepsi is still operating in Russia today unlike competitors that left because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Guy is a complete piece of shit and regularly makes the shittiest decisions. At this point it seems like he’s one of those CEOs the Board hires to implement the shit they want but don’t want to take the flak for.
Has Hershey’s made any changes like that yet? If not, it’s probably around the corner.
The chocolate business is struggling, due to high tariffs. I’m sure it’s a daily issue at Hershey’s right now.
Wendy’s deserves to go under.
Few other places have hyper-inflated their prices to not pay their employees more nor improve their food quality quite like Wendy’s has.
Culver’s and maybe some local joints are some of the very last places its worth buying a burger from. Might as well solely make them at home for now on.
I worked at Culver’s when I was younger, so when I make burgers at home they essentially ARE Culver’s burgers. Right down to the seasoning.
But I do still love me some Culver’s. I can’t easily do custard or fried cheese curds at home.
The only thing I’ll miss from Wendy’s is dipping their fries in the frosties.
Culver’s is the best fast food out there, and their prices are still fairly reasonable. I’ve had a bunch of different things off their menu, and they’re all really good. I was hooked on their pot roast sandwiches for a while, them their fish.
What about the CEO’s new yacht though? I’m sure it’s very nice.
Culver’s is great it’s just too bad they refuse to set up shop in California. The closest ones are right past the border in the side of Arizona.
Culver’s is… interesting.
I find I don’t like the paper-thin style burgers much (though the fish sandwich is probably the best fast-food fish sandwich on the market) but it always gives the impression they’re trying a little harder. The restaurant always seems clean and a bit of effort was done on the appearance, like they’re still in 1978 and taking the family for a sit-down meal there might be an option.
OTOH, the customer base seems to be people who have been going there since 1978, but that could be my location.
They’re opening a new one 3km from my house, next to a McDonalds that hasn’t made a single order correctly since it opened in ~2015, so it will be interesting to see how the market shakes out.
Yeah, the last time I ate at a Wendy’s I was astounded by the decline in quality, especially in comparison with their increased prices.
Last time I ate there I got a deal where I got two burgers and 10 nuggets for free. Nuggets tasted fine. The burger was atrocious. I opted to not even bother unwrapping the second burger because it had been so unpleasant to choke down the first. If I hadn’t been so hungry, it would have been one bite and nope.
Their spicy chicken sandwich is okay. Not my favorite, but good when they’re doing a buy one, get one.
But I agree the prices in general are way too high and the only reason I eat there is because I have a deal where I sometimes get their food for free (in which case I think the price is absolutely fair).
Culver’s is the goat
P. Terry’s if you’re ever lucky.
Why can’t I get past the Terry Pratchett similarity?
“you’ll continue to see hamburger innovation as we move throughout the year,” Cook said.
Everyone eating real food elsewhere due to a lack of “hamburger innovation” at Wendy’s, raise your hand. Thought so.
The last thing I want in my cheeseburger is “hamburger innovation”. The defining selling point of a burger is its elegant simplicity
“Sir, this is…n’t a Wendy’s anymore. Hasn’t been for, oh i don’t know, years by now. Closed sometime during the Tramp Presidency mess.”
We’ll be saying “when the mess started” for decades.
Too bad because it was great food in the 80s and 90s. Started to slip around 2010. Got pretty bad around 2015.
Completely disagree as my partner and I ate it all the time between 2018-2021. The reason we don’t now is because it costs twice as much as it did 5 years ago for less food, and we live a half hour from town now so by the time I’d get home with it it’s cold.
Food is still good at my location, just not worth $15.50 for a medium combo.
If you don’t mind me asking, what changed?
The price. Upwards. Too quickly.
That sucks for me. I like their chicken honey biscuit sandwiches and Dave’s Triples. Haven’t gone often, due to money getting tighter.
Anyhow, time to use my leftovers for a midnight meal. I am using a $3 bowl of Nissin ramen, plus the remnants of a Kirkland pot roast and some buttered yams, alongside a spot of Better than Bullion.
I stockpile several of these pot roasts ($17ish apiece) each CostCo trip, and find them especially grand in a savory stew if I dice them up.
You’re paying $3 on a ramen?
Ramen bowls cost more than cups or basic packages. They are a bit bigger, and have some extra flavoring, and can be prepped at 1 in the morning without having to wash dishes.
The cup style has too little water for my taste, and I don’t feel comfortable balancing a cup of hot ramen back to my room. The bowl stuff just feels better for me, ergonomically speaking.
