Wendy's backtrack
Surge pricing? ....maybe not. Internet outrage causes the chain to save face and reverse their plans, while we look back even further, to another reversal we'd love to see.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Wendy’s would be implementing “surge pricing”, like Uber, Lyft, and many others in the hospitality industry do, for their food at peak service times. This would be implemented by way of new digital menu boards. Per CEO Kirk Tanner, “Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing. We are planning to invest approximately $20 million to roll out digital menu boards to all US company-operated restaurants by the end of 2025.” I think Dave Thomas would disagree…
This drew immediate backlash, and as of press time, it has been dialed back considerably. A misunderstanding, per the company’s statement on the matter: "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 company said.
Is this a simple save face moment in light of the swift rebuttal, or is their truth to the matter? Time will tell, I suppose. But we here at Retailpocalypse would like to take this opportunity to focus on another backtrack we would like to see implemented. The return to yellow. Not just the cups, packaging and napkins, but the buildings themselves. There was a time, not too long ago, you could still visit a Wendy’s with a yellow roof. That’s right, up until recently you could still find a handful of these retro locations, leftover from a bygone era, when they truly were “old fashioned”.
They could be found within the DelMarVa region of the United States, mainly in the Baltimore and Washington, DC areas, specifically. These restaurants were owned by DavCo, a Wendy’s franchisee dating back to 1976. Originally started as a division of The Krystal Company of Chattanooga, TN, DavCo would proceed to franchise several other restaurants throughout the country, but became Wendy’s #4 franchisee, and the oldest as of 2017. That year, they were sued by Wendy’s for multiple failures to upgrade their restaurants to the corporate image, among other things such as modern point of sale tech. Wendy’s was on a modernization kick, like fellow fast food giants, McDonald’s and Burger King. They wanted to ditch their old image once and for all, as it was deemed tired, old and out of place in the modern age. DavCo up until this point refused to go along with it. Why change what isn’t broken, after all? Many of their restaurants had been unchanged since the day they opened. Great for us, and those who enjoy this sort of thing. Bad for Wendy’s, who despite adoration for their founder, seems to want to move away from that down home, old fashioned image, more and more. Just because you can put Dave Thomas’ quotes on the wall, doesn’t make you Dave Thomas, but I digress…
Wendy’s won the battle, and DavCo was stripped of its franchise rights in 2017, with 140 restaurants being sold to NPC International of Overland Park, KS. The plan would be to remodel all exisiting restaurants by 2021. The pictures on this page were taken in 2019. Since then, the remodelings have come to pass, with a couple others shut down entirely. Now, they’re all the same. Glass boxes. No old fashioned feeling, no yellow roofs. While the colorful beads and newsprint tables were long gone by this point (well, almost), it was still a treat to see that glistening yellow, with the orignal roofline and Wendy herself smiling at you, welcoming you in.
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Nice! Such a bummer they finally got to the rest of them. So far as you know, are there any Yellow Wendy's left?