Earlier this month, Wendy’s new president and CEO Kirk Tanner attracted controversy after announcing that the company would be instituting “dynamic pricing” into their locations.
“Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing and day-part offerings along with AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling,” said Tanner during a quarterly earnings call, per Forbes.
This move garnered major negative attention online, becoming fodder for argument and memes as people pondered what a restaurant with “surge pricing” might look like.
While the term “surge pricing” may seem most applicable to what Tanner described, Wendy’s says that’s not an entirely fair name for their planned policy. Per a statement from a Wendy’s spokesperson provided to Fortune, “Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didn’t use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice.”
Instead, a post on the company’s blog insisted that their new digital menus allowed them to lower prices, not raise them. “Digital menuboards 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,” the post reads.
That said, given Wendy’s recent history of dramatic price increases, it’s not surprising that the internet had such a visceral reaction to the announcement. One meme on the subject recently sparked discussion after being posted by TikTok user @snackolator, who had previously gone viral after accusing McDonald’s of price-gouging.
The video, which shows a clip of the character Dennis from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia becoming enraged, overlaid onto an image of a Wendy’s drive-thru, reads, “When you show up to Wendy’s during Surge Pricing and a Baconator jumped to $12.”
In the caption, @snackolator adds, “Seriously just imagine those poor Wendy’s employees having to tell customers that the $8 Baconator is more expensive because they wanted to eat one on their lunch break… Surge pricing is one of the worst ideas and they’ll never end up doing it.”
@snackolator Seriously just imagine those poor Wendy's employees having to tell customers that the $8 Baconator is more expensive because they wanted to eat one on their lunch break… Surge pricing is one of the worst ideas and they'll never end up doing it. #wendys #surgepricing #fastfood #fastfoodtok #fastfoodlife #baconator #alwayssunny #pricing #inflation #surge ♬ original sound – snackolator
In the comments section, users shared their thoughts on dynamic pricing and modern fast food pricing in general.
“Fast food is getting bold,” a user wrote. “If you’re charging $12 for a burger I’m going to go somewhere of higher quality for the same price.”
“Waiting in long line. Actively seeing the price go up because it’s busy. Realizing I’m part of the reason it’s busy and why the price just jumped. That’ll make me a mad panda,” stated another.
“The fast food companies may finally begin to help people eat healthier. Because I ain’t paying a cent more for a Whopper @ noon than I will @ 3 pm,” declared a third.
The Daily Dot reached out to Wendy’s and @snackolator via email.