Wendy’s has spoken to its manager after suggestions that it plans to introduce “surge pricing” to its menu received a decidedly frosty response this week, with the company scrambling to clarify that it has no intention of making itself the Uber of fast-food chains.
Surge pricing for Uber and Lyft is partially passed along to the driver and used as an incentive to get more drivers on the road. Drivers get a special notification on their screen that rides are worth more than usual, which might cause them to start driving if they’re not already on the road, which decreases the wait times for riders.
The equivalent for Wendy’s would be if they also increased employee salaries during that time to encourage more workers to come in and make burgers faster, not just to gouge the customer.
Though even when surge pricing was active I made shit money when I was side hustling Uber and Lyft.