"Dynamic pricing is a relatively new concept in the fast-food world, with little precedent"
Yes, because they're are lots of options. You charge too much and I'll just go next door.
It's almost like Supply & Demand is the Law.
I do, however, like the idea of surge pricing for sit-down restaurants. If restaurant prices raised to guarantee available seats (like hotel rooms), there are plenty of instances where I would pay a premium to eat near an event I'm attending.
fast food is, well, fast, and deisgned to really hit that fat/salt/sugar creaving, but if I can't predict what it will cost me I'll head to places that will give me that promise. it's a big market and none of it is exclusive.
The fact that the realpage domain name even resolves right now suggests to me that collusion won.
Sure, but thats how all markets work. When I want a Spicy Chicken Sandwich™, I want a Spicy Chicken Sandwich™. And there are no substitutes. The whole point of this would be that Wendy's dynamically accounts for this to an acceptable degree I don't cancel altogether. People who want a cheaper meal can go elsewhere, and I can get my Spicy Chicken in a reasonable amount of time. I can honestly see this catching on as crews are blown out to the max with mobile orders these days.
Why would the way the order is made make any difference?
It's the volume. Fast food work used to come in rushes, with a volume limited by the physical location. Now for many locations it's a nonstop queue of online orders from half a dozen systems from the first minute you open to the last minute you close. Great for business terrible for humans.
Mobile options almost completely eliminated that, so you have way more orders at a time than you otherwise would (or the restaurant needs a digital queue of some sort)
Maybe Spicy Chicken Sandwich is not the best analogy because Popeyes and KFC would like a word
with a focus on the most willing consumers, you can probably even make more with fewer employees. keep crews blown out by making them smaller. maybe even add a token performance bonus with confusing math, to motivate those that remain. not that they need it, they should be grateful for not having been let go for non-performance efficiency reasons.