Oh. They're not going to raise prices when demand is high. They're going to raise prices and then discount them when demand is low.
Is the consensus that this was purely greed-driven? In a number of recent stories and quotes from politicians it’s been kind of hard to square up their proclamations of greed and yet no mentions of mandated minimum wage increases or inarguably higher wholesale meat, produce, and transport costs, for example. Perhaps C:all of the above?
There is zero chance that this will not result in more expensive food at Wendy's. It just means that the explanation will be different. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."