Recently I saw a TikTok video that Wendy's will be introducing the use of AI in their pricing with certain menu items at certain times of the day in 2025. This video stated that the price of popular menu items will increase during peak hours, such as during the lunch rush, and can drop in price to promote consumers to purchase these specific products. Personally, I thought this was a little ridiculous to potentially be paying $1 more for a cheeseburger just because others around me are purchasing it at the same time versus someone who purchases one an hour later and they get to pay less than me just because they came not during peak hours. I was not alone in how I felt about this. I went to the comment section and there was a general consensus about this being a little outrageous. One of the common comments that I saw was that this is surge pricing and is only a way to help the rich get richer.
I was curious about how Wendy's is going to implement this and how much they plan on raising prices by and I read that the president and CEO of Wendy's is saying this is not surge pricing, but rather dynamic pricing and the difference is that the price is able to go up and down where surge pricing means the price is only going up. I haven't found the percentage they plan on raising their prices by during peak hours, but to me, this sounds like surge pricing and I am not a fan of this implementation of AI.
I saw this as well and I think it is absurd. It makes no sense to do this and I think that consumers will simply choose other fast food options during peak times. I believe this will have the opposite of the intended effect and they will lose a great deal of business when implementing the surge pricing.
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised businesses are starting to use AI to price gauge. A topic with inflation not talked about nearly enough is "greedflation," how companies are exploiting inflation to raise prices and make record profits that is actually a large source of exacerbating the inflation issue post-pandemic.
ReplyDeleteWhether its Kellog's CEO who recently talked about rising food prices as a good thing so families can eat more cereal with the "let them eat cereal" argument, or corporate officers boasting in board meetings how inflation's been great for them, its a huge part of the problem.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/greedflation-caused-more-half-last-100000899.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAw6zn11JUOsVSqGdjKAhBWZWP8hfG9i1QM-Tyuj8JHM6wWEjVaEV3j6WW3CFElZ9dSL3HAp0WXqyrSsj63kuNRm753HneFHTHM5cy5lfHsLt4dM6MtKJMStlGmb12QLnI3AfpF6npLtHyAselgt1q1rOfQypFO1IAYFEGbU9d5S
I'm with you on this use of AI being absurd. Dynamic pricing on fast food is extremely ridiculous. Especially since people will just keep moving to the least expensive time to buy the food. I just can not process this being a good idea for the company.
ReplyDeleteI also believe this will have negative impacts on the fast food industry if policies like this continue to become commonplace. I don't believe it will be successful and will likely drive business to other businesses who do not partake in this practice.
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