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Good riddance. I haven't given them a dime since their new CEO tried to make his mark at the company by introducing ~~dynamic pricing~~ price gouging.
Apparently that POS left Wendy's in July 2025 and now works at The Hershey Company, but the damage is done. I'm never going back. There are better local burger joints around here anyway.
And before that, PepsiCo, so if "CEO" wasn't enough indicator that he was a complete ghoul.
Yeah Pepsico 2019-2024... And Pepsi is still operating in Russia today unlike competitors that left because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Guy is a complete piece of shit and regularly makes the shittiest decisions. At this point it seems like he's one of those CEOs the Board hires to implement the shit they want but don't want to take the flak for.
Has Hershey's made any changes like that yet? If not, it's probably around the corner.
The chocolate business is struggling, due to high tariffs. I'm sure it's a daily issue at Hershey's right now.
Wendy's deserves to go under.
Few other places have hyper-inflated their prices to not pay their employees more nor improve their food quality quite like Wendy's has.
Culver's and maybe some local joints are some of the very last places its worth buying a burger from. Might as well solely make them at home for now on.
Yeah, the last time I ate at a Wendy’s I was astounded by the decline in quality, especially in comparison with their increased prices.
Culver’s is the goat
I worked at Culver’s when I was younger, so when I make burgers at home they essentially ARE Culver’s burgers. Right down to the seasoning.
But I do still love me some Culver’s. I can’t easily do custard or fried cheese curds at home.
The only thing I’ll miss from Wendy’s is dipping their fries in the frosties.
Culver's is... interesting.
I find I don't like the paper-thin style burgers much (though the fish sandwich is probably the best fast-food fish sandwich on the market) but it always gives the impression they're trying a little harder. The restaurant always seems clean and a bit of effort was done on the appearance, like they're still in 1978 and taking the family for a sit-down meal there might be an option.
OTOH, the customer base seems to be people who have been going there since 1978, but that could be my location.
They're opening a new one 3km from my house, next to a McDonalds that hasn't made a single order correctly since it opened in ~2015, so it will be interesting to see how the market shakes out.
Culver's is great it's just too bad they refuse to set up shop in California. The closest ones are right past the border in the side of Arizona.
"Sir, this is..n't a Wendy's anymore. Hasn't been for, oh i don't know, years by now. Closed sometime during the Tramp Presidency mess."
We’ll be saying “when the mess started” for decades.
Have they thought about not charging exorbitant prices on their food? I mean, a salad shouldn't cost ten bucks. Especially when they halved the god damn thing out of nowhere and pretended like they didn't. As one of the three people who enjoyed Wendy's salads, I fucking saw what you did.
The problem is not fast food prices, the problem is stagnated wages.
Oligarchs. Guillotines. That's the solution.
Have they thought about not charging exorbitant prices on their food?
I'm sure they have. But when rental prices are skyrocketing and margins on meals are collapsing, there's not a ton of wiggle room. One of the smart long-term moves that McDonalds made - way back in the 1980s - was to make sure they owned the real estate under all of their corporately owned restaurants. This was an expensive move up-front, but it paid enormous dividends long term.
Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell & KFC, etc - they're all largely operating out of a retail rental market that's consolidated into a handful of mega-REITs. And as those REITs demand steadily increasing ROI, the cost of operating storefronts has driven quite a few of these storefronts out of business.
Too bad because it was great food in the 80s and 90s. Started to slip around 2010. Got pretty bad around 2015.
Food is still good at my location, just not worth $15.50 for a medium combo.
Why did Wendy leave? The bacon ate her.
Cheap - Fast - Good
You only have to pick 2 to be successful as a fast food joint and they picked none.
I’m sure a predatory shareholder scheme is at work here too
I'm eating out a lot less, these days. I used to head out for the day with the idea of grabbing lunch first, but now I usually eat lunch at home first. At the price of eating out, with the quality of fast food slipping so badly at the same time, it's cheaper and far more satisfying to eat at home anyway. I found myself eating some poor approximation of food, and wishing I had just made a sandwich at home, so that's what I started doing.
Wendy's has always my favorite burger joint, after Culver's, so my change in eating habits is directly contributing to their downfall.
The other lesson here is that if Wendy's is slipping this badly, so are all the others.
AND finally, this: If they are slipping so badly, and much of it due to rising labor costs, this will motivate them to start automating their fast food operations. Every fast food company has been researching robotic preparation, and they could easily implement it tomorrow. The only reason they haven't is because there will be a huge outcry when the first one does it. After that, they fall like dominos, and with a few years after the first one, ALL fast food restaurants will be mostly automated, and MILLIONS of fast food workers will lose their jobs. It is inevitable.
Not Wendy's, but 3medium whoppers at burgerking costs more than 3 family sized entrays, crab ragoons, and eggrolls at my Thai place. Bk is a single sitting, the Thai place is 3 meals worth of food for the family and cooked by a sweet old lady that lives in my neighbourhood. Why would I ever eat corpo trash if it's not cheap, fast, or easy to get?
As for Wendy's, they dug their grave when they mentioned surge pricing. I'm just pissed that it took them this long to lay down in it.
They aren't closing due to rising labor costs. If anything, the US gov is making sure the hourly rates don't move with inflation. Didn't we hear lately of a state that actually LOWERED the minimum wage for teenagers ?
AND finally, this: If they are slipping so badly, and much of it due to rising labor costs, this will motivate them to start automating their fast food operations. Every fast food company has been researching robotic preparation, and they could easily implement it tomorrow. The only reason they haven’t is because there will be a huge outcry when the first one does it. After that, they fall like dominos, and with a few years after the first one, ALL fast food restaurants will be mostly automated, and MILLIONS of fast food workers will lose their jobs. It is inevitable.
And the price will stay the same or go higher allowing corporations to fatten their bottom line.
If Dave Thomas was still alive he would shut down all Wendy’s.
Maybe they shouldn’t have started price gouging to such a ridiculous degree.
When all the combos are $10 or more, I no buy the burger anymore
Dave's Single, Med Fry, pop: $10.59
Nearby sit down restaurant has a Cheeseburger twice the size and a side of fries: $13.99.
I'd rather spend the extra 3 bucks.
When is the last time you saw a Wendy's ad?
Last I heard of them online was the fluctuating prices bull shit.
I used to eat there multiple times a week when you could get a salad instead of fries. The moment they stopped that was the moment they lost probably one of their most dependable regulars.
Honestly Wendys is the one I would go to if I were to eat fast food regardless of ads. I am just eating a lot less fast food. Prices have converged with sit in dining so it's just not worth it anymore. Plus the health stuff obviously.
I was eating something I made at home for lunch today and pondering how much it cost me for what was a good, hearty, healthy meal. Even eating in generous proportions, I was eating for about $2 a meal. I had carbs, fats, protein, fiber, and various minerals as well vitamins. I don't think I could get a single cheeseburger from Wendy's for that price. Even their cheap ones. As well it's not just them, it's all fast food. They forgot the idea is you go there, spend like $5 for a meal that you don't have to make at home. Giving some variety.
It always cracks me up to see how pissed off at fast food restaurants people on social media get over really specific things like “I’ll never eat at Wendy’s again after what they did to the chicken sandwich.” Or, “They ended 5 for 5 Tuesdays and since then I’ve never been back.”
It’s especially funny on Lemmy though where people are pretty left and in one comment calling for abolishing capitalism and in the next they’re getting pissed about how McDonald’s chicken nuggets only come with 4 pieces instead of 5 now, or something.
To me it’s all gross and not even food, so I don’t ever eat there. But, yes, abolish capitalism and don’t eat shitty corporate fast food.
People tend to get pissed when their g5ood gets more expensive, or when the quality drops. I dunno what else to tell yah.
Another US company going under?
Oh noes.
Oh well.
Next.
Wendy's went to shit when they ruined their chicken sandwich by trying to copy Popeye's shitty sandwich and cheaping out on their french fries by leaving the shitty skin on them, ruining the cheese fries. They never had good burgers and the frosties were always outclassed by a real milkshake. And I ONLY went to Wendy's as a kid. Really fucking sucks they made the choices they did but at least now they are paying the price. Now if only pizzahut would get owned too for removing the nice dine in experiences with the saladbars for "modern" aesthetics.
I mean, potato skin, in my opinion, fucks. I can't disagree with the decline in quality, though.
I went recently and it felt shallow. I instantly regretted from a $$ and upset stomach standpoint.
That sucks for me. I like their chicken honey biscuit sandwiches and Dave's Triples. Haven't gone often, due to money getting tighter.
Anyhow, time to use my leftovers for a midnight meal. I am using a $3 bowl of Nissin ramen, plus the remnants of a Kirkland pot roast and some buttered yams, alongside a spot of Better than Bullion.
I stockpile several of these pot roasts ($17ish apiece) each CostCo trip, and find them especially grand in a savory stew if I dice them up.
Maybe nobody wants a $10 fast food burger
I wonder if they ever tried, ya know...making their food taste good?
They tried raising prices, they tried shrinkflation, they tried paying their employees as little as legally possible, they tried lowering staffing levels to the least number of employees humanly possible, they even floated the idea of surge pricing in fast food...but the whole time I've known Wendy's to exist, at least in my area, the burgers have been bland and the fries have been soggy and tasteless. And I'm old enough to remember Wendy's having a bland salad bar to go with the rest of their bland food.
Sir this is a Wendy’s
Sir this was a Wendy's
:(