Lowering their prices will never occur to them. Many of us have stopped eating out much. Its the cost. The one things they pretend it isn't.
this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2026
119 points (99.2% liked)
Economics
1077 readers
7 users here now
founded 2 years ago
I've just changed how I eat out.
Fast-casual restaurants cost the same as fast food these days. And if I need food super fast due to time and travel constraints, the quality of gas station food in many chains like QuikTrip and Speedy Stop is better and faster than McDonalds.
So they are no longer the fastest or the cheapest, while their food remains garbage.
Of course they're failing.
that'll happen when you charge $10 for a sad little misshapen sandwich that took 10 minutes to make
Wendy's, McDonald's, and BK all started enshitifying until they realized they were hurting themselves. Even if they all revert to good, inexpensive food they are still left with the biggest problem that I've noticed: they have shit employees.
They cheapening also affected wages. Which means everything from line cooks to drive thru people to their store managers ended up being ridiculously inept. Maybe this is old man yells at clouds, but for me to step into one of these restaurants again there has to be attention paid to improving service. Drop the kiosk in favor of a friendly face who wants to help me get a meal I will enjoy. How about making the food semi presentable instead of apathy wrapping in wax paper. And of course I had better be able to walk away with lunch for $8 after tax.
good wendys is trash. not a single veggie item on the menu outside the fries
I'm certainly not going to Wendy's looking to eat anything but like a piece of shit. Wendy's are the best fast food burgers, IMO, although I'm east coast, and obviously things vary depending on where you are.
im not making a comment on quality, but of variety of options. i also expect pieces of shit at any fast food place, but plenty of wendy's competitors offer a non meat option.
Food quality aside, how's that surge pricing working out for you?
Smashingly, it seems. On par with the surge pricing effect in Manhattan with a 10% drop in their traffic!
Make your food less shitty for a start
Never really had a problem with wendys food tbh. Beats the shit out of burger king, but I'm not sure burger king even qualifies as "food" and not salted cardboard.
While you're not wrong, they have cheapened up quite a bit
True. I have fond memories of the spicy chicken sandwich as my go-to fast food item, and they are thinner than they used to be. Still just as juicy though when its a fresh one
The bacon has changed too:(
You got salt?!
Of all the fast foods it's my favorite :(
these carboard have very little meat in it, probably repurposed bk bags.
It's been a minute since I've eaten there (~2 years), but I remember their fries being terrible unless you got them fresh.
That being said their spicy chicken sandwich has been a favorite and the baconator is good.
Sometimes you just need to go full American and eat a baconator. 乁( •_• )ㄏ
Nah, thanks though
Thing is, those are surprisingly easy to make at home. And with how expensive fast food has become, that is something I have been doing more and more.
I don't get how any fast food chains are not closing locations. My wife and I stopped being able to afford to go when inflation first hit and honestly if we have the money and feel like it the price for real food at real restaurants is not very much more.
It's hard to find real restaurants that don't buy their stuff frozen from the same source as a restaurant on the other side of the US.
not in a metro area. I mean we still have crappy restaurants like that but I would say they are in the minority. Heck most any gyro and taquería place uses fresh along with the non chain pizza places and asian and italian.
That costs money. They clearly want to hire as few workers as possible, have them work the minimum number of hours, pay them as little as they can, and keep everything else. Your dining experience is an afterthought...
Not surprised. There prices are absurd at this point, and the quality of the food has been going down for years. I used to love there spicy chicken sandwich. But then the quality started to drop. At first it was just a bad sandwich every now and again, but the ratio of good sandwich and bad sandwich slowly got worse until I finally decided I had had enough. Haven't been back to Wendy's in about a year at this point. And their fires are decent when fresh, but quickly become worse as they get lose their freshness.
I also used to get the chicken sandwiches (spicy, or asiago) pretty frequently. Like once or twice a month, but pretty consistently from like 2010-2019. The few times I've been since 2021, the price went up and the chicken cutlet (which used to be really thick, and real chicken breast, usually hot and juicy too) was thin, and full of mystery meat. And the price was higher. That sandwich used to fill me up, and now its just a few bites.
Well, I haven't been back. And I'm not going back, regardless of how many changes they make, because I discovered my local pizza shop has a nice chicken sandwich that's like $2 more but many times bigger and tastier.
A Culvers opened up near me, and that is where I have been getting my spicy chicken sandwich fix. It's so much better, and it just about the same price as Wendy's. I should try to find more local non-chain options though.
I know! They dumped the grilled chicken, at least in Canada, which had the best macronutrient allocation of all fast food sandwiches. That probably doesn't mean much to most but for me it was a perfect cheap post workout meal for years. RIP.
Frank and Artemis say their dumpsters are the best for bangin
Hopefully this will start a trend where businesses try again to win their customers loyalty, not force them into a corner.
The only loyalty that matters to businesses is shareholder value.
Wendy's biz improved when they introduced their Biggie Bag selections, which was the best fast food option out there. Then everybody copied it, and Wendy's market share slipped.
They took the good deals off the app too. Now it's not even worth to use any deals most of the time. Sonic has/had (idk if it's still there) a $6 double cheeseburger combo and that's probably the best deal around me.
There are a significant percentage of consumers who will never look at your app.
Those are the people who aren't buying.
Fix. Your. Fries. Wendy has had the WORST fries of any fast food chain for decades. They serve them like a point of pride, but they are basically unsalted potatoes. They are flavorless and always disappointing.
I wonder if fries at the wendys youve been to just suck cause I thought wendys fries were pretty damn good but they were salted too. I havent had wendys in over a year though….