>Yes, because they're are lots of options. You charge too much and I'll just go next door.
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.
A physical line has historically been a de facto surge price. You have to pay the cost of the meal plus your own opportunity cost of waiting in line. The long line is also a signal of how long your food will really take.
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)
>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.
It's the decision of the business to understaff relative to the expected demand in order to minimize labor costs. They could so easily have another one or two people working to make it better for everyone, they simply choose not to so they can squeeze that little extra bit of profit out.
Preceded it by many years in fast food. Algorithm-optimized minimal labor scheduling based on previous sales was being used at starbucks and mcdonalds at least in 2014, but probably earlier and probably elsewhere too.
Yes but again the intentional understaffing preceded the jump in labor costs we've seen the last few years. So regardless of how powerful the incentives are, they weren't the cause of that change.
national fast food franchises leaning in to firing customers for not being sufficiently juicy, as a means of increasing efficiency.
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.
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.