[JB_Dev]

This has been described as similar to Uber/Lyft surging but it’s different in a few critical ways that I suspect consumers are less tolerant of.

When Uber/Lyft are surging it incentivise more drivers to go to the surge area. This raises supply and the surge rate decreases. Drivers are distributed automatically where they are needed. Overall trips taken should be higher compared with a no surging model. So it shifts both the demand (higher ride price) and the supply curves dynamically. That’s an easier model to market to customers as there is at least some logical sense behind it.

However in Wendys case dynamic pricing has no effect on supply. It just modifies the demand curve.

Fundamentally they are betting that their food demand is inelastic enough that they’ll make more money overall. That just feels more exploitative and is going to be harder to market.

[SketchySeaBeast]

> Fundamentally they are betting that their food demand is inelastic enough that they’ll make more money overall. That just feels more exploitative and is going to be harder to market.

Yeah, I have no idea how they can sell this to the consumer. I have to pay more for food at supper time? Why would I want to pay for that? You're asking me to eat earlier or later to soften the demand curve, but why am I choosing fast food if I don't want convenience?

[Ajay-p]

When Uber/Lyft are surging it incentivise more drivers to go to the surge area.

Or.. it incentivizes drivers to create surge conditions so they can make more money.

https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-drivers-artificially-tr...

[lawlessone]

>Fundamentally they are betting that their food demand is inelastic enough that they’ll make more money overall. That just feels more exploitative and is going to be harder to market.

To be fair I think it's less exploitive than Ubers prices surging during a terror attack..

[mildchalupa]

This is a wild proposition. Were taxis running directly after 9/11?

This is sort of a problem if a society depends on them as a piece of critical infrastructure. If a city owns a bus route and needs to evacuate a population, they can just do it by edict.

No one is considering this edge case and how it should be handled at Uber. A company or community that has pride in what they offer would probably provide rides for free during such an anomaly. This is a drawback on the scalability of technology as we currently implement it.