Wendy’s is closing several hundred U.S. restaurants and increasing its focus on value after a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter.

Wendy’s is closing several hundred U.S. restaurants and increasing its focus on value after a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter.

The Dublin, Ohio-based company said Friday that its global same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 10% in the October-December period. That was worse than the 8.5% drop expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

U.S. same-store sales fell even further in the fourth quarter. Wendy’s said late last year that it planned to close underperforming U.S. restaurants, but it gave more details about those closures Friday.

    • ZorsithEnglish
      31·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • Janx@piefed.socialEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      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…

  • AshenluxEnglish
    29·
    2 months ago

    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.

    • skip0110@lemmy.zip
      7·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • AshenluxEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        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.

    • iegod@lemmy.zip
      3·
      2 months ago

      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.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
    9·
    2 months ago

    Hopefully this will start a trend where businesses try again to win their customers loyalty, not force them into a corner.

  • MehBlah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    2 months ago

    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.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 months 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.

  • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.caEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    that’ll happen when you charge $10 for a sad little misshapen sandwich that took 10 minutes to make

  • laranis@lemmy.zip
    4·
    2 months ago

    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.