Restaurateur praises Wendy’s experimenting with surge pricing, says industry will ‘learn a lot’ from results

Rising star chef and New Jersey-based restaurateur Robbie Felice told Fox Business on Tuesday that while he is unsure how Wendy's plan to introduce fluctuating prices will turn out, he ultimately welcomes such experimentation for the industry.

The Wendy’s fast food burger chain recently announced it expects to roll out a dynamic pricing model similar to Uber's surge pricing, where the cost of items fluctuate up or down based on demand or other factors.

"Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing a variety of enhanced features on these digital menu boards like dynamic pricing, different offerings in certain parts of the day, AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling based on factors such as weather," a spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital after Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner announced it on an earnings call earlier this month.

Fox Business host Stuart Varney asked Felice, who runs multiple successful restaurants in New Jersey at the age of 33, about his thoughts on Wendy's announcement and how the industry is adapting to high inflation and the economic environment. 

WENDY'S ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR UNDERGROUND AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS TO DELIVER FOOD ORDERS TO VEHICLES

"Surge pricing, so the price of a burger would fluctuate depending upon demand. I don’t know how that’s gonna work. Would you ever consider that?," Varney asked. 

While Felice was unsure how consumers would respond to dynamic pricing, he said it’s good to see businesses try to keep updating their approach with the changing times.

"I don’t know how it will work, honestly, but I definitely love it. I like seeing these larger chains do things like this because you can learn a lot from them. I always say you need to be like Gumby in this industry. You gotta be willing to adapt and change to what you’re doing. By seeing these guys try something as crazy as that, not saying it's going to work or isn’t going to work, but it’s gonna be nice to sit back and see how people take it and then be able to adapt from that," he said. 

Felice pointed to how some restaurants have instituted a form of surge pricing when it comes to reservations with the more in demand times costing more. 

"People are already doing that, there’s apps that kinda program that. So if you go on this app and if you want the 7p.m. reservation, that 7p.m. reservation is gonna be more expensive," he said. 

"That is the early bird special in New Jersey and that’s what you are doing," Varney said.

WENDY'S INTRODUCES NEW BREAKFAST BURRITO: ‘A PORTABLE MASTERPIECE’

When asked how his own businesses have adapted to inflation, Felice said that raising prices was merely one piece of the puzzle, it's also important to be "just staying creative."

"I think a lot of restaurant owners, business owners, they don’t get creative with it. They just go right away to jacking the prices up, or try to solve the problem the easy way, I guess," Felice said. 

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

In addition to serving great food, Felice said he generates a profit by "creating an experience." 

"Going out to dinner is going out for an experience, and people these days will pay any amount of money for an experience. People go on a vacation, and they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go on whatever it may be these days, but it’s the same thing with going out to dinner," he said.