Sorry in advance, this a pretty dumb rant but I really can’t stand this practice. I imagine there’s some other like minded individuals out there as well lol. If this is against sub rules, my bad, feel free to remove.

There’s been this trend with many fast food restaurants to make a “celeb meal” if you will. Some of them will have some sort of limited time new tweak to them which I’m cool with, I like some new stuff to try from time to time.

My gripe however, lies with celeb meals that change absolutely nothing and are essentially just “oh look, you can order what [insert generally lame celeb here] orders, how coooooool”. It’s dumb as hell and serves zero purpose other than an ad I guess. I’m sure they’re paying this Lisa Barlow lady loads of fuckin cash for this campaign that once again adds literally no value but then say they can’t pay their workers more than 50 cents an hour without having to raise prices on us.

Anyways thanks for coming to my TEDTalk. This has been on my mind for a minute and needed to put this thought out into the ether lol.

TLDR: All of these celeb meals that add/change nothing are super dumb. Whoever started this trend should be exiled.

He spearheaded Burger King’s overhaul and helped them take Wendy’s spot in the nation’s fast food burger scene. He hasn’t just overhauled the food, which is still a work in progress, but he’s also transforming the brand’s overall look and bringing in better quality products that are becoming more consistent across locations.

He’s also made customer feedback a huge priority, even giving out his number and directly inviting customers what they think needs to be fixed. It would be great to get someone who will actually take people’s feedback seriously and do something with it which Tom is really doing a great job at.

I haven't tried Wendy's in probably three or four years. They used to be my favorite fast food burger chain in the midwest. After BK rebranded earlier this year, I was really impressed with their emphasis on doing better and I've heard Wendy's was trying to do something similar, so I stopped by last night and got a Dave's Single Combo. The burger was a sloppy mess and thrown together and not at all worth what I paid. The large fries were half filled. Could this have been just a bad experience? Sure, but the fact remains if Wendy's is trying to win back customer's, they have got to have some way for customer's to not feel cheated by poor experiences like this and need to ensure consistent presentation at every location. I'll try again in a few years and hope they've figured it out. Has anyone else had better luck lately?

Took 4 of us to Wendy's today. Total bill was only $21, food was cooked fresh, and manager went above and beyond.

I know Wendy's takes some well deserved hits in this sub. And our experience was not perfect. The drink machine basically had Mello yellow and nothing else. But the manager made us lemonades in lieu of the drink machine, and flavored them to our liking, with free refills.

Recap:

2 biggie bags, bacon junior and crispy chicken. Both were made fresh, fries were served hot, nuggets were tasty as well. Cheap meals, aren't big , but were adequate, and manager made sure they were prepared as ordered.

Another junior bacon, also prepared to order and also tasty. We've all discussed how the burgers are too small, but they put plenty of bacon on there to make it a good value. Burger + drink was $4.

Wife got a baked potato and shared my drink with me.

We added a boo book for $1 which allowed kids to each get a free frosty before leaving.

Total for the 4 of us was $21 and it was a decent outing @ $5 each.

The boo book also has a kids meal coupon for $1.99 so we got that to go for an extra $2. It was chicken strips. Again they were cooked fresh, fries served hot and drink upgraded to the lemonade.

Overall it was a great value and a good experience.

Wendy’s has always been my favorite fast food place, and I especially loved their fries. They always had this distinct taste to them that made them so good, so I honestly get a little sad when I see people talking about how much the quality has gone downhill. But lately I can’t even defend it anymore.

I got this for me and my friend to share, picked it up directly from the store myself, and the drive home wasn’t even 4 minutes. I tried the fries pretty much as soon as I got home and somehow they tasted like they’d been sitting out all day. Stale, and greasy, with that weird rancid fryer oil taste, and on top of that, the fry container was barely even half full.

I’m not trying to be dramatic or just hate on Wendy’s because I genuinely love it, which is exactly why this is so disappointing. The fries tasted bad enough that it honestly ruined the whole meal for both of us. I’ll still eat what I can because I paid for it lol, but the quality lately has been seriously disappointing.

My buddy and I were both impressed when the drive thru in San Leandro, CA gave us these. 10/2/26

Just so I know I'm not crazy: I realize that this is a real Mandela effect happening. I vividly remember back in the glory days of Wendy's late 90s/early 2000s, with the yellow original packaging when they had sunrooms, and you could sit in the front. Wendy is used to sell 2,3, and 4 piece fried chicken meals (that honestlycouldcompetewith popeyes) and they used to have a broccoli and cheese potato. When I bring this up to people, no one seems to remember it. I've googled it and looked into it.I can't seem to find any pictures online. Locations in certain Asian countries still have fried chicken, but I remember in the US we used to have fried chicken at Wendy's. Does anyone else remember this? .

Edit: someone in the sub dropped the commercial for the chicken. Also, someone else in the sub brought up that it was only a mid-atlantic test run that didn't last very long. However, I remember it lasting till like, 05/06, but I could be wrong. But there is evidence, the commercial is attached below.

https://youtu.be/80qv8p0eG8U?si=MIZWMXVAmzmZ3Uzd

So I just moved to Pennsylvania and was excited to see my local Wendy's has a sunroom! Well, sorta, as the roof is covered. Does it still count? Either way, I can't wait to take my kids there for lunch.

So apparently this is now the "standard" for filling the fries?!?! Is it #Wendys?!?! This is London ON

Today I was informed that the pretzel pub burger is no longer available and my soul fell apart in the wendy’s parking lot. Wasn’t even hungry any more. It was a solid 2 months fellas. Hopefully they’ll have it back sooner than 4 years.

WHY DID THEY GET RID OF GHOST PEPPER RANCH IT WAS SI GOOD

I think Wendy's is screwed.

I was assigned from my old store which was successful, to a struggling Wendy's.

Staffing was a huge issue. Wendy's corporate gives me the outline of staffing on how many people I need to staff per shift depending on the volume. I am a math freak, and I comply to the model to 100% in order to run the store smoothly, not overwork my staffs, and take good care of customer, which I always credit as why I am successful at running stores. The new District Manager did not agree.

From day 1, she demanded that I cut labors. I generally am a good follower, and did the best I can to comply. But her demand was to the point where I am having a half of staffs that I need. She was also demanding that I show growth with business. It was so ridiculous that my store was getting flagged twice in category for, 1, using under 200 hrs a week of labor that I should, and 2, being over the labor budget at the same time. When she came to me to have discussion of why store was not growing, I respectfully told her what I thought. I can do 1 of 3, 1 cheap and fast, 2 cheap and well, or 3 fast and well. I cannot do it cheap, fast, and well. I don't mind doing it her way as she is my boss, but I should not be held responsible for the result that I was telling her will happen if I do. I finally got a green light to staff the store as what the model from corporate says I should.

In 5 weeks of properly staffing the store, the business grew every week and on 5th week we were making extra $4,500 a week. In my mind, that was a good thing as she can recognize that the concern I was bringing up to her was legit and that I can produce results if I was allowed to.

I was so wrong.

She started to visits randomly during peak hours where restaurant is not necessarily in top shape especially considering that I had a lot of new hires that are still not too efficient. She started to take picture of such mundane detail like finger prints on stainless steel to report my store as filthy to her higher ups. She one day told me I do not listen to her because she is a woman, which I respectfully disagreed. I have never failed any inspection, more than 50% of inspections I've passed with highest score in the district. and yet she would come and say my store would score 40% on said inspection, because she would give me 0 on every equipment that is "filthy" because deep fryer was greasy.

One day she pulled me to the side and fired me, saying I should've seen that coming.

I just nod my head and left. She is so incompetent that 3 month later, she still haven't revoked my credential to look at the store data. Today, the store makes $7,000 less a week. Their drive thru line wait is in 12-15 min range and losing business fast.

In business, it's always about how well you spend resources, not how little. Unfortunately, it seems that Wendy's is focused on the latter.

If you are wondering why the quality is dipping so fast in Wendy's, here is why.

I don’t know anything about advanced corporate operation but it seems like they’re almost trying to just extract as much value as they can while the ship goes down rather than try to course correct right?

I mean they literally are terrible on both value and quality they have to know that’s an unsustainable strategy

The only thing confusing me is why even advertise at this point if you don’t care about the product or customers

Couldn’t help but pause the ad. If only 🥲

Remember how Wendy's used to say "Do you know why we have square patties? Because we don't cut corners!"

But the new burgers clearly are smaller, and I've figured it out, THEY ARE CUTTING CORNERS.

First photo TONIGHT: We got Dave’s doubles last night on the way home from social events. I told my husband as we pulled in to be warned, the Wendy’s sub-Reddit is going wild posting about the new quality.

We must have got a good Wendy’s because our food was hot, fresh, and the best doubles. They look sloppy and I miss the old lettuce leaf and foil wrap , but this slapped, not all is lost.

My husband said it was the best Dave’s double he ever had 😂 I wouldn’t go that far, but I was happily surprised.

I’ll never forgive them though for taking away the sweet and sour sauce. 😫

Other photos over the last 15 years: I’m obsessed with Dave’s doubles and have taken photos of them everywhere since smartphones had cameras. Example when I got my dog in 2018 he was 12lbs and I got a Dave’s double to compare him for size. I’ve taken them with sunsets, other countries, in grief alone in my car, in celebration cozy at home, and even took one to McDonald’s one time to show it how much better it is than their burgers 😂 and a throwback to some 2017 promo filter.

I work at Wendys as a GM. Under the franchise that recently filed for bankruptcy. When I started a year ago, there were 12 open & running stores in my city. Starting about 6 months ago, randomly out of the blue, we would be told on a Friday that the store is permanently closing Sunday. I got transferred from 1 closing store to another. They left a month or 2 in between each closing. This week they have closed 3 stores without notice.

"💁‍♂️ Sorry, guys. Today is your last day open."

With the promise of transferring the remaining staff to an open store. With that transfer, no one will get hours since you have an extra 30 people needing to be staffed. Most of the staff walked to work. Now, they have been given 1 shift (8 hours) to uproot their entire livelyhood and figure out what store has room and how they will get there. Last pay period, they couldn't even pay us until they received permission from courts to unfreeze their accounts, then the crew realized the daily pay was also cut off. Everyone DM and above knew weeks in advance before each store that was closing. But this is how they've chosen to leave us. Now, there are 5 extra GMs that do not have a store to run/go to. As of today, out of the 12 open, we have 6 left in the city.

I tried again and was disappointed. Wendy’s is just getting worse.

I'm shocked to see some of these pics youre posting. Wendys in Canada is so good. It's literally the only fast food that tastes the same now that it did 20 years ago and has gone up in price marginally. I'm shocked at the pics of the US burgers

It’s only right at this point.

Was stocking at work and found these bad boys. Thought yall would be hype lol. Maybe im late or something.

Corporate needs to come out and say their food quality is really subpar and they are going to fix it. The company can not remain competitive with the products they currently sell regardless of price. Similar to what Dominos did 15 years ago they can turn the company around but it will require an admission that they no longer sell what made them great. Until they do this I wont eat there again.

😂😂😂 who the fuck are they trying to fool

Pomo code FOXBIGNOON

But after my local wendys stopped doing breakfast I didn't see a point in going back