Wendy's superfans were probably already feeling this, but it's been clear the chain has been dialing it in for a long time now. For me, it was apparent that things were really sliding when the company decided last year to change its whole-leaf romaine lettuce to cheaper shredded iceberg (which has its time and place) on its sandwiches, like Wendy's ever-popular spicy chicken sandwich. But even two years back there were unofficial reports Wendy's had switched over to pre-cooked bacon rather than fresh.
Customers have been responding to the changes by simply not visiting Wendy's anymore, and the company has been forced to close hundreds of locations while its stock price has plummeted 65% over the past five years. The new CEO, Bob Wright, has finally copped to the fact Wendy's screwed up. It's not often you hear that from an exec, but he told The Wall Street Journal in an article published yesterday that they've let customers down — in begrudging corporate speak, at least. Wright said, "We have made some decisions around quality that were rooted in efficiency and cost savings. We have let our value equation erode."
Social media is mostly shrugging its shoulders, saying things like, "I knew it." People on Reddit piled on even harsher, saying, "I think the dean of every business school should be fired for churning out these idiot MBAs who think short staffing and decreasing quality to lower costs leads to long term growth. It's a cancer that has infected every sector from food service, to healthcare to manufacturing."
How Wendy's is planning to fix its past mistakes
CEO Bob Wright's admission draws parallels to 2010 when Domino's admitted its pizza just, well, sucked. Its CEO at the time, Patrick Doyle, reportedly said (via Inc.) that despite being a pizza giant, "We had somehow created a situation where people liked our pizza less if they knew it was from us." Domino's turned to an incredible mea culpa marketing strategy where it revamped its pizza recipe and essentially apologized to its customer base via commercials and other marketing formats. Lo and behold, it worked, and people trusted Domino's again.
Wendy's CEO was a little less straightforward, but essentially said the same thing, telling the Wall Street Journal in that same interview, "We need to rebuild our menu and do so at the ingredient level, at the item level, at the menu-category level. Hamburgers, chicken, salads — those are the primary categories for us. And desserts led by our Frosty. Each of those core categories have to bring strength for our menu." This probably won't turn into a similarly wild advertising campaign, but never say never. No concrete promises were detailed in the interview, but it's clear Wendy's knows it's got a huge problem — and is supposedly working on it. We can only hope the lettuce, at least, gets better.