Wendy’s will start testing a dynamic pricing style. Do you still want fries with that?

How much for that chocolate Frosty and a loaded baked potato? It depends … on time, location, and demand, apparently.

Wendy’s announced this month that it would begin rolling out a new dynamic pricing model — the same structure that informs airline prices, hotel fares, and rideshare rates.

The fast food company’s new CEO and president, Kirk Tanner, shared major investment plans — including $55 million in breakfast menu marketing and an additional $30 million toward new digital menu boards where the prices and listings can easily change — in an earnings call.

“Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing and daypart offerings along with AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling,” Tanner said, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

The digital menu boards — which are meant to improve order accuracy and increase sales by upselling particular menu items — are expected to roll out to all U.S. company-operated locations by the end of next year.

The new dynamic pricing model will also start being tested by 2025, according to Wendy’s. It will allow the fast food chain to “surge” or decrease menu item prices depending on the time of day and demand.

The concept in the food space isn’t entirely new. In 2022, Nation’s Restaurant News noted a shift to digital ordering and higher food costs prompting some restaurants to adopt the pricing model.

“The industry isn’t there yet, but it’s moving in that direction,” according to the report.

Last year, Restaurant Business noted that some spots were considering the price model, but acknowledged the financial barriers to integrate that kind of technology.

“We would have to put digital menu boards in every store,” Scott Scherer, chief information officer for Jersey Mike’s, said at FSTEC, an annual food service technology conference. “It would be quite expensive.”

Still, experts say there are benefits to the upgrade and there’s an argument to be made for charging higher prices on Friday nights or offering low prices to bring customers in during lulls.

Restaurant Business also noted that companies with strong loyalty programs can have an advantage. When Starbucks offered half-price cold drinks to rewards customers who order on the app, traffic to its shops spiked.

A Wendy’s spokesperson told the Today show it was enhancing its own loyalty program and said the digital menus and dynamic pricing are in the works.

“We are making a significant investment to accelerate our digital business,” Wendy’s said. “We are leveraging technology even more with the roll out of digital menu boards in some U.S. restaurants.”

Additional features, like AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling based on factors like the weather are also in the works, according to Wendy’s.

“Dynamic pricing can allow Wendy’s to be competitive and flexible with pricing, motivate customers to visit and provide them with the food they love at a great value,” the statement said. “We will test a number of features that we think will provide an enhanced customer and crew experience.”

But customers aren’t exactly sold on the news.

Across social media, consumers questioned the tactics and asked if employees would see higher wages when the rate for fries or burgers surge.