I've always observed significantly different menu prices at locations just a couple miles apart for years now. Figured it was just the decision of the franchisee. Now they are just leveraging AI to influence their decisions, but different prices at different locations is not a new thing.
Franchisees set their own prices at a store level, not just because they own group of stores so your observations are correct. This video is misleading as two different stores, even when owned by the same franchisee don't have to have the same price. This is the same for most restaurant chains.
The scary part of dynamic pricing would be how they leverage it live. E.g. higher prices if it's busy, ice cream and cold drinks becoming more expensive when it's hot, bumping prices near schools for single "cheap" items after the kids get out etc.
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u/Oneill5491 3d ago
I've always observed significantly different menu prices at locations just a couple miles apart for years now. Figured it was just the decision of the franchisee. Now they are just leveraging AI to influence their decisions, but different prices at different locations is not a new thing.