Wendy's

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For the Australian ice cream chain, see Wendy's (Australia).

Wendy's <tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;"> Image:Wendy's Logo.svg </td></tr>
Type	Public (NYSE: WEN)
Founded	1969
Headquarters	Dublin, Ohio, USA <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Dave Thomas, Founder</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th><td>Food</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Products</th><td>Fast food, including hamburgers, chili, french fries, and dairy desserts</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Revenue</th><td>$3.783 billion USD (2005)<ref name="Hoover">http://www.hoovers.com/wendy's/--ID__11621--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml</ref></td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Net income</th><td>$224.1 million USD (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Employees</th><td>57,000 (2005)<ref name="Hoover">http://www.hoovers.com/wendy's/--ID__11621--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml</ref></td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Slogan</th><td>Do What Tastes Right</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th><td>www.wendys.com</td></tr>

Wendy's is a chain of fast food restaurants founded by Dave Thomas based in Dublin, Ohio and owned by the American corporation Wendy's International, Inc. There are over 6,700 Wendy's restaurants worldwide[1].

1 History
- 1.1 Superbar
- 1.2 Menu items
2 News events
3 Countries with Wendy's
4 Advertising
- 4.1 Slogans
5 Community
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

[edit] History

Image:Wendys-store.jpg

Wendy's is named after Dave Thomas's second daughter. Her real name was Melinda Lou Thomas, but her older siblings nicknamed her "Wendy".^{[citation needed]}

The chain is famous for its fresh, (as opposed to frozen) square ground beef hamburgers, which are made to order at the time of purchase and in their own words, "served hot off the grill". They are served as either a Classic Single (1/4 pound), Big Bacon Classic (1/4 pound), Classic Double (1/2 pound), and Classic Triple (3/4 pound). It is also known for its Frosty dairy desserts and its chili. Originally Wendy's had only two kinds of chicken sandwiches, breaded and grilled. Their spicy chicken sandwich started out as a promotional sandwich but was put on the menu full-time in the mid-1990s.

In 1970, Wendy's was the first fast-food chain to offer a drive-through window using a speaker box for placing your order before approaching the pick-up window. This was implemented initially at Wendy's second location.

Wendy's has recently begun experimenting with a breakfast menu in some of its stores. Unlike most fast food chains, Wendy's historically did not serve breakfast, except for stores in Puerto Rico. Wendy's tried serving breakfast once before in the mid-1980s, but the endeavor failed. However, in 2006, Wendy's began offering breakfast at select locations.

[edit] Superbar

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Wendy's also offered the "Superbar" [2], an all-you-can-eat buffet. These buffets were reasonably-priced and generally consisted of three "pods": a salad pod, a hot items pod with spaghetti, tacos, burritos, garlic bread, etc., and a dessert and other cold items pod. These buffets, while economical and somewhat popular, did not fit into Wendy's fast-food oriented mindset. Most restaurants stopped featuring the buffets around 1998.

[edit] Menu items

Wendy's combo meals originally featured french fries as the side item, but currently a number of options for side items are featured, including salads, chili, baked potato chips, and baked potatos.

In June 2006, Wendy's removed their classic "Biggie" and "Great Biggie" sizes in favor of a more traditional sizing system; "Small", "Medium", and "Large".<ref>Finley,Adam (2006-06-12). Wendy's ditches the term "biggie". Ad Jab. Retrieved on 2006-08-29.</ref>

In July 2006, Wendy's introduced a vanilla flavor of their famous Frosty dessert, which had prevously been available only in chocolate.

[edit] News events

In October 2006, approximately 50 Wendy's restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri and Western Illinois were forcibly closed due to financial troubles from the franchiser, WenAmerica. As of November 26, 2006, the restaurants remain closed and vacant.<ref>Miller,Scott (2006-10-05). Wendy's in the Midwest closes. The Pantagraph. Retrieved on 2006-10-21.</ref>

[edit] The "Wendy's Massacre"

See: Wendy's Massacre (2000 in Queens, New York)

[edit] Chili Hoax

Chili hoax - On March 22, 2005, Anna Ayala of Las Vegas claimed to have found an amputated human finger in her chili in a Wendy's location on Monterey Highway in San Jose, California. On April 21, she was arrested and charged with attempted grand larceny in connection with the finger discovery claim. On May 13, police announced that they had positively identified the finger's owner, an associate of Ayala's husband <ref>CNN story on the Wendy's chili hoax</ref>. The associate had lost his finger in an industrial accident in December 2004. Mrs. Ayala pleaded guilty to the charge in September 2005 and was sentenced to nine years in prison. Her husband pleaded guilty to being an accomplice and received a 12-year sentence on January 18, 2006.

[edit] Ellen DeGeneres

In 1997, the company pulled its advertising from the sitcom Ellen after the show's main character came out as a lesbian. The result was a boycott initiated by the gay and lesbian community <ref>Ellen Degeneres Boycott</ref>.

[edit] Countries with Wendy's

Image:Wendy's world locations.PNG Image:Wendys.jpg Aside from the United States, Wendy's has opened restaurants in Aruba, The Bahamas, Canada (with some locations attached to Tim Hortons), Cayman Islands, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and recently Costa Rica.

When Wendy's opened stores in Australia and Colombia, they did not last long. Nine restaurants were picked up in Victoria by Hungry Jack's in 1986 after the Wendy's Hamburger Chain went bust <ref>The Hungry Jack's Story explains in limited detail about the Wendy's Hamburgers acquisition.</ref>.

There is currently another brand of fast-food restaurants called Wendy's in Australia and New Zealand. They are an ice cream and drinks franchise which is unrelated to the American hamburger chain. (See Wendy's (Australia)). The outlets have similar colour schemes to each other and most customers are unaware they have separate ownership.

Wendy's restaurants closed in Greece in 2002 after almost 8 years of operation due to heavy competition from other restaurants such as Goody's and McDonald's. It also closed its restaurants in Hungary in 2000-2001 due to the same reasons. Wendy's also had locations in major cities across the United Kingdom; these were sold to McDonald's in 1999. Wendy's also had 18 restaurants in Argentina. All of them were closed in November 2000. Wendy's had been in the local market for four years and made the decision due to the poor performance of its restaurants <ref>www.bizjournals.com - Wendy's closes in Greece</ref> <ref>www.prnews.wire.co.uk - Wendy's closes in Greece</ref>.

[edit] Advertising

After successful early growth of the chain, sales flattened as the company struggled to achieve brand differentiation in the highly competitive fast-food market. This situation would turn around in the mid-1980s. Starting on January 9, 1984, elderly actress Clara Peller was featured in the successful "Where's the Beef?" North American commercial campaign for Wendy's. Her famous line quickly entered the American pop culture (it was even used by Walter Mondale in a debate with Gary Hart in the Democratic primary election) and served to promote Wendy's hamburgers. Peller, age 84, was dropped from the campaign in 1985 because she performed in a commercial for Prego spaghetti sauce, saying she "finally found" the beef. Peller was soon after replaced by Wendy's founder Dave Thomas himself. Soft-spoken and cheerful, the "Dave" ads generally focused on Thomas praising his products and offering a commitment to quality service, although there would occasionally be "wackier" ads as well. After Dave Thomas' death in 2002, Wendy's struggled to find a new advertising campaign. After a round of conventional ads describing the food they serve, in 2004 they tried using a character they made called "Mr. Wendy" who claimed to be the unofficial spokesperson for the chain. After seven months, Wendy's returned to an animated campaign focusing on the difference between Wendy's square hamburgers and the round hamburgers of competitors. Wendy's marketing arm engages in product placement in films (such as The Day After Tomorrow, Mr. Deeds, Garfield: The Movie, and Click) and television and is sometimes seen on ABC's hit reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition serving food to the more than 100 construction workers.

[edit] Slogans

1970: "Quality is Our Recipe" (still on logo)
1978: "Juicy hamburgers and lots of napkins"
1980: "Wendy's Has the Taste"
1981: "Ain't No Reason to Go Anyplace Else"
1982: "You're Wendy's Kind of People"?
1983: "It's the best time for...Wendy's" (Philippines)
1983: "Aren't you hungry... Aren't you hungry?" with napkins wiping face
1984: "Where's the beef?"
Circa 1990: "The best burgers and a whole lot more" (also was printed inside the hamburger wrappers during the 1990s)
1997 - Present: "Eat great, even late"
2000 (approx) - Present: "We don't cut corners" (New Zealand)
2000 (approx) - Present: "Wendy's cuadra contigo" (Wendy's fits with you) (Venezuela)
2001 (approx) - Present: "El Sabor de lo Recien Hecho" (The Flavor of the Brand New Made) (Honduras)
2002 - "It's hamburger bliss."
2002: "RIP Dave Thomas"
2004: "It's better here"
2005 - Present: "Do what tastes right." (primary slogan)
2005 - Present: "It's Good To Be Square"
2006 - Present: "Don't Compromise. Personalize"
2006 - Present: "There's a Wendy's here?"

[edit] Community

Starting in 1994, Wendy's has sponsored the Wendy's High School Heisman Memorial Trophy Award (also known simply as the Wendy's High School Heisman), named after former college football player and coach John Heisman, to honor high school athletes who also excel in academics and in the community.