Wendy's

The Wendy's chain of fast food restaurants also exists in Canada. The restaurants in Canada however, are usually the last to get new items. A Wendy's in Michigan was advertising a Fish sandwich in April 2001, but it has yet to come to Canada.

Many of the Wendy's I've visited boast a sun room as part of the dining room. This really enhances the experience. Although the drive-thru, with it's "You Must Be In a Car to Place an Order" signs are still highly popular.

Also, when thinking of their hamburgers, fries, frosties, chicken sandwiches, chili and baked potatoes, one must not forget Wendy's wonderful salads, wraps, and chicken nuggets.

Biggie Size it, bizzatch!

Dave Thomas, burger man extraordinaire and your personal savior, founded Wendy's in 1969.  He had previously made millions managing four failing KFC restaurants for Colonel Sanders and turning them into successes.  With the money he made from that enterprise, he was ready to live his childhood dream of owning and operating his very own fast food restaurant!

The first restaurant opened in 1969 at 257 East Broad Street in Columbus, Ohio, right here, in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!  It was named "Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers" after Dave's eight year old daughter.  She was not in fact named Wendy (they called her Melinda, cuz that was her name), but that didn't stop our hero Dave!  (It was her nickname.)  That original restaurant is still open today, and it doubles as a Wendy's museum.

Wendy's was dedicated to serving higher quality hamburgers than the competition.  This wasn't very hard, as McDonald's and Burger King both royally suck.  Besides offering good food, another thing that set them apart from the competition was that they offered SQUARE burgers instead of ROUND burgers, which even a common idiot with a degree in hamburgerology can see is vastly superior.  Because it's square, you see.  DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?? (Why are they square, you ask? Because Dave's grandma told him never to cut corners. Could I make that up?! Okay, I could, but I'm not.)


Make love to me like you are Oprah Winfrey and I am a Wendy's triple!

Dave opened up a second Columbus restaurant in November of 1970, which was the first restaurant in America to have a Drive Thru Window.  Not many people know this, but prior to 1970 you actually had to go INSIDE the restaurant to get your food!  THE HORROR!  The first franchisee-owned store was opened by L.S. Hartzog in Indianapolis, Indiana in August of 1972.  The chain continued to expand rapidly throughout the '70s, and the Wendy's Management Institute was opened in 1972 to help train employees and potential franchisees.  Note that even though McDonald's' Hamburger University started eleven years earlier, in 1961, they were OBVIOUSLY ripping off Dave's idea because McDonald's absolutely sucks and no good ideas can possibly have come from them.  1976 marked Wendy's GOING INTERNATIONAL, BAYBEE as the 500th restaurant opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

A second 1976 milestone occurred that September, when Wendy's had its Initial Public Offering and became a publically traded stock on the NASDAQ exchange.  It would later switch to the New York Stock Exchange in 1981, where it is still traded under the symbol "WEN".  BUY STOCK NOW!

Wendy's began offering salads in 1979, proving that they are indeed trying to kill people (slightly) more slowly than McDonald's.  It was the first new product added to the menu since the chain's inception in 1969 and kicked off a neato "menu diversification program" which is an incredibly complicated way of saying that they added more food to the menu.  1983 would see the addition of the Baked Potato.


WHERE'S THE BEEF?

Despite being the most bling bling fast food franchise in America (have I mentioned the SQUARE BURGERS??), Wendy's still trailed behind McDonald's and Burger King in 1984.  This is mostly because Americans are extremely stupid and do not recognize quality food when they see it, but I digress.  So in 1984, Dave Thomas knew that SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE!  So, they found their key to success--OLD FOGIES!  Octagenerian Clara Peller became the center of a nationwide advertising campaign.  She would go to competitors restaurants and valiantly search between their hamburger buns for the meat, which of course WAS NOT THERE!  "Where's the beef?" she'd ask.  Where?  YOU KNOW WHERE!  At Wendy's!!!

The ad campaign was astoundingly successful, leading to a 31% increase in sales during this period (1984-1986).  Even only being around five years old around this time, I distinctly remember seeing these commercials and giggling hysterically at this silly old woman who couldn't find the beef.  IT'S RIGHT THERE, OLD LADY!  AT WENDY'S!  Stop eating crappy burgers and GO TO WENDY'S!

Peller was fired in 1986 for BETRAYING Wendy's by appearing in a Prego ad.  A Wendy's VP said: "Clara can find the beef only in one place, and that is Wendy's."  Okay, maybe that's taking loyalty a little too far.  REGARDLESS, I still think she should've been put to death for her insolence.  She died in 1988 at age 86.


I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that

Finally, in 1989, Wendy's launched a new advertising campaign and gave us what we really had been clamoring for--DAVE THOMAS ON OUR TELEVISION SET!  He began to appear in Wendy's commercials himself, advertising new products and just generally being a nice guy.  This kicked off a period of international expansion for Wendy's, as new restaurants began to open in Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, and many other exotic and interesting locations!  

Was Wendy's content with that?  NO!  Dave also blessed us with the Super Value Menu in 1989, offering seven great items for only 99 cents!  1990 saw the addition of the Grilled Chicken Sandwich and 1992 added more salads to the menu in order to provide more nutritious goodness.

President George Bush asked Dave (who was adopted) to be the spokesperson for his new national initiative, "Adoption Works…For Everyone" in August 1990.  Even though Bush launched us into an unneccessary war in Iraq and sent us plunging into a recession, DAVE WAS ABLE TO GRACIOUSLY LOOK PAST ALL THAT!  He accepted Bush's offer and Wendy's adopted adoption (no pun intended) as its nationwide charitable cause.  In 1992, The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption was created to further that cause.

Wendy's merged with Tim Horton's in 1995, furthering Dave's goal of TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION great burgers (AND DOUGHNUTS) worldwide!

May 1996 was a great time in my life, as Wendy's introduced the Spicy Chicken Sandwich and made me an extremely happy man.  It remains my favorite menu item.  Why, you ask?  Because it's the only fast food "spicy" chicken sandwich that's ACTUALLY SPICY.  The following month, in June, Wendy's debuted the very popular all-white meat 5-piece crispy chicken nuggets.  These are good, but they only come in servings of five!  FIVE IS NOT ENOUGH!  TWENTY WOULD BE BETTER!

March 2000 sadly saw John "Jack" T. Schuessler take over as Chairman and CEO for Dave, whose health was rapidly declining due to heart and kidney problems he had been battling since 1996.  Dave Thomas would pass away from complications due to liver cancer on January 8, 2002.


Fuck you! I've got burger powers!

Today, there are over 8,000 Wendy's restaurants around the world; the company is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio.  It is still run on the same simple principles Dave founded Wendy's with all those many years ago: "Serve hot, fresh hamburgers that are made to order with a choice of toppings and treat each customer as a special guest."  

Go eat Wendy's.  NOW!



http://www.wendys.com and http://www.wendyshighschoolheisman.com/hsh/about/history/bio_thom/ were helpful

Having worked at a Wendy's Hamburgers resturaunt for spare change for college, I'm a bit scared of the place. zgirll must have been part of the day crew. Damn the day crew...

I worked there for many moons, and now I find myself avoiding the place like a plague.* Let's start with the service. We try our best to be kind, at least until we just can't take it anymore, which is about 2 hours into the shift.** Every person that has ran the register always came to this simple conclusion: "People are fucking morons!" The store is completely run by teenagers, and when it isn't, that means a manager only a few years older than the teenagers is present. The only one older than 25 is the General Manager. I'm just starting college, but somehow someone younger than me is running the store. He's a short Mexican that replies with "poke your butt" when presented with the question "guess what". He's 17 years old and has a kid.

And you know that sign on the door when you walk in that states that the store is designated a non-smoking area? Well, after the front closes we all like to gather 'round a couple tables when the drive thru isn't busy and puff away our problems. And we have a LOT of problems.***

My advice? Don't go there after 10 at night. That's when the front closes, and to us that means the time to close down the store completely is at hand. We start making a few shortcuts. Fries tend to stay in the basket and go unsalted until they're gone (which makes them nice and squishy). The grill burns unattended, since The Grillah is too busy wiping his stations down and cleaning his floor. "Sandwhich makers" (the dudes that randomly throw shit onto your burger) pre-close their stations by sending their dishes to The Back Bitch, leaving their condiments in a sorry state (wet cheese, choppy lettuce, and what you think is mayo and ketchup, but could be mustard mixed with onions and fries--don't ask). The person on register becomes rather annoyed with the idiotic customers (please, for the love of God, say "99-cent nuggets" instead of "99-cent five-piece crispy chicken nuggets"... we know what they are, dammit). As you might have already gathered, "fresh" is not in our vocabulary. In response to zgirll, the meat we get is prepackaged and stored in the walk-in for days.**** So is the chili, That spicy chicken you just ate probably dropped down to the floor to say "what's up" (har) before being placed on a bun. Only God knows how many toxic chemicals I handled before covering the sandwhich maker's break.

I mostly worked in the back, but spent a great deal of time on the grill, a considerable amount as a sandwhich maker, but just a small amount on the register. While in the back, it's peaceful (except for the bitching the front tends to do... "drop 5 and 5", "get some fries", "patatoes are up", "get some biggie cartons from dry storage"... it's the "Back Bitch" for a reason). I don't have to interact with people much, and since I'm pretty good at the job (or so the managers tell me), I can get away with chillin' back there for an hour or two without being noticed. Some of the things you can come up with to do while back there can get pretty disturbing. Oh yeah, the title "Back Bitch" disappeared a few days after I arrived, since I have little tolerence for such things. But I use it when I'm not the one who's back there. (Fast food can turn a nice guy into an asshole surprisingly quick.)

The working conditions couldn't really be worse: Boiling grease everywhere, as well as incredibly hot surfaces (it's never cool behind the counter). Ever got boiling grease in your eye? Trust me, it ain't a pleasant experience. Also, my hand turned into swollen, bumpy flesh after a couple days with the dishes. What the hell do they put in those soaps andsanitizers? Oh, and the pay... as I've mentioned before, the managers think I'm a pretty good worker, but they sure-as-hell don't know how to reward good work. I never got a raise--not once. They said they would, but never did. An immeasurable amount of anger has been generated within me because of this ill treatment.

You like the chili? In this order, throw down some meat on the grill, burn it to a crisp, feeze it, boil it, chop it up into little peices, and mix it with a special blend of herbs and spices (just various kinds of beans and peppers with some sauce), and BAM, you got Wendy's chili. The hamburgers... have you seen the grill they're prepared on? Sure, they're nice and shiny in the morning, but wait until my shift comes around... some sort of black shit sticks to it. The fries? Last time I checked (Aug 15 2002), the date on the fry bags said "Jul 19 2001"... need I say more? The chicken sandwiches come frozen, so we just dip them in the deep frier for 5 minutes. Baked potatoes are pretty good, so I've heard, but... ever wonder what happens to them before they're wrapped? The same sink they're washed in is the same sink we wash dishes in (and you remember what I said about the soaps and sanitizers, right?). The salads are just about the only things that are safe to eat... depending on who's preparing them, anyway. And yeah, the health inspector dude comes around every now-and-then... the kicker? We get good scores.

* Disclaimer: This is just my experience at Wendy's and may not reflect actual working conditions at any other Wendy's, but it sure as hell happened at mine. I still hate the fucking place.
** Here's a nice story: The girl at the register was having a bad day, and a customer was being a bitch (trust me on this one, she was a flat-out bitch), so the girl let the customer know that by sending them off with "have a nice day, bitch". The car rolled a couple feet, stopped on a dime, and backed up to the window. The customer wanted to know what the girl said, so the girl repeated, saying "have a nice day...". That customer called a few minutes later, demanding the manager (the 17-year-old manager) to fire the girl or she'll take legal action. The girl didn't get fired, of course, yet we didn't get put through court. We simply lied. Well, the young manager lied, with the help of the other manager on duty. The GM was manipulated properly, so the whole thing was over with in a couple days. But it was entertaining while it lasted.
*** We also make our problems fly away. Pretend you have massive amounts of small food at your disposal. What would you do? Food fight, of course. The sheer scale of our food fights is staggering, and the time required to get all the stains out even more so. Sometimes the little pickle-on-the-back turns into a bucket-in-your-face. This means that some people out there take things more seriously than they should. It happens. Entire walls are lined and splattered with mustard and ketchup while pickles stick to every surface imaginable. Tomatos get some good distance too, and let me tell ya: potatoes hurt. Also, when you have a store full of teenagers from the ghetto, you have drug dealings and under-age drinking like there's no tomorrow. Managers provide the hook-up, but they'll give you the ass-end of a deal if your not careful.
**** Square patties. What the fuck. Symbolism be damned, man! Putting SQUARE patties onto ROUND buns doesn't make eating the shit any easier. It makes it difficult and therefore annoying.

Run away from Wendy's. RUN, DAMMIT!

99 Cent Super Value Menu

I'm rich and hungry, why would I need the menu?

With the recent projection by economists that oil may reach an astounding $60/barrel sometime in 2005, things are looking grim for American drivers; this means that gas prices will continue to soar. Obviously we will never go Euro and actually use our lovely legs to get around, so we need a different solution. When we drive anywhere, we carry spare change in our pockets for gas and the occasional stops at a drive-thru. After all, America is overweight. If we aren't going to drive less and most of us will not see a random increase in our incomes, then some cut-backs need to be made in fast food spending.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU HAVE TO EAT ANY LESS.

As an economics student, I suggest you find substitute goods. Lucky for you, the Wendy's 99 Cent Super Value Menu is equipped to satisfy all of your needs.

What can I order?

5 piece Crispy Chicken Nuggets

Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger

Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe™

Medium French Fries

Medium Cola Soft Drink

Small Frosty™ Dairy Dessert, 12 oz. Cup

Small Chili

Sour Cream and Chives Hot Stuffed Baked Potato

Side Salad

Caesar Side Salad

1/4 lb. Double Stack

1/4 lb. Deluxe Double Stack

...but I want filling proportions!

I was not initially impressed by the 99 Cent Super Value Menu. I said, "Dave Thomas! You did not leave us something better?! Weren't the customers addressed on your will?!"

THEN I SAW IT.

Order a Great Caesar Side Salad and Crispy Chicken Nuggets. Cut up the chicken nuggets, put them in your salad, and BAM! You have a Chicken Caesar Salad!

Only a JUNIOR bacon cheeseburger? JUNIOR chicken deluxe? BUY TWO AND STACK 'EM! Same with the 1/4 lb. Double Stack and Deluxe Double Stack! Mix and match, and you're saving a few bucks on the normally $3-4 burgers!

The "small" chili is actually QUITE filling and delicious. Substitute for french fries with any meal.

Your "medium soda" is actually a small if you decide to put ice in it. Use little/no ice for some vital ounces of soda.

Remember: Beggars can't be choosers!

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