These 3 Innovative Ideas Seemed Like the Future for Restaurant Franchises — Here’s Why They All Failed

Dynamic pricing, restaurant subscriptions and hot food vending machines had promise a year ago but went south.

Just because an idea is innovative doesn’t mean it will generate income. Restaurant Business recently cataloged three of the most promising tech bets of the past decade — and what killed them.

Number one: dynamic pricing. When Wendy’s CEO mentioned testing it on an earnings call in 2024, the New York Post called it “surge pricing.” Wendy’s walked it back, and the entire industry backed away. But the damage was done. The founder of dynamic pricing company Juicer said brands kept telling him the same thing: “I don’t want to become the next Wendy’s.”

Number two: restaurant subscription programs. Taco Bell, Sweetgreen, and Dickey’s all quietly dropped theirs. The math was never great. You end up rewarding your most loyal customers who would have visited anyway, while rarely changing the habits of occasional diners.

Number three: hot food vending machines. Chowbotics, Piestro, Basil Street, RoboBurger — all launched with fanfare, all mostly gone. The technical challenges were real, but the bigger problem was that most Americans are never more than a few minutes from a fast-food restaurant. The vending machine never had a real chance.