Wendy’s has stopped offering burgers at some restaurants

Thanks to the meat shortage the country is facing, Wendy’s has paused burger sales at some restaurants. Could other chains follow?

Well, it seems as if the meat shortage has found its way to Wendy’s, as the chain has made the tough call of suspending burger orders at some of its restaurants.

According to CNN, 1,000 of the chain’s restaurants have temporarily halted serving burgers and other meat-based related items on their menu. That accounts for about 18 percent of its 5,000 store count, and if the shortage persists, that number could rise.

So far, Wendy’s is the only fast-food burger chain to halt sales of burgers at some of its restaurants, and there is a reason for that. According to Stephens, a financial firm that analyzed the chain’s menu, Wendy’s is far more exposed to the meat shortage than its competition because the chain uses fresh beef as compared to its counterparts.

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To put it in another way, Wendy’s “fresh beef” motto is becoming a temporary liability for the chain. So when meat suppliers had to temporarily close their plants due to workers testing positive for the coronavirus, that spelled bad news for Wendy’s, and suspensions in burger sales were inevitable.

The states that got hit with the burger shortages were Ohio (the company’s home state), Michigan, and New York. Wendy’s locations in these states purchase most of their beef from those affected plants. Meanwhile (for the time being), states in the south and west aren’t affected by the shortage.

With the shortage of fresh beef, Wendy’s website has been pushing more of their chicken sandwiches and its breakfast, the latter of which has been a boon to sales for the chain. As for the other chains, McDonald’s has said its supply chain is still healthy and Burger King has yet to comment on its meat supply.

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