Dave Thomas opened the first Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio, in November 1969, modeling it on Kewpee Hamburgers in his hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan, known for thick malts and square burgers. Square patties tile a flat-top grill with no wasted space, and their corners poking past a round bun signal more meat. Basketball star John Havlicek was one of the earliest backers. Thomas named the chain for his daughter Melinda Lou, nicknamed Wendy, and later regretted how it cost her anonymity. The Frosty blended chocolate and vanilla ice cream thick enough to need a spoon, and the baked potato arrived in 1983 for low-fat dieters.
Sales had flatlined by the mid-1980s when 83-year-old Clara Peller starred in the 1984 Where's the Beef ads, which Walter Mondale quoted in a primary debate; she was dropped in 1985 after declaring "I found it" in a Prego commercial. Thomas then appeared in over 800 ads, a record for a company founder, and in 1988 Wendy's introduced a 99-cent value menu. Abroad, it has opened and closed in Hong Kong, Singapore and Russia, left the UK in 2000 and returned in 2021, and faces Australia's Wendy's Milk Bar, operating since 1979. Other pressures include a 2019 shift to hydroponic and greenhouse tomatoes after Coalition of Immokalee Workers protests, cage-free eggs at only 9 percent of operations in 2024, and a 2024 dynamic pricing idea dropped after public backlash.
Wendy's is the third largest fast food hamburger chain in the world, with over 7,000 locations.
Chili turns cooked patties past their holding time into a signature item and cuts food waste.
Wendy's remains the only major fast food chain selling baked potatoes.
Its social media account became known in the 2020s for sarcastic roasts of competitors.
A 2022 E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce sickened nearly 100 people across several states.
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