Wendy's used to be my favorite fast food place. I liked their salads, which no-one else, of the big 4 offer. But, then they closed the two Wendy's that were easy to get to, leaving only the one that is the hardest to get to, because of the traffic. Too often, after fighting the traffic to get in there, I found the dining room closed, because, heaven forbid they have enough staff on the clock to open the dining room. When I did fight the traffic, and found the dining room open, the COBB salad that I favored deteriorated seriously last year. The two strips of bacon vanished. The lettuce became mostly stems with little leaf on them. The scoops of diced tomato, hard boiled egg, and shredded cheddar shrank to the point that I was poking through the last salad I had to see if there was any egg, tomato or cheddar at all in it. I said "I can't pay $9 for this"

So, their cost cutting on locations, cost cutting on staff, and cost cutting on product, cost them a customer of decades long standing.

Wendy’s Fell to No. 3 in Burger Chains. Its New CEO Blames ‘Quality Degradation.’

Wendy's just lost its spot as America's No. 2 burger chain. Same-store sales fell 7% and traffic dropped 12.5% in the second quarter, the company's sixth straight quarterly decline, according to Restaurant Business.

Bob Wright, who took over as Wendy's CEO in May after leading Potbelly through a turnaround and a $566 million sale, didn't hold back about what went wrong. "Our quality differentiation has eroded, our value proposition has weakened, and we have not consistently delivered the experience customers expect from Wendy's," he said.

finance.yahoo.com - Wendys has a massive problem its closing restaurants left and right

All hail the Welchists, who destroy a company's long term viability, to fluff up short term profits with cost cutting.

Steve