This may lean in the future to legal actions from consumers claiming they had not known that the food was not good for their health because the company failed to take the necessary means and inform them.
The situation at hand implies recommendations targeting the problems previously mentioned. First of all, the lack of information about the products can be easily remedied by actually placing that information next to each product. The case study argues that such a measure will actually reduce the number of consumers that currently purchase Wendy's products. I don't believe that is true.
First of all, there have been numerous articles, media information and stories that show that fast-food products are not healthy and encourage obesity, but people still stop and eat in such outlets. The fact that the information will actually be posted next to the hamburger or French fries will not make the customers turn around and go purchase a salad in the restaurant next door. Most likely, the targeted customers are people who either don't have time to eat or who simply enjoy the food that companies such as Wendy sell. Showing the food composition information...
Another important measure would be to actually act in terms of the products used in making the burgers and fries, for example. The case study mentions that changing the oil would cost a Wendy's restaurant as much as $19,000 a year. However, how is this comparable with the millions in legal costs that the company can incur, even in the happy case it actually wins the law suit?
I think that the decisions should be made by evaluating not only the direct costs involved, but also the indirect ones.
As we can see, some of Wendy's problems can be solved by simply making minor changes in some of the way that the products are commercialized and cooked. One can add to this the fact that the Wendy's menu can also offer a few healthy products, like perhaps different types of salads, as a diversification to the traditional menu. McDonald's has done something similar and it was encouraging to find that one could eat something else as well, not to mention the expansion of the potential target of consumers.
