We did a series of two or three case studies on Wendy's in graduate school in the very late 1970s. One of them dealt with how Wendy's, at the time, could advertise that you would alway get a freshly cooked burger at a fast food restaurant.
The secret was that each Wendy's had an estimate of how many customers it would have by quarter-hour segments each day of the week. Burgers were tossed on the grill based on that estimate so that the approximate number of hot, fresh burgers were always ready.
Burger patties that sat out too long after cooking were used to make the chili.
If you go back through your memory, or old Wendy's ads, you'll note that Wendy's used to advertise that you got a quarter pound of meat in each serving of chili. Coincidentally, a burger patty weighed a quarter pound.
The chili recipe was based on collecting specific numbers of burger patties. I don't know how it works now, but I can tell you how it worked in a case study in the 1970s.
I kid you not.
I don’t think anyone doubts that Wendy’s takes unsold burger meat and uses it to make chili soup.
Not only does that make for a more flavorful chili than using fresh cooked, it adds to the profitability of each store.
And I don’t see a problem with that.