Wendy's cuts interiors in cities

Wendy’s is testing restaurants with little or no indoor seating in some U.S. cities, pushing more orders to drive-thru, pickup windows and delivery. (wendys.com) The chain’s official redesign, called Global Next Gen, was introduced in 2022 and expanded in 2023 with features built for digital orders, including delivery shelves, walk-up windows, self-order kiosks and pull-ahead spots for cars. Wendy’s said the format can handle up to 400 times the digital-order capacity of older layouts. (wendys.com) (irwendys.com) In Seattle, Wendy’s website currently lists three locations, including Rainier Avenue South, Lake City Way and 15th Avenue Northwest. In Oakland, the company lists three restaurants on 98th Avenue, International Boulevard and Broadway. (locations.wendys.com 1) (locations.wendys.com 2) Wendy’s has framed the redesign as a response to how customers already buy food: more orders placed on phones, more delivery pickups, and more traffic in the drive-thru. Its 2023 announcement said the new stores were built for “convenience, speed and accuracy” across drive-thru, dine-in and digital pickup. (irwendys.com) That shift comes as the company is also shrinking parts of its U.S. footprint. On its November 2025 earnings call, interim chief executive and chief financial officer Ken Cook said Wendy’s expected a “mid-single-digit percentage” of U.S. restaurants to close, with closures beginning in late 2025 and continuing through 2026. (today.com) (irwendys.com) Cook said those closures were aimed at underperforming stores and at freeing up capital for franchisees to reinvest in equipment, technology, digital menu boards and new buildings. Wendy’s had about 6,000 U.S. restaurants at the time, according to the November 2025 report. (today.com) The company has not published a nationwide list of stores switching to no-interior service, and Wendy’s location pages still show at least some Oakland restaurants offering dine-in. The Broadway store in Oakland, for example, is listed as operating with dine-in, delivery, drive-thru and carryout. (locations.wendys.com) That leaves the picture uneven by market: Wendy’s has a corporate design strategy that favors digital and drive-thru orders, while individual restaurants and franchisees can still vary on whether indoor service is available. The next public update on the company’s broader U.S. business is scheduled for May 8, 2026, when Wendy’s reports first-quarter results. (wendys.com) (irwendys.com)