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Media companies and fast food companies are pretty dissimilar, and it seems like different things are going on.
I feel fairly hostile toward media companies in general right now, and am sort of rooting for Netflix's price hikes and making households smaller and nearer to result in mass loss of subscriptions, even if it destroys the company and they cease to exist. But then I haven't paid for Netflix (or Disney+, despite having daughters who love Disney shows) for years. But that doesn't mean that it's a moral issue, exactly.
Fast food companies do seem to be genuinely struggling with high price and low quality labor costs, especially, and things are what they are for them. Which doesn't mean I'll keep buying their food, of course. At some point I'll pack my own sandwiches for road trips, though that point is not quite reached. Today we were on a short road trip, deciding between fast food and a local Asian buffet. We went with the buffet, partly because we wanted it more, but partly because it was only about $5 - $10 more for four people than the fast food. It's not wrong for Sonic to cost as much as a good buffet. I'm not outraged. I just don't really eat there anymore. I'm not in the least worried that America will run out of reasonably convenient places to eat, so it's not really a problem if a bunch of fast food chains end up going out of business. There's nothing special, wonderful, and irreplaceable about Wendy's, even if it's slightly less convenient to have to plan a trip to a grocery store for food ahead of time.
Current fast food prices would be a great opportunity for the prepared food industry and convenience stores to swoop in and replicate the east asian model of selling relatively high quality food for cheap. I don't know if that has changed in the US but in Canada convenience food/gas station food is still dire, but when I check out videos of the stuff you get in convenience stores in Japan and Korea, I get jealous. Cold, hot or microwavable meals that seem to compare favorably with most prepared meals from supermarkets here, and cost little because there's little need for staff except the one cashier. It would easily replace the "I don't care, I just want something convenient and decent tasting" instances of fast food eating.
Truck stops often have mini supermarkets with microwaveable meals at halfway reasonable rates, plus some combination of hot pizzas, pizza rolls, burritos, hot dogs, cinnamon rolls, fresh cookies, etc.
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I've heard good things about gas station food in the American South.
When I was in Minnesota, the best fried chicken was from the gas stations, it was actually better, cheaper, and in more convenient locations than established chains like KFC. Actually, we did largely buy trip food from gas stations there, both fried chicken, and things like burgers and breakfast sandwiches.
In the Southwest, there are gas stations serving Mexican and Pueblo food as well, I have bought some excellent breakfast burritos at a casino gas station. I don't end up buying it as much lately, probably related to the location of the good ones, and the age of my children -- they're of an age to know what a Happy Meal is, know what the Disney toy they're currently selling is, and be genuinely excited about that. They were genuinely excited about a six piece double sided puzzle in a happy meal the other day, and that it came in a metal box.
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Do you think there's anything immoral or counterproductive about the act of consumers raging against corporations for raising prices instead of just quietly changing their spending habits? Or is it a good idea, even if part of the momentum of the rage is driven by falsehoods about corporate greed instead of inflation?
It's probably a waste of time and emotional energy? If all the consumers rage and Netflix lowers the price a bit or lets geographically separated family members share accounts again, that's fine, I suppose. If there are that many people invested in using Netflix specifically, they can go ahead and wrangle over it. If viewers are very firm about not wanting to spend money on, for instance, a $120 million live action remake of Avatar the Last Airbender, then maybe they will comply. If people want that, I can't really tell. Maybe someday a YouTuber complaining about how lame Disney's new streaming show is will get more views than the actual show, and they will take action to make less lame shows (or at least not raise prices to fund the lame shows). I'm not betting on it, though. But the interaction is legitimate enough.
The Wendy's happy hours/surge pricing thing seems a bit silly, but if consumers would really prefer a small price hike all day long to a larger one at specific times, it might be worth letting the company know. And complaining on the internet and to reporters is one way to let them know, likely more effective than complaining to the workers at their local store, anyway. It's probably basically useless to complain about fast food price increases in general, since any given restaurant is pretty low margin and probably unable to lower costs.
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