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Wendy's customers shocked to find their burgers and sandwiches are missing key ingredient
Wendy's is warning customers that their burgers or chicken sandwiches will come without lettuce.
Heavy rain at farms where the fast food giant grow lettuce has led to the shortage at many of the chain's 6,200-plus restaurants.
All of the US's lettuce is grown in California and Arizona. Both experienced heavy rain and flooding in February - with California getting battered again in March and April.
The chain's app and website warns of the shortgage, while servers are supoosed to do the same when customers order at kiosks. It is not affecting all restaurants.
Wendy's told DailyMail.com this morning that it is working hard to fix the shortage - but it is not yet known if that will be days, weeks or months. A chain of that size cannot simply find a new supplier overnight.
But we can reveal that Wendy's has a plan to avoid bad weather hitting salad supplies in coming years - it is growing more and more in greenhouses as part of a project started in Canada in 2020.
Wendy's Dave's Single promotional shot - showing the lettuce
Wendy's warns about the lettuce shortage when customers open its app. Ordering kiosks in restaurants carry the warning too - and servers taking orders also are supposed to tell customers
It is unclear yet if other restaurants will be affected by the bad weather hittng salad supplies. A similar shortage of lettuce at the end of 2022 hit Taco Bell, Subway and Chick-Fil-A.
As soon as customers open up the Wendy's app, a message pops up to warn them: 'Some restaurants are currently experiencing sandwich lettuce shortages due to heavy rain in the growing region.
'Your understanding is appreciated as we aim to provide a fresh solution for all our customers.'
For customers ordering in affected restaurants, they either see the same message on digital ordering kiosk or servers warn them.
After getting a lettuce-free Dave's burger on a recent trip to Wendy's, David Martin, from LA, California,said: 'Come on! You cannot serve a burger without the lettuce. It's a key fixing.'
Wendy's told DailyMail.com this morning that it hopes to have the shortage sorted 'very soon'. It also said that its salads and wraps are not affected.
'We are experiencing sandwich lettuce shortages at certain restaurants due to adverse weather that has impacted the growing region.' a spokesperson said.
'Lettuce for salads and our grilled chicken wrap are available. We expect this to be temporary and to be resupplied very soon.'
Too much rain is worse for plants as too little - because farmers can always irrigate dry land.
Heavy rain also damages plants - both battering the leaves as it falls and then the roots - and it also washes away nutrients. It also causes mold and mildew to spread and makes harvesting tougher.
Wendy's has made moves to avoid lettuce shortages caused by bad weather in the US. In October, it announced it would switch more of its lettuce supply to greenhouses after problems with quality and availability.
'We are seeing more extreme weather events,' chief corporate affairs and sustainability officer Liliana Esposito said in an interview with Bloomberg last year.
'It's really about supply assurance, that you can create a more stable, less volatile supply.'
One customer this week complained that - as well as getting no lettuce - he also didn't get the tomato in his burger.
Wendy's is growing more lettuce under greenhouses - such as this one in Canada - to avoid the effects of bad weather
One Wendy's customer got a burger missing tomoto as well as lettuce
Postsing a picture, he wrote on X: 'Ordered a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger (among other items) - and I know there is a supply issue on lettuce - but where is the tomato slice?'
It is not the first time fast food fans have been hit with a lack of lettuce. In November 2022, both Taco Bell, Subway and Chick-Fil-A ran out of it.
At the time, Taco Bell's app displayed a banner warning: 'National Lettuce Shortage' in bold lettering, and told customers that 'Due to an industry shortage, we may be out of this ingredient at your local restaurant.'
Meanwhile, Wendy's faced a social media backlash in February over plans to trial Uber-like 'surge pricing'.
DailyMail.com broke the story after discovering documents that showed how Wendy's was looking at dynamic pricing
Our story was widely picked up and Americans reacted in horror to the idea that they might be expected to pay higher prices at busier times of the day.
'Wendy's is barely worth it as it is,' wrote one X user in response to the news. 'Who's gonna pay for surge pricing on a mediocre burger?'
Days later, the Dublin, Ohio-based company backtracked. While it admitted it would change prices, it said this would be to make them lower during slower times of day. It denied it would raise them when restaurants get busier.