It isn’t the amount of time it takes to pay off the house. It is the time it takes not to loose money on selling a house. The number was about 5 years when I purchased my home. You take the selling price of your home subtract the mortgage, taxes, and realtor fees. It now takes 13 years before you can sell your house and break even. This just makes investing in homes worse. It also makes buying a home more risky and inflexible.
Not sure how they think this won’t upset customers. I assume most customers won’t know there is a surge until they get to see the menu board. By the time they see it they will have already gotten in line. So they either get out of line or decide to pay. Either way I am sure they are going to leave upset. The only customers that won’t be upset are the ones that want to pay more for the same food or didn’t notice. The latter will be upset if they ever realize what happened.