Customers React to McDonalds' Almost Fully-Automated Restaurant (cbsnews.com) 221
"The first mostly non-human-run McDonald's is open for business just outside Fort Worth, Texas," reports the Guardian. CNN calls it "an almost fully-automated restaurant," noting there's just one self-service kiosk (with a credit card reader) for ordering food.
McDonalds tells CNN there's "some interaction between customers and the restaurant team" when picking up orders or drinks. But at the special "order ahead" drive-through lane, your app-ordered bag of food is instead delivered to a platform by your car's window using a vertical conveyor belt.
CNN reports that it's targetted to customers on the go. For example, there's dedicated parking spaces outside for curbside pickup orders, while inside there's a room with bags to be picked up by food-delivery couriers (who also get their own designated parking spaces outside). But for regular customers, CBS emphasizes that "ordering is done through kiosks or an app — no humans involved there, either." But not all customers are loving it. "Well there goes millions of jobs," one commenter on a TikTok video said about the new restaurant said.
"Oh no first we have to talk with Siri and Google [and] now we have to talk to another computer," another one opined.
"I'm not giving my money to robots," another commenter wrote. "Raise the minimum wage!"
Other customers had more personal concerns, expressing worries about how they could get their order fixed if it was incorrectly prepared or how to ask for extra condiments. "And if they forget an item. Who you supposed to tell, the robot? It defeats the purpose of using the drive thru if you have to go inside for it," one consumer noted....
To be sure, not everyone had negative views about the concept. Some customers expressed optimism that the automated restaurant could improve service and their experience.
McDonalds tells CNN there's "some interaction between customers and the restaurant team" when picking up orders or drinks. But at the special "order ahead" drive-through lane, your app-ordered bag of food is instead delivered to a platform by your car's window using a vertical conveyor belt.
CNN reports that it's targetted to customers on the go. For example, there's dedicated parking spaces outside for curbside pickup orders, while inside there's a room with bags to be picked up by food-delivery couriers (who also get their own designated parking spaces outside). But for regular customers, CBS emphasizes that "ordering is done through kiosks or an app — no humans involved there, either." But not all customers are loving it. "Well there goes millions of jobs," one commenter on a TikTok video said about the new restaurant said.
"Oh no first we have to talk with Siri and Google [and] now we have to talk to another computer," another one opined.
"I'm not giving my money to robots," another commenter wrote. "Raise the minimum wage!"
Other customers had more personal concerns, expressing worries about how they could get their order fixed if it was incorrectly prepared or how to ask for extra condiments. "And if they forget an item. Who you supposed to tell, the robot? It defeats the purpose of using the drive thru if you have to go inside for it," one consumer noted....
To be sure, not everyone had negative views about the concept. Some customers expressed optimism that the automated restaurant could improve service and their experience.
and when the system goes down at rush? (Score:4, Insightful)
and when the system goes down at rush?.
How much will they lose wattling for the one 1 tech the needs to cover 3-4 differnt sites to come and fix it?
Re:and when the system goes down at rush? (Score:5, Interesting)
Redundant systems. The obvious fix for this is to have several parallel systems so they are unlikely to all fail at the same time during rush.
Also to use inherently reliable systems. The ice cream machines are broken because they are sabotaged by design as mcdonalds gets a kickback on the repairs.
Re:and when the system goes down at rush? (Score:4, Insightful)
The ice cream machines are broken because they are sabotaged by design as mcdonalds gets a kickback on the repairs.
This is a flat out lie. The manufacturer of the machines are under contract to maintain the machines, which are designed to fail, and collect maintenance fees. McDonalds doesn't benefit from it at all
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mcsweenys.
profound apologies to James Bolivar diGriz.
the stainless steel rat
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Actually McDonalds does benefit greatly, it's the store owners who are the ones largely getting screwed by the cost. The McDonalds icecream machines are specially designed to maximise the amount of products that can be served while working, maximising sales. The contracts are laid out such that franchise owners are responsible for the maintenance contract and the insanely complex cleaning process this different and completely abnormal machine requires.
McDonalds pockets money from increased sales and the fra
Re:and when the system goes down at rush? (Score:5, Informative)
> The ice cream machines are broken
Ice cream machines are broken, because they are badly made, and franchise companies HAVE TO use specific brand. They can't buy a brand which just works, they have to use one that has contract with the parent company. And when you have that contract, you don't have any need to improve your product.
Obviously this also creates opportunities for upping service costs as you can't order maintenance just from anyone and maintenance can be simple reset of the machine, which could be done easily if you had master code, which they don't give to the machine owner. But the main reason is the contract.
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Some additional human-robot interfaces needed for
(1) Complaining about a wrong, bad, or missing order
(2) Asking for extra ketchup, water cups, napkins, etc.
(3) Preventing an unscrupulous customer from grabbing all the to-go bags
(4) Asking about the difference between Burger A and Burger B
(5) Asking for a different Happy Meal toy
I also wonder what the anticipated number of years is to break even on the initial capital costs and the ongoing maintenance.
Re:and when the system goes down at rush? (Score:5, Interesting)
(1) Complaining about a wrong, bad, or missing order
Solution: Automate the order picking and/or use machine vision to confirm the customer is getting what they ordered.
(2) Asking for extra ketchup, water cups, napkins, etc.
These should not be free as that encourages waste. Everyone, including the non-wasters, pays the cost of the waste. So you specify how many extra ketchups you want on the kiosk screen for 10 cents each or whatever.
(3) Preventing an unscrupulous customer from grabbing all the to-go bags
They can do that now. Automation doesn't change this. But there are cameras, and few people want to risk arrest for a bag of fries.
(4) Asking about the difference between Burger A and Burger B
Look at the photos on the kiosk screen.
(5) Asking for a different Happy Meal toy
If that is a common request, put the choice on the kiosk's order screen.
number of years is to break
A kiosk costs about $4000 and can work multiple shifts, seven days per week, so in theory, one could replace three workers. In reality, customers are slower at ordering from a kiosk than verbally giving an order to a human employee. But even if the replacement is only one-for-one, the payback is a few months.
I first used an ordering kiosk at Burger King in the Honolulu airport more than five years ago. It worked well, and about half the customers chose to use it rather than order at the counter. I expected them to be ubiquitous by now. I have no idea what is holding them back.
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I expected them to be ubiquitous by now. I have no idea what is holding them back.
Wait, are they not? I think it has literally been years since I've seen a European "classic" fast food outlet that hasn't had automated ordering kiosks.
By classic I mean BurgerKing, McDonalds, KFC. The three big ones you see anywhere in the world.
Re:and when the system goes down at rush? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, someone who is still bitter about losing their job as an elevator operator of fully automatic elevators. Or, perhaps, someone who is still bitter about losing their job as a 411 (that's the "Information" number for those of you under 45) operator.
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Most people like interacting with real people and not machines.
I enjoy interacting with my friends and family.
I get no joy from commercial interactions with sales clerks who wish their shift was over.
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Propose two alternatives for "most people":
A) Get food with half the price, no humans.
B) Get food with normal price, with humans.
Most people will pick alternative A, just because it is cheaper. But there is a learning curve. At first only a few will try it out, but when everything seems to work, majority will switch there. There are also always few who rebel against the robots (but still prefer washing machines over to a trip to the lake or river). The same happened with banking. No one goes to the bank any
Re: and when the system goes down at rush? (Score:4, Informative)
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Well, I still have to go inside the bank every time I need more than $1,000, but I guess that's a rich person's problem?
Re: and when the system goes down at rush? (Score:2)
Are you 80 years old, or did you not spend most of the past 3 years stuck at home ordering Uber Eats because of COVID?
You can specify which toy you want and customize your burger. I order a double cheeseburger on UE but make it a triple burger with triple cheese and add bacon, remove lettuce, and add extra tomato.
I have ordered so many groceries once, Uber automatically split it into 3 motorbikes.
Nobody actually orders food from a real person at a fast food restaurant, I don't even stand in line to use thei
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Nobody actually orders food from a real person at a fast food restaurant,
I do, on those once or twice a year times I go to one. I walk in, hand them my coupon, place my order, and walk out a minute or so later while all the cars in the drive through are stil sitting there waitng to place their order and burning fuel.
Last time I went, the guy in front of me couldn't get his phone to be recognized to place his order because it (apparently) couldn't connect to the company web site. He walked away, I did the a
Re:and when the system goes down at rush? (Score:4, Informative)
Then they'd be no worse off than if the system went down with no extra staff there. Even without robots, conveyors, or kiosks; fast food is so dependent on "the system" (The computerized registers networked into each other and the inventory and personnel management software.) and so intolerant of any initiative or thinking on the part of the employees that they're crippled without them anyway.
Many years ago, I put in my time as a barista and shift supervisor at Starbucks. This was before they added full-time internet and wifi. The individual stores did their talking to corporate at the end of the day as part of the "close store" processing. But even then, everything internal to the store was networked and tied into the personal and inventory. And if any part "the system" went down, we couldn't take or place orders... at all See, when you take an order, the register doesn't just compute the change anymore. It knows what ingredients are in your drink and will increment the suggested amounts in the daily and weekly backend orders. It knows how much labor goes into the drink and taking the order and that drives how many hours the manager will be able to allocate to employees (We weren't employees, we were "partners" according to Starbucks.) for the next schedule. We even used the registers to clock in and out.
And because of all that, if they went down, that was that. We couldn't make change manually and keep serving the customers... this despite the fact that SBUX rounds its menu prices to the nearest nickel, so you can quite easily do that math in your head... probably faster than you could enter it into the register, with the janky touchscreens they had back then. It just wasn't allowed. If the registers go down, you give away the drip coffee that's already made, send the customers out, lock the doors and call it in while everyone else starts the closing time cleanup routine.. If it's going to be more than a 20 minute fix, or if there's no ETA and 20 minutes pass with the registers down; then you send all but two other people home and the three of you finish closing the store. And that's that, no matter if literally everything other piece of equipment is 100% A-OK.
And now? With stores fully-online and even more dependent on the computers? No way are they any less dependent on "the system" now then they were back in ye olden days of yore.
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and when the system goes down at rush?. How much will they lose wattling for the one 1 tech the needs to cover 3-4 differnt sites to come and fix it?
A small price to pay to ensure the happiness of the people who no longer work there since the pandemic, since McDonalds doesn't pay enough.
Better than nothing (Score:4, Funny)
I know of a couple McDonald's (among other chains) nearby that can't get enough help, even with high wages, except in summer when school is out. Maybe if we could offer citizenship for mandatory service in fast food...
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Maybe if we could offer citizenship for mandatory service in fast food...
That idea sounds _veeeryy_ american. Also makes it clear what type of citizens they will be right from the start. Clear win for everybody.
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That's the joke. It's a reference to the immigrants who got off the boat and stepped into a press gang.
Re: Better than nothing (Score:2)
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"Service guarantees citizenship"
Also, "if you're rich, you can buy your way in, just like now!"
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That would actually solve a lot of problems, but only if you have to work without pay or with very minimal pay that is not enough for living. If you get normal pay, then it would work for the same reason it doesn't work nowadays. Humans can't compete against machines in the cost of work. Simple solution would be that government pays everyone a salary and lets them pick a government approved job for it. As companies would get free work power, we could increase company taxes and fund the work from those money
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> Maybe if we could offer citizenship for mandatory service in fast food...
A sadder more dystopian future than predicted by Starship Troopers. "Service Guarantees Citizenship"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Re: Better than nothing (Score:2)
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Price? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Anyone going to McDonald's for food isn't really a customer satisfaction concern.
Re:Price? (Score:5, Informative)
So, no doubt McDonalds will not pass any savings back to it's customers.
That is not how capitalism works.
If Burger King lowers prices and McDonald's doesn't, customers will go to BK, and McD will see profits decline.
Prices are set to maximize profits, a balance between higher prices per order and lower prices to keep or maintain market share.
The common belief that higher prices always mean more profit is ignorant of how markets work.
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If a robot can reduce the costs, a company that wants to increase its number of customers will install a robot and offer lower price. If BK could offer its burgers for $1 less than McD and still make the same profit .. customers will go to it. If discounts don't work, why do so many fast food companies offer them? Reducing prices increases the number of customers and market share.
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The common belief that higher prices always mean more profit is ignorant of how markets work.
True, for that to work you need a monopoly.
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If Burger King lowers prices and McDonald's doesn't, customers will go to BK, and McD will see profits decline.
No that's not how the fast food industry works. The fast food industry is not price sensitive, it's convenience sensitive. Very few people decide where they go, they go to what they see and what is on their way. If that's a McDonalds, they do that, if it's a Burger King they do that.
In either case customers aren't in it for the taste or to save 50c off the cost of something already worth next to nothing.
McDonald's founder himself is often quoted as saying he's not in the food industry, he's in a real estate
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No doubt there are many markets where a few big companies do implicit collusion, but I don't see that happening in the restaurant market. There are just too many options. It's not like the only options are McD and BK. There are so many restaurants to choose from, and many of them are not chains either.
Fast food restaurants have a captive audience and they know it
Even if this was true, there are still often many options to choose from.
Mindshare (Score:2)
People don't usually stop at a full blown restaurant all the time. Fast food exists for a reason, it's fast. McDonald's will get you in and out in 5 minutes. 10 on a bad day.
There are some various regional competitors (White Castle comes to mind, maybe In-And-Out in California) but as silly as it sounds their smaller footprints (both in number of stores, national
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So, no doubt McDonalds will not pass any savings back to it's customers.
Until the system collapses because every job is automated and people have no money. Until now, automation was the fuel of capitalism but it may well be its doom in its final stage.
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The fact that your first thought went to price is the reason they are doing this in the first place. When people working can't even be paid a living wage because you demand your burger to cost about the same as the bus ticket for the person serving you to get to work it stands to reason that people become a liability.
Maybe we should give up on the idea of a $1 cheeseburger if you want the world to be a better place.
Just wait until the robots ... (Score:3, Funny)
... start demanding a living wage, overtime pay, and paid sick days.
And beer. Lots and lots of beer.
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Don't forget the strippers and blackjack....
How much smaller is the store footprint? (Score:2)
If it only needs human space to maintain the machine, everything could be stacked in a much smaller space.
The thing McDonaldâ(TM)s has always excelled at is consistency, and Iâ(TM)d expect them to be better at that when humans are removed from the loop.
When people don't understand basic economics (Score:3, Insightful)
And that is how you get more automation.
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Is that a bad thing?
Re: When people don't understand basic economics (Score:2)
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There will be a niche for "artisanal" food but automation is long overdue in this sector.
Not really (Score:5, Interesting)
At this point the only thing stopping the fast food chains from replacing cashiers is that they haven't been able to get consumers used to not having a cashier. I worked fast food for a long time and I remember that we were explicitly told not to ask people to read the screens whether orders were displayed because about 50% of them couldn't.
You can do pictures of course but you're still going to have people get confused in the menus. There's a large number of senior citizens to suffering from various stages of age related cognitive decline who are reliable and profitable customers but haven't got a prayer in hell of using one of these kiosks even if they grew up with computers.
So it comes down to whether or not they want to take the hit there versus paying for the cashiers. That said it's only a matter of time before improvements in AI chatbots lead to automated systems that even someone with Alzheimer's can navigate.
Bottom line is that short of honest to God's slavery your boss is going to replace you with a robot the first chance they get and honestly even slaves are going to find themselves replaced.
There's no point to trying to bargain with the 1% to beg them for jobs. If you want anything but a dystopian hellscape we're going to have to just take it from them. And if we don't then the same thing is going to happen as It always does. We're going to have mass unemployment, a charismatic man is going to mobilize an arm the unemployed, and they'll be a violent revolution ending in dictatorship. In the meantime they'll be massive food shortages and violence on the streets.
Re:Not really (Score:5, Interesting)
If you can force a one percenter to use a human worker instead of a robot, why cant you force them to pay a tax instead? The owner of any company would much rather pay a tax than have to deal with a human worker. The human worker does not want to do some stupid repetitive job anyway. Just pay them a salary from the tax and have them watch Netflix at home and maybe order burgers for lunch.
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Everytime you see someone going on about critical race theory or trans kids or woke or caravans that's them making sure you're busy getting angry at somebody other than them. Pointing that out triggers people and starts the whole process over again.
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Good (Score:2)
The South didn't industrialize until slavery was abolished.
Companies that don't invest in automation so they can have fewer and better paid workers are buffoons.
Automation, better pay, better jobs, better working conditions always follow fights for worker's rights.
Capitalists are so brain broken they cling to cheap labor rather than invest in machines even though, in the long run, automation boosts their profits and makes life better for workers.
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It's always the same message. Don't ask for more or I'll replace you! The boss is doing you a favour by not replacing you with a robot or an Indian, and you should be thankful for your minimum wage "life".
How has that been working out for you so far?
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From the article
And that is how you get more automation.
That's not really a problem. Whenever there is more automation, more can be done this means more people working the machines. There is no reason to avoid raising the minimum wage.
Better experience (Score:5, Insightful)
Some customers expressed optimism that the automated restaurant could improve service and their experience.
If you patronize McD, your definition of a good experience is probably quite low to begin with. I can totally see how being attended to by a fucking machine would make it better.
Or, you could try going to a real restaurant and have a real meal made with real food served by real humans whose job it is to serve food to other humans - as opposed to pimply teenagers hopelessly trying to finance their next semester at university without starving, or robots put there in their place because even starvation wages is too much to pay for greedy McD execs.
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About 30% of the time it comes with cheese. Sometimes even the second attempt comes with cheese. Perhaps with people out of the loop I'll actually get what I ordered the first time and not have to waste 15 minutes trying to get a basic order right.
One McD's I went to had a kiosk to place the
Re: Better experience (Score:2)
So, you got kinda salty with her. Nice.
Re:Better experience (Score:4, Insightful)
I very rarely go there, but it's not that bad. Macdonald's is consistent and the coffee is okay. When you are in a hurry or just want a bland but known quantity, it serves a purpose.
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Maybe the coffee is OK in your country, but in ours it's absolute garbage. Anyone who thinks otherwise has either never had a decent cup in their life, or just has defective taste buds.
A lot of people think that garbage coffee is good because of the appeal to popularity. Starfucks can't possibly be terrible, can it? Yes. It can. Then they learn to judge other products by the same garbage standard.
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If you patronize McD, your definition of a good experience is probably quite low to begin with. I can totally see how being attended to by a fucking machine would make it better.
A fucking machine? I'm lovin' it!
Or, you could try going to a real restaurant and have a real meal made with real food served by real humans
Yes, and spend four times as much. The people going to McDeeznuts are not cross-shopping real food.
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"Or, you could try going to a real restaurant and have a real meal made with real food served by real humans"
Or, you could go to a restaurant and they'll pull your order out of a freezer, pop it into a microwave, and server it to you quickly.
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No one makes the choice between McDonalds and a real restaurant. They are shackled to one of the other based on convenience and timing.
A real restaurant won't give you a meal in a paper bag in the 5min you have to spare before your next appointment. Don't be ignorant enough to think McDonalds is in the food industry, even its founder himself often quips that he's in the real estate industry and the fact that people eat what he serves is irrelevant.
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work from home? (Score:2)
Why can't they put a video screen with a human video-chatting from home to take the orders? Eventually that can be replaced with an AI avatar of a cat or something. That would be cool, imagine a cat taking your order. Cat took my job.
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Almost Fully Automated? (Score:5, Informative)
Food is still cooked and bagged by humans. Order taking is by app or kiosk, which exists at almost every McD's today. Drive through is faster if you order ahead instead of just sitting in your car waiting to get up to the spot to order. Really the only thing "new" is the conveyer delivering your bag vs a human handing you the bag. People too lazy to get out of their car have made it so in some places there is only one person at the counter, so how many jobs replaced?
Since some point in the pandemic I started ordering ahead via apps at several places. Much more efficient than yelling at a microphone from your car. It's really good for ordering anything different, like omitting or adding items. You can see all the ingredients and any "extras" you can add. While that's possible in a drive-through, lots of back and forth ties up the line for the people behind you.
Re:Almost Fully Automated? (Score:5, Interesting)
Each store I visit shouldn't get to have an executable continually running on my phone (ie, on my person). Online ordering is fine, but "apps", no. It's clear why they are all pushing "apps" without making a web site available to order, and it doesn't have anything to do with your convenience.
A few months ago when I realized people using the app get reasonable prices, and people ordering off the menu don't, is about the last time I went to McDonald's. I used to be able to go inside and skip the line of idiots in the drive-thru, but with the self-order kiosks they've cut service down so low that it's even slower inside.
In a way I'm glad they've made it so painful, I shouldn't be eating that shit anyway. McDonald's is a total skip for me now, and if every other chain goes that direction, I'll skip all of them too. Yall have fun loading up your phone with crapware from every fast food joint.
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For what it's worth, and I know it's not much, you can disable the apps (leaving them installed) so they aren't doing stuff in the background.
It's pretty funny that the iPhone originally only allowed web apps, on the premise that they were sufficient, which they weren't; but now we have to run apps on all platforms to do things which would better have been done with a web app, because corporations want to spy on us.
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Really the only thing "new" is the conveyer delivering your bag vs a human handing you the bag.
The main thing that came to my mind when I read this article -- I'm pretty sure I recall seeing at least one McDonald's drive-thru, with two lanes, and a motorized conveyer + dumbwaiter serving food to the external lane, back in the 1970's. To me that seemed like the least-new thing described here.
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Since some point in the pandemic I started ordering ahead via apps at several places. Much more efficient than yelling at a microphone from your car. It's really good for ordering anything different, like omitting or adding items. You can see all the ingredients and any "extras" you can add. While that's possible in a drive-through, lots of back and forth ties up the line for the people behind you.
My wife loves fast food apps, but I stopped using them for one reason: most of them require location services and won't start preparing your food until you are on site. Restaurants like Chick fil A are the worst about this... you can't even place your order until you are not only on the premises, but also parked in one of their very limited number of special parking spots (they make you type in the space number or walk inside). I don't want to fight my way through a line of traffic that wraps around the bui
Fackery (Score:3)
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It's too empty (Score:2)
Maybe they should fill the store with those carrefour cat robot stand things.
The irony astounds (Score:2)
"I'm not giving my money to robots," another commenter wrote. "Raise the minimum wage!"
Uh, you realize the reason McDonalds is trying this is because labor costs are too high, right?
Re:The irony astounds (Score:4, Informative)
Uh, you realize the reason McDonalds is trying this is because labor costs are too high, right?
Possibly. But it's also possible they're having trouble attracting an adequate number of human staffers.
All of our local burger places have been advertising for many months - looking for people willing to start at $15/hour. They seem to be having trouble finding them.
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https://www.newsweek.com/minim... [newsweek.com]
Greed, pure and simple.
On the part of McDonalds? Or customers who want inexpensive Big Macs? Or workers who want more money?
Greed is an easy accusation to throw around and it can apply to anyone.
In this case, I'm going to go with the simpler explanation: McDonalds executives wanted to see if it was more profitable to buy machines than pay people. If it turns out to be so, I can't see how they could possibly do anything but automate. Labor advocates have to recognize they're risking talking workers out of jobs.
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Labor advocates have to recognize they're risking talking workers out of jobs.
That's not how anything works. The only difference between automation with a living minimum wage and without is that the worker is replaced slightly sooner, period the end. If the employer can replace the worker with a robot then they were already planning to do so, and all a higher minimum wage does it make it profitable to do so a little sooner.
Blaming the people who want to see people's needs met for this is both morally and intellectually bankrupt.
McDonalds doesn't really need robots. (Score:4, Interesting)
The food chain that could REALLY benefit from robots is SUBWAY. There is a lot more variability in making a sandwich with all the fixins than there is to make a cheeseburger. Some subway "sandwich artists" (yeah, right!) use lettuce like it's a seasoning, and only sprinkle a little on the bread. Others grab a handful of shredded lettuce and throw it at the bread, and whatever sticks is what you get. They both should be lining the bread with lettuce like is was fake grass in an Easter basket. A robot could at least MEASURE or weigh the ingredients before applying them.
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The food chain that could REALLY benefit from robots is SUBWAY.
First they would have to have food.
Subway has the worst bread I can even find. That's literally the whole basis of a sandwich, and they fuck it up as SOP.
Nope. The answer "No" is entirely sufficient. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll pay more for my damn cheeseburger. I'm ok with that. But I'm not shopping at any brick-and-mortar that is eliminating entry level jobs, still delivering crap service, and charging me the same. I've walked out or ditched my cart when I've been refused service by a human, and that's ok. (Kroeger and Lowe's, I'm looking at you 15-watt geniuses.) My shopping and cooking at home probably won't really slow this damage to society, but at least it won't be on my dime.
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If they are paying taxes then the money from the eliminated jobs can go into universal basic income for displaced workers either for job training or for Netflix watching. No point of having a worker sitting there inefficiently doing a job he doesnt want. Just have his paycheck paid for by the compnany for doing a type of work he doesnt even like.
I have to re-watch ... (Score:2)
Autmation can be helpful (Score:3)
I found the automatic ordering kiosks helpful (this was a good 15 years ago when Burger King was trying them out). It was much easier to put in special orders, get the exact items and condiments you wanted correct. Used properly, that leaves the counter clerks more time to deal with incorrect orders, forgotten items and other things the automation has a hard time dealing with.
But of course, MBAs being MBAs, they'll use the automation as a replacement for employees and we'll be left with the worst possible outcome.
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and we'll be left with the worst possible outcome.
If something is automatable then replacing it with automation is a far better outcome than leaving it up to a fallible human.
Unless your think the better outcome is people doing meaningless jobs just to keep the system's wheels turning.
complexity (Score:2)
Fast Food robot will happens, but not at McDonald (Score:2)
I'm working with collaborative robot pretty much as soon as they were available and Fast Food robot is pretty much the Holy Grail.
Will McDonalds be the first thought? I highly doubt it. With they gazillion McDollards they would already be fully automated if it was economically feasible. Problem is, as much some of you believe McDonalds employee's takes are brainless, in reality their meal wasn't made for robots. And considering McDonald's customer are among the most selfish picky Karens I know of, even chan
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The most challenging part of it is the cleaning aspect. You can find a bunch of YouTubers making automated burger makers .. none of their devices look like they would be hygenic over a period of days. You would need a human to spend an hour cleaning it every day, and that's after they showed up in the AM to refill the thing.
Current Kiosk is PITA (Score:2)
The current kiosks inside regular McDonald's take me about 3X as long to make work as simply speaking my order to a human operator.
I want 2 hamburgers with just catchup. Select them. Take all the 'standard" rabbit food off, then put catsup on. For each burger, if I remember right. Then small fries and large diet with light ice. Hmmmm... I mostly remember what a difficult thing it was to get a burger right with all the default rabbit food coming on it and me liking none of it.
I can make it work wi
This is not New (Score:2)
Little Caesars. We don't get there often because it is a bit out of our daily route and we have many pizza options closer. I was heading that way and decided to try something different. I ordered the pizzas online and paid. Dropped by and got a text for my code. Walked in past the line of people, entered my code and pulled my pizzas out of the heater box. Never had an interaction with a single human. It's not the best, but ok. The point is, ordered a pizza, payed and picked it up with a code to open
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Consistent experience (Score:2)
Learn To Program! (Score:2)
But not all customers are loving it. "Well there goes millions of jobs," one commenter on a TikTok video said about the new restaurant said.
So, is this person willing to pay $10 for a McDonalds hamburger?
$16 for a quarter pounder?
And are they willing to wait the 30 minutes for the now-legndarily shitty speed and service of "Fast" Food 2022?
"Oh no first we have to talk with Siri and Google [and] now we have to talk to another computer," another one opined.
Direct them to a human-crewed facility.
Make them wait 20-30 minutes for their order to come through.
Let them LOVE getting any non-standard order wrong EVERY TIME.
And charge them more for the luxury of being served by lazy people.-
Other customers had more personal concerns, expressing worries about how they could get their order fixed if it was incorrectly prepared or how to ask for extra condiments. "And if they forget an item. Who you supposed to tell, the robot? It defeats the purpose of using the drive thru if you have to go inside for it," one consumer noted....
Okay, a legit concern.
The problem is, even NOW, service from most McDonald's lo
But does it improve food quality ? (Score:2)
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Yes that's a bonus feature.