McDonald's: You buy more from touch-screen kiosks than a person. So expect more kiosks

I felt like this was the best place to post.this because overall this will affect job availability. I'm personally not a fan of self serve kiosks and I wonder if anyone has ever done a study showing whether the increase in thefts with self checkouts offsets the savings in hiring less employees. These may not be the best jobs ever but a good chunk of people have done their time as fast food employees and cashiers these are important to allow people to gain experience at the very least.

www.usatoday.com...

McDonald's plans to add touch-screen ordering kiosks to thousands of stores nationwide to supplement in-store employees, transforming America's largest fast-food chain.

“What we are finding is when people dwell more, they tend to select more," McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook told CNBC Monday. "So there is a little bit of an average check boost that comes with it.”

McDonald's will add kiosks to 1,000 stores every quarter — roughly 10 stores per day — over the next two years, Easterbrook told the network. And the U.S. is late to the game: Kiosks are already fully installed at stores in English-speaking markets such as the United Kingdom and Canada. France was the first country to introduce the self-serve machines.

But it's possible McDonald's will run into consumer resistance. A poll conducted by MSN found that 78% of customers are less likely to go into a restaurant that has a self-service kiosk. Even if it has the kiosks, most McDonald's restaurants still lets customers order at the counter.

Easterbrook hopes to have self-serve kiosks in all U.S. locations by 2020.

The kiosk in your hand will work, too: The ability to order from your own smartphone will come to more stores, CNBC reported. Delivery options are under consideration as well.

If you support jobs try and use self checkouts and kiosks as little as possible they're convenient but every time you reaffirm to these companies.that they should replace people and jobs with these. These may not be the best jobs out there but the people that start off working at these learn from them and allow them at least a start to something better. Not always...but jobs are jobs and people need what they can get.

a reply to: dug88

They have them at my local MD and I hate them. It is faster to order from a person at the register.

Just a matter of time until some group decides to tie ropes around kiosks and pull them down.

😲

a reply to: dug88

I know you mean well but something has to change.

Stopping technological advancement for the sake of jobs just can't be right. At no point should mankind ever hinder the influx of new technologies that can make our lives simpler.

Even if the whole system needs to change to keep up with technology it is the system that should be changed and not the technology that should be hindered.

Sooner or later we have to answer the questions associated with how civilization will function in the technological era. Better sooner than later. Waiting for a crisis is never the right way to act.

I'm all for kiosks and robots replacing fast food workers. It seems like the more and more I eat at any fast food place the quality of food and service is in the dump.

Not to mention people don't wash their hands when they return to work, and who knows what else people do with your food. Fast food workers demand 15$ an hour, but I've yet to see any of them do anything worthy of 15$ an hour.

These kiosks are fine in my opinion and You can’t blame a person taking the order for messing it up, cuz there isnt one, just you and the machine. But they can still mess it up preparing your order. But I used the kiosk once at. McDs and it was just as fast if not faster.

Now the self-checkouts are not my fav for several reasons but those and these kiosks are two different things

don't need these jobs, they are low pay with no appreciation why should anyone do them?

I order from touch screen kiosks at Sheetz all the time, quick and painless. It stinks this may cause some people to lose their jobs, but we all know it is coming soon rather than later.

a reply to: dug88


Progress.



People should be getting jobs servicing the kiosks.

a reply to: dug88

I actually am hoping they replace all the employees at McDonald's with a combo of kiosks and robots. The ones in my area have staffs full of idiots and it takes so long to get your food you might as well go to a nice sit-down restaurant. There place is always filthy with a bunch of workers who are too busy standing around talking to take your order, make your food, or clean the damn place.

originally posted by: eXia7
I'm all for kiosks and robots replacing fast food workers. It seems like the more and more I eat at any fast food place the quality of food and service is in the dump.

Not to mention people don't wash their hands when they return to work, and who knows what else people do with your food. Fast food workers demand 15$ an hour, but I've yet to see any of them do anything worthy of 15$ an hour.

And at least robots wont try to put rat poison in your pizza.

abc11.com...

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: dug88


Progress.



People should be getting jobs servicing the kiosks.

So that would take care of 1% of the fast food workers replaced by kiosks, what do you think the other 99% should do?

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Be thankful they're not working at McDonald's anymore and use it as an opportunity to improve their lives working somewhere else?

Oh good I can only blame myself if it's wrong. And I get people are upset about machines replacing human jobs...Like others have mentioned before, we still need humans to service and help manufacture the kiosks.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: dug88


Progress.



People should be getting jobs servicing the kiosks.

So that would take care of 1% of the fast food workers replaced by kiosks, what do you think the other 99% should do?

Actually the kiosks arent replacing the people at the counter for the most part says the article. The kiosks will be supplementing the employees. At least right now it just a customer choice on how they want to order

originally posted by: Grimpachi
a reply to: dug88

They have them at my local MD and I hate them. It is faster to order from a person at the register.

I have the opposite opinion, I actually like them. If a person is available, I order from the person but if there's a line I'll happily use the kiosk instead. To me it's all about what is faster.

Due to various business requirements it's really only feasible to have say 3 cashiers on duty at once, and when a rush hits that may not be enough to provide proper throughput for the customers. That's where kiosks come in. 4-6 kiosks take up very little space, and can provide additional throughput at the point of sale on demand. It's a great thing for the company, and a great thing for the customer.

I don't think they work as a technology to fully replace cashiers, but like kiosks in grocery stores I think they're a fantastic choice to supplement humans.

originally posted by: NthOther
a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Be thankful they're not working at McDonald's anymore and use it as an opportunity to improve their lives working somewhere else?

What if these people casn only operate at a capacity of minimum wage jobs ? These jobs will all be replaced by machines sowhat does that leave them other than a UBI or perhaps some kind of logans run scenario ....

Kiosks . One helluva way to spread communicable diseases .
Wear latex cloves as 1,000s of folks before you have touched that very screen.

Not to mention folks that would rather stare at a machine than to interface with a person.

And , a lot of High School students work there to potentially save money for transportation and a higher education.

How bout the initial cost of installing these ? And the upkeep ?

Folks dont think anymore. They use their heads just to prop a phone against.

originally posted by: Gothmog
Wear latex cloves as 1,000s of folks before you have touched that very screen.

Fewer people have touched that screen than have touched the door you pushed to get into the building.

a reply to: Gothmog

Do you touch money? Can't even wash money. It's amazing we are not all dead yet.

Maybe you are overreacting a bit?