McDonald's to Replace Cashiers with Touch Screen Computers

Carrefour supermarkets in Paris are already operating this system on selected check-outs and at the fruit and veg departments.

PEACE,
RK

Originally posted by thedeadtruth
Very good news.

I just hope they do not program the screen to act like a retard like most of the people that take the orders at MCDs

If I had a dollar for everytime I clearly said " I will have a Big Mac , Medium sized coke "nothing else please"

Just for some idiot to say , " would you like fries with that " ?

I just repeat loudly "NOTHING ELSE PLEASE" in a very slow monotone voice. Then you get silence like their brain is about to explode. And then they give you fries anyway.


I don't care what they have been told to say to increase sales, if someone does not listen to the real person paying their wages ( the customer ) they deserve to be replaced by a machine.

Oohh check you all high and mighty... you must feel all big n' worthy when you are rude to people at a fast food restaurant for saying what they are told to say and who probably feel like # anyway working the job they do. nice one dude!

i for one LOVE the idea of the touch screen and getting rid of mcds cashiers

i stopped going to mcds, because
A. the food quality dropped absurdly
B. everytime you go there the cashiers either look disgusting or act like the epitome of hood trash and i grew up in the hood so i know all too well what im talking about


also with less cashier overhead perhaps they can now add some quality to the food

this is also a health benefit

how many times have you seen cashiers touch money from dirty people, dirty money, etc, then go grab your fries

i honestly cant believe someone hasnt gotten very sick from these issues

now they dont have to have any interaction, just keep clean while making the food, place the bag on the counter and go back to work


i mean nothign against dirty or homeless people but its just honesty, theres a great deal of contaminants on those people and their money so when the cashiers handle all of that stuff then grab fries thats a serious health violation in most restaurants

reply to post by kidohno


most mcds i walk into

pride is not an issue, most of the workers act like they are the SHHHHH and continue to act like animals

disrespectful wild animals

and thats not even a race thing, it goes for the white ones too that often times work there

Originally posted by thoughtsfull
I have to admit that this news is dreadful in the amount of spotty teens that will lose their jobs but I guess that is the way it is going.. as many supermarkets here already have self service bleep bleep tills..

I refuse to use them out of principle, if you want my money you can f*cking pay someone to take it from me. If you can't be bothered to employ someone for that purpose then I'll go somewhere than can. Job done.

reply to post by TheDevilOfLies


and if your immune system never gets exposed to anything a little, shall we say, naughty if won't be any use to you all at.

The guy with the OP never drove behind Cheech and Chong apparently.

Originally posted by Mdv2
People have always feared innovation, but it's actually helping us. Sometimes I feel like saying to these people: get over it. Why should humans do work that computers can easily handle. I understand the controversy due to the high employment rate, but that's caused humans who destroyed the world economy, not by computers.

the poor bastards trying to keep body and soul together are NOT the ones that destroyed the economy.

its greed behind the plan to automate. plain and simple.

One step closer to idiocracy:

I think the point here is that replacing people with machines leads to more unemployment.
High unemployment leads to crime.
Crime leads to courts.
Courts can lead to prison.
It costs money to keep people locked up.

It also costs money to keep people on benefits and lack of employment opportunitys means people are on benefits longer. The only person that wins here is mcdonals.

What will they do with there extra billions in revenue??

reply to post by OneLife

All I'll say to that is that sure companies grow and prosper (even one as dirty as McDonalds because backdoor deals run rampant) but there should be a more open and available program out there that would allow people to find their talents when they get layed off not of their own doing (machines taking over their jobs) so both society, and they benefit.

Several hi-tech companies that I have worked for do indeed have programs to assist terminated employees. They include job counseling, workshops on resume writing and interview protocol, access to phones, fax, and copy machines, etc. They did much to help the employee to find another job.

If the government put into place programs to get people into say.. an art class one day, dance class the next, then another sort of thing the day after, they could pick and choose what class to stick with, then get a welfare sort of check each month until they figure something out.

Well that sounds a lot like the purpose of schools and colleges. But I agree, it would be nice as you describe it.

That can't be implanted today because of greed. Because it would take away say.. a cruise boat of some politician. Everyone is equal. Some are misguided (either at the top and hungering for power or at the bottom and lost). There's lots of misguided these days and it must be taken care of before it eats us alive, which it will if this is not resolved. This is only worsening the problem.

I don't know if it is greed so much as cost. And I would much rather it be done by private industry than by government. Private enterprise is much more efficient and focused than gov.

reply to post by TKDRL


This is a little like a self checkout without the loss potential.
Maybe for a change an order taker will get my food order right. I would be happy if they all provided some type of a punch menu and stay the hell away from the table. If I wanted to interact with the waitress I would have brought her out to dinner.

They will still screw up my order.

reply to post by Rigel Kent


Thing is with all these innovations supposed to make our lives easier - they do
unfortunately they put the rest of us out of our jobs..


I find this was the biggest lie of the 60's.
New robotic technology will improve the quality of our lives.

They made it sound, as we accept each new improvement,
like we were all going to enjoy more leisure and vacation time.

It didn't happen.

Only a very few benefited and the rest became unemployed and destitute.

Originally posted by azbowhunter
They will still screw up my order.

You are putting the order in yourself
and so you can't make a mistake (eliminating server error)
unless you don't know what you want.

reply to post by FlyingJadeDragon

Ironically, no you probably won't have a job even if you did move over to the tech. side of the business. The global market is literally awash with technicians and engineers,both employed and unemployed, who have far more experience than someone just coming out of tech. school. Everyone's on the techie bandwagon again and it's creating structural and technological unemployment.

I worked in hi-tech for many years, mostly field service and education. I was laid off twice. The reason was the way technology advanced.

I cut my teeth in hi tech when computers were as large as refrigerators, and a disk drive ( a whopping 200 Mb) was as big as a top loading washing machine. The systems cost nearly a million dollars. It took manpower to install and maintain those systems. I took slick marketers and salesmen to sell them. We were on standby and times were good.

Nowadays you can hold a machine thousands of times more powerful with storage in the area of Gb in the palm of your hand, and when it breaks you toss it away. It costs a couple hundred bucks.

PC's came along and replaced mainframes and mini's. Technology changed. Jobs were lost by the tens of thousands. And it had nothing to do with corporate greed; it had to do with fierce competition from home and abroad.

No matter how many jobs are replaced by technology, there will still be only so many tech. related jobs available go around. As the technology becomes cheaper,more reliable and efficient, the number of people required to produce and maintain the equipment will decrease over time. At some point, people have to wake up and accept the fact they may be squeezed out of the workforce permanently as time goes by.

What you mean is, there are fewer grunt jobs left. Face it, there are very well paying jobs out there. But they require skills that few are willing or able to achieve and maintain. I came from a large family ( 8 kids ) and my dad was a union steelworker. My mom never had to work outside the house. We ate very well. Half of us went on to higher ed, but it was up to us to pay for it.

Nowadays most kids have no chance of affording a house like they grew up in. Mom and dad both have to work at least one job. Times have changed.

Nowadays the old adage "Root pig, or die!" is more true than ever.

There are a few Fast food places in the UK that already use touch screen and Mcd's in Reading, Berkshire do have a 'fast service' touch screen terminal that allows you to bypass the queues. Also some service stations on the the way up north also have this facility.

I suppose it is called progression and sheeple wanting faster food.

Interesting side note, I worked for a company that Manufactured and sold high end white goods. In their factory in Germany, they replaced a human with a robot to be more efficient however, they replaced the robot with a human again as it was not as good as a human at doing the specific job.

Maybe, we will see that 3-4 seconds speed increase of service will not be a good thing on a packed Saturday lunch when someone mucks up their own order and holds the queue up.

Also, where the friends of the spotty teenagers going to get their free food once they are replaced? I used to have friends who worked at BK and we used to order and pay for a small drink and get served with a full meal!!!!!!!!!

reply to post by AstraCat

But the touch-screen won't tell you that you have to wait for this specific hamburger for 15 minutes...

Easily done, just like the phone bot for the electric co tells you that "Expected wait time is ____ minutes".

Originally posted by mishigas
reply to post by AstraCat

 

But the touch-screen won't tell you that you have to wait for this specific hamburger for 15 minutes...

Easily done, just like the phone bot for the electric co tells you that "Expected wait time is ____ minutes".

Argos already do this to tell you when the item will be available for collection after your order is placed. Then tell you it is ready.

reply to post by TKDRL


You know what? we may aswell get used to this happening in many more high street shops and restaurants coz soon there will be no-one working at all on the high street!! Everything will be taken over by computers... and also cash and credit cards will soon no longer be valid as they are gradually fazing in the 'pay with your mobile' concept and this tech will also be at the airports and train stations!!