Fast Food Chain Adding Automated Kiosks to 1,000 of Its Restaurants in 2017

a reply to: soficrow

Flair of a master chef? Like it tosses a pizza crust in the air or tosses knives around like a japanese ginsu chef? Or just uses hot peppers with the skill of Bobby Flay?
Just wondering ...

a reply to: Sillyolme

He treats everybody badly.

That's a very broad brush, silly.
But that is the technique that you tend to use when painting.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: soficrow

Flair of a master chef? Like it tosses a pizza crust in the air or tosses knives around like a japanese ginsu chef? Or just uses hot peppers with the skill of Bobby Flay?
Just wondering ...

The robot kitchen learns via a virtual reality hook-up with a master chef - so the 'flair' is exact. The "iTunes-like" recipes are virtual reality 'recordings' that just 'plug in.'

...Don't forget this model is just for consumers - the industrial stuff is out there too.

a reply to: Edumakated

Good point. Even in customer service the "New Thing" is offering an actual person rather than an automated system. People figured out pretty quickly how to circumvent them and get an operator anyway. Yes we would rather deal with a person than a machine if only because the machine doesn't get it if we are upset and who calls customer service just to say hey good job?
And when the machine says " I'm sorry I didn't understand that question" you're not going to intimidate it by calling it stupid.

a reply to: soficrow

I like to cook and I love the chopping and slicing and dicing part as much as the cooking part. I use every tool in the draw and I'm on my third food processor since I got married in 81. For people who can't or don't like to cook I guess that would be good. I don't see it replacing cookies baked with love though.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: soficrow

I like to cook and I love the chopping and slicing and dicing part as much as the cooking part. I use every tool in the draw and I'm on my third food processor since I got married in 81. For people who can't or don't like to cook I guess that would be good. I don't see it replacing cookies baked with love though.

Me too. But I live in a small village-like community surrounded by millennials who do not know the first thing about cooking. They don't know how to shop, choose produce or fish or meat, and don't know what to do with it if they have it given to them.

I honestly fear for the health of their children.

That said, there's a market.



PS. Although I like to cook, I certainly don't want to every day (never mind 3 times a day). I often have other priorities and I am a bit lazy too. So I'd be happy to have the robotic option. Especially now that I'm getting on and could use a little help around the house.

a reply to: Edumakated

It's a good idea to use the register operated by a real live human, instead of doing the work of a paid person for free for the store by using a self check-out machine.

I brought this up at several stores, that if I used the system of self check-out I should get a discount for doing the store's work for them.

They looked confused...As confused as the people had to be to fall for the self-serve gas scheme they swallowed where they did the filling themselves and got discount...At first...And never even noticed when the discounts for self-serve evaporated.

I begin to wonder about my species...

a reply to: jjkenobi

And it might even look like that picture plastered all over the Windows.

a reply to: soficrow

I didnt have to hold out. I just had kids. They work for peanuts. Well peanut butter and jelly. Until they grew up and moved away. Now.... I need a robot lol.

a reply to: soficrow

Oh I like the recharges itself part and $170.00 is less than a good Hoover by $100.00 at least.
How good a job does it do? I have a cat and both area carpets and wood floors.

originally posted by: MyHappyDogShiner
a reply to: Edumakated

It's a good idea to use the register operated by a real live human, instead of doing the work of a paid person for free for the store by using a self check-out machine.

I brought this up at several stores, that if I used the system of self check-out I should get a discount for doing the store's work for them.

They looked confused...As confused as the people had to be to fall for the self-serve gas scheme they swallowed where they did the filling themselves and got discount...At first...And never even noticed when the discounts for self-serve evaporated.

I begin to wonder about my species...

Ah yes, the good ol' days. But the fact is the transitions are upon us, even though as sillyolme mentioned, "the "New Thing" is offering an actual person rather than an automated system."

Methinks we need to figure out how to benefit - and make the best of it. Whatever that entails. ...I suspect it will all be fairly complicated.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: soficrow

Oh I like the recharges itself part and $170.00 is less than a good Hoover by $100.00 at least.
How good a job does it do? I have a cat and both area carpets and wood floors.

That $170.00 is the price in China - think it's about $500.00 in the USA. But check out the UNIBOT vid!



And the "10 Best Robot Vacuums 2016 - 2017"

a reply to: butcherguy

See??? We used to be buddies in the cooking forum. Politics changed you. I don't paint but your brush is coarse and hurts . You made me cry more than once. Sooooooo. Yeah.

Kiosks and automation. Good bad or indifferent? Not how you feel about teenage girls who stutter.

a reply to: soficrow

I see a market for those food box services there. I don't know if they are available by you but you should look into opening a distribution point. They sell everything you need to cook a meal including instructions . Blue Apron and Hello Fresh are services near me. Or you could do your own. You shop and distribute only the amounts needed for one meal include simple cooking instructions and voila money in the bank! Even a 5% markup can add up but it would be easy to earn 40 %.

originally posted by: Edumakated
There is always progression through technology. However, the one factor that always limits it is return on investment. When you have a situation where there is wage inflation combined with technology getting cheaper, it is going to speed up how quickly those jobs get replaced. My point is the pressure from social groups has made implementing these technologies much more urgent for businesses.

The thing about many low skilled and low wage jobs though is that often times they were cheap enough where businesses didn't necessarily feel pressure to eliminate that cost. Dollar for dollar, people generally rather deal with a person. However, there is only so much premium a businesses is going to be willing to pay for that luxury.

The ROI was there already, after taxes, insurance, and any random costs a minimum wage employee still costs a business a good $15/hour in the states running a federal minimum wage. You're looking at up to $25/hour in higher cost states/areas. The break even point would still be worth it if people were being paid half of what they are now. Humans can't compete with machine labor, especially humans that generally don't have the greatest work ethic. A friend of mine is a manager at a Wendys, I get to hear a lot of stories about people who don't pull their weight.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that if these kiosks still cost as much as individual fast food workers, the businesses would still see a return on investment on them just in the ability to cut one manager from each store in overhead.

originally posted by: Edumakated
Many grocery stores took out the self-check out machines. The average person isn't that bright and they found using the machines cumbersome and slow compared to a human cash register.

I typically will only use the self-checkout if I have five or fewer items.

Personally, I love the self checkouts. The lines are short, people are faster than cashiers, I don't have people going through my stuff, and since I'm on food stamps it's nice that it's a bit more discrete for the times I'm paying with them.

You're seeing a reduction in self checkouts now, not because they were unsuccessful but because people were over optimistic for the technology. You have to get the right balance of self checkouts and cashiers in a store.

a reply to: soficrow

Yes, transitions are upon us, but society, business and the monetary system, everything have to transition along with everything else.

This transition that is upon us is a globalists dream and Trump has not addressed it in any way form or fashion as yet as he claimed he would.

He won't.

He is one even if he's too dumb to realize it...Or just lying...

I don't know what I'm talking about because the changes that have to be made are not going to be made by governments and the like.

The changes that have to occur will have to be something actually new and demanded by the people who are the true power in any free country and not recycled from the same old silliness of the past.

Like I said, I have no clue.

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: soficrow

So future jobs will be skilled jobs in kiosk repair and programming. It should pay much more than a fast food clerk considering kiosks will be a valuable part of the fast food business. Someone has to keep robots and other computer technology running. Moving from an unskilled to a skilled workforce isn't a bad thing.

Um no, that will supply far, far fewer jobs. You only need a few programmers for all the kiosks in a restaurant chain, and how often do you really think a kiosk breaks down? How often do you see ATMS being worked on? Answer is not often at all, and if these kiosks don't even have to deal with dispensing cash - no moving parts = very very few breakdowns.

This will be an employment issue no doubt, but in the long run I do think it will be for the better, because being a fast food worker is a pretty empty job.

a reply to: soficrow

How much to ship it from China? LOL

They lack the charm of Rosey the robot and look rather a lot like bugs.
It's a bit hard to judge cleaning ability when they start with spotlessly clean floors and carpets and then show some pretty colored beads to demonstrate corner cleaning.
How is it on pet hair? Sand? ( I live at the shore sand is a fact of life lol)

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: soficrow

So future jobs will be skilled jobs in kiosk repair and programming. It should pay much more than a fast food clerk considering kiosks will be a valuable part of the fast food business. Someone has to keep robots and other computer technology running. Moving from an unskilled to a skilled workforce isn't a bad thing.

Yeah, think of all those highly skilled sixteen year old high school students...

Sucks for the majority of high school kids looking for a job though.

a reply to: proximo

The jobs will be in internet transmission because much of the repairs to the kiosks and such will be done remotely via the internet, the fiber optic lines connections and maintenance and cable bury jobs will be there.

I know for a fact these jobs are low pay unless you actually have training in splicing fiber optics and actually know how to do it and have your own tools and vehicle.

If you're broke, you're always going to be broke unless you go into debt and take a chance.

See the pattern yet?.