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

originally posted by: Edumakated
The push to raise wages most certainly has made these systems more attractive. The reason they haven't shown up sooner was that the math didn't make sense at current wage rates. However, when you start factoring increases in wages, the math starts to look a lot better.

While the companies may not come out and say it, you best believe increased wages is the first bullet point when discussing benefits of these systems in the board room.

Cutting payroll is certainly a reason, but even if wages remained stagnant that would have been true. Increasing wages doesn't change that. The machines cost something like $5/hour. A worker at $7.45 can't compete, in fact they would have to give up 1/3 their already low pay just to remain competitive at current prices. Expecting that isn't reasonable.

The real reason these devices are appearing now has to do with the falling prices and increased reliability of touch screens. Kiosks don't require anything special computing wise, but a touch screen the size of those kiosk terminals would have cost $50,000 10 years ago, today it's $100.

The hardware is cheap, and costs are going to continue to fall. Workers at any wage cannot keep up with that.

I go to McDonald's solely for the dollar soda. If there is a line for the human or the human is running around doing other things i can just order on the machine, take my cup, and go sit down till i have to leave. Its easier.

originally posted by: dug88
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.

We have kiosks in our local McDonalds staff. The same number if not more staff still cook and bake the meals and operate the cash registers. But it cuts out in the delay in you have to explain in detail how each burger should be made (double burger, lettuce, no cheese, no dressing, large fries, large coke etc...). Instead, you just use a touch screen, select the type of burger with all the options, the size of the drink, the fries and go through everything and then pay. For the staff, it takes away the time pressure of a queue of people standing in line waiting to make an order. In the same space of that queue, everyone can make that order. Everyone just stands around waiting for their number to come up.

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Isurrender73

WHo said anything about blaming the poor?

The point is that either jobs like this are considered entry level or they are supposed to be career level, but they aren't going to be both.

Entry level work like this is not going to support you for life and it's not meant to.

And it's faulty to use the same work to try to argue both angles.

Entry level work needs to support an individual and perhaps a family though. It did in the past, and it's only due to wage stagnation that it doesn't now. It's not an unreasonable request to expect the same standard of living for those at the bottom of the income scale that their parents and grandparents had.

Furthermore, over time all jobs require fewer skills. We learn better ways to do things and business processes become more efficient. I'll give an example.

Back in 1990 plug and play was in it's infancy. Knowing how to build a personal computer from parts was skilled labor. You had to set hardware jumpers, configure IRQ timings/codes, set memory timings, make sure all hardware was compatible, plug things into the right ports because they looked identical but functioned different, ensure voltages were correct, and then once everything ran, install and configure device specific software.

Today, everything is shape coded. You plug it in and it works. The computer auto installs all drivers and configures all hardware behind the scenes and each piece of hardware can only fit in one specific slot, which is color and shape coded. It is nearly impossible to screw up, and someone can figure out how to do it with nothing more than a checklist of needed parts and 15 minutes of instruction. Some don't even need that much.

On a long enough timeline, every single job that humans know how to do today is going to be entry level because everything will be simplified down to a series of single steps that any person, assembly line, or machine can follow.

As a result, a sustainable economy is only possible if entry level work allows for self sufficiency.

McDonalds business model was to have one or two adults work as managers, while teenagers worked part-time as staff in order to make a bit of pocket money. At least that it is how it is in prosperous neighborhoods.

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?

Make buggy whips.

originally posted by: stormcell
McDonalds business model was to have one or two adults work as managers, while teenagers worked part-time as staff in order to make a bit of pocket money. At least that it is how it is in prosperous neighborhoods.

Population demographics do not support that. Teenagers are rarely available to work in the mornings and afternoons due to school schedules. They also cannot work late at night. McDonalds is a 24 hour business, but teenagers can only staff it during 6 of those hours.

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

"What do you mean you can't find a job? Go get one at macdonalds."

"Oh right...."

Funny story about my hubs and I, and Micky D's kiosks.

One McDonald's near us remodeled, and has kiosks after reopening. Which is what we were redirected to upon approaching the registers.

We redirected ourselves out the door, and noticed we had plenty of company of varying ages. Even teenagers weren't having none of that s#, "Geez, I came in here to order through a person, not a computer. If I wanted to do that I'd have just ordered pizza online & had it delivered!" Way to go kid, you get the point. People don't want to interact with computers outside of the home, they want to interact with PEOPLE.

That particular McDonald's doesn't get anywhere near the traffic it used to, the kids from the nearby school go elsewhere now. When the kids reject the tech, it's saying something.

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: stormcell
McDonalds business model was to have one or two adults work as managers, while teenagers worked part-time as staff in order to make a bit of pocket money. At least that it is how it is in prosperous neighborhoods.

Population demographics do not support that. Teenagers are rarely available to work in the mornings and afternoons due to school schedules. They also cannot work late at night. McDonalds is a 24 hour business, but teenagers can only staff it during 6 of those hours.

School leavers in the UK can leave school at 16. That gives them four years to become a McManager.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: dug88


Progress.



People should be getting jobs servicing the kiosks.

I got a job as a petrol pump, for the government - undercover.



Happy Saturday Everyone !

a reply to: stormcell

There's usually 1 manager to 5 employees. If 6 teenagers work at McDonalds only one of them will get the opportunity to advance.

a reply to: dug88

It's god damn true.
My wife and I went to the self kiosk at our McDs.
I spent $20 on my burger alone!
The total bill came to just under $40 for my wife and I too build our own burgers.
At a fricken McDonalds!

a reply to: Macenroe82

You didn't build a burger, you placed an order. People in the kitchen cooked and assembled it.

a reply to: Macenroe82

$20 just for a McDonald's burger? Dang, what'd you order? And wouldn't it have been the same price whether you ordered it from a kiosk or at the register?

I just checked and here's a story of a $24.89 burger from McDonald's (from the create your taste kiosk). It contains:

--10 slices of American cheese
--10 slices of sharp white cheese
--10 slices of pepper jack cheese
--10 pieces of bacon
--10x pickles
--10x red onions
--10x guacamole
--10x tortilla strips
--10x lettuce
--10x tomatoes
--10x jalapenos
--10x grilled onions
--10x grilled mushrooms
--Sauces: 10x mac special sauce, 10x mayo, 5x spicy mayo, 10x sweet BBQ sauce, 10x creamy garlic sauce, 10x mustard, 10x ketchup

But the biggest surprise came when the cashier first tried to ring up the order. The burger totaled $890.80 . In the video the confused register is seen checking with a manager before realizing that due to a pricing bug the system had added hundreds of dollars for the cheese.

The final total for the Big Max? Just $24.89, which could be the “deal of the century” according to Tamssot who spent most of day working his way through the3.8 pound pile of toppings, bun and meat.

It would be best to transition workers out quickly.

Anyone who knows they're getting their pink slip isn't going to give a hoot about doing their job.....well,...nicely lets just say. Add food preparation into the equation and yeah...eat at your own peril.

originally posted by: DBCowboy

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?

Make buggy whips.

For golf buggies so you oldies can whip your caddy's if they are too slow or pick the wrong club.... I like it, there's probably a market for that ..

a reply to: dug88

Not a real fan of touch-screen kiosks for the simple reason I like to look at the shelf of prepared items, check out the fries packaging area before I place my order. Doesn't really matter if it's a burger, fish, chicken or some combination if I don't have to wait. It all pretty much tastes the same.

a reply to: Aazadan

The way I see it, they're going to replace menial labor regardless of that labor's cost. So laborers better get whatever they can get now while they have the chance.

The excuse that higher wage demands is fueling automation is a lie that's being pushed to keep workers divided. Companies like McDonald's are already making a huge profit; they just want to share as little as possible of those profits with their workers (which means that a higher share of the profits go to investors/shareholders/etc).

Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly understandable from a business perspective. But they should be more honest about what's going on. At least the article in the OP pointed out that the kiosk usage tended to increase how much customers purchased per visit. If they can get more customers used to kiosks, then there really won't be a business need for human cashiers or order takers. (I actually would prefer that restaurants have kiosks since I can't stand waiters and hate the whole need for tipping.)

We've had these in Australia for a few years now and trust me they're awesome. You can create your own burgers and I find it really cuts down waiting times. You can still go to the counter and order the old way if you want to, and there's usually a person walking around to help with any troubles ordering on the machines. And they're right, you feel less rushed to order so you can order what you actually want instead of just picking the first thing that comes to your mind.

Why kiosks are better than cashiers:

• Kiosks don't demand wage increases for doing nothing.
  
• Kiosks don't call in sick so they can sleep late.
  
• Kiosks don't steal money from the company.
  
• Kiosks can make change.
  
• Kiosks do not force you to figure taxes for them.
  
• Kiosks don't sue you for firing them.
  
• Kiosks do not sexually harass other kiosks.
  
• Kiosks are not racist.
  
• Kiosks are not rude to the customer.
  
• Kiosks do not quit in the middle of rush hour.
  
• Kiosks do not show up with a hangover.
  
• Kiosks do not complain about hours.
  
• Kiosks do not take restroom breaks, so they don't need to wash their hands.
  
• Kiosks do not argue with the boss.

Let's face it... if kiosks and robots become the minimum wage job holders of tomorrow, it's because they outperform humans at those jobs and give better service.

TheRedneck