Posted on 04/21/2016 6:16:47 AM PDT by xzins
A little while back we told you about how the CEO of Hardees/Carl’s Jr. was thinking about replacing employees with machines thanks to the ridiculous minimum wage hike to $15.
Well, it appears he has done it.
It was only a matter of time before this started to happen and you can expect to see more of this in the future.
You actually go to fast food restaurants for the social interaction?
For a “sit-down” restaurant, I could understand wanting to speak to a human, but for fast-food the whole process is about the production of a quick meal. The workers in fast food are only polite (relatively speaking) because it’s a requirement of the brand to maintain a friendly image.
My prediction is they will go away when the customer base becomes too illiterate and STOOOOPID to key in their orders correctly, and food waste costs go through the ceiling.
Things have radically changed since 1993. Most people are now comfortable using automated systems - ATMS, self-checkout, their own smartphones, online banking...
I have seen younger couples walk into a restaurant and goggle at the laminated menus because they were used to either overhead menus or at-table touchscreen systems.
A lot can happen in 13 years.
I would guess less than a week's. They're nothing but a computer monitor, maybe a small CPU, wired into the restaurant's network. Each screen maybe $300.
This is an idea whose time came a long time ago. If you can use a computer to order an airline ticket and select your seat, there's no reason at all that you can't use one to order a hamburger and fries -- with or without the pickles.
I am glad to see that automation is taking place in the fast food industry. Now that I won’t have to risk my food being teabagged by entitled millenials who think of themselves as artists deserving $2000 an hour, I may start going to a fast food restaurant not named Chik-Fil-A.
Kiosk ordering has been around for sometime now. Mechanization
is always changing processes. So for the good and some otherwise.
Er, 23 years.
They’ve been using this system at a local burrito shop in Boston.
You place your order and pay for it at a touchscreen when you
walk in, and you pick it up the other end.
Marko
“A lot can happen in 13 years.”
People haven’t gotten smarter and only more impatient.
That’s the Pininfarina designed machine, the Coke Freestyle.
http://www.coca-colafreestyle.com/home/
It was either out of the other Coke versions or the place where it was set up had configured it so it only had original Coke. The ones Coke runs themselves carry Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero.
See post 64. Seriously, people are a lot better with automation now - sometimes to the point of not understanding the old way.
Simple solutions to that: Make surfaces out of antimicrobial materials or have an antimicrobial coating or have a fast automated screen cleaning system (I’ve seen this on some medical automation.)
Should also be pointed out that the cash money you’re paying the surly would-be ‘sandwich artist’ at the counter with and getting back in (incorrect) change is likely to be even *more* infected than a touch screen.
Yes! And it interacts with a smart phone! If only it could tell you “Sorry, lady. No more Cherry Coke at the moment.”
Those public touch screens are grosser than public restrooms.
Now if they’d just provide little private rooms where I could eat without seeing or hearing other people, that would be perfect!
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