Posted on 05/12/2016 7:36:05 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
Wendy’s (WEN) said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year as minimum wage hikes and a tight labor market push up wages.
It will be up to franchisees whether to deploy the labor-saving technology, but Wendy’s President Todd Penegor did note that some franchise locations have been raising prices to offset wage hikes.
McDonald’s (MCD) has been testing self-service kiosks. But Wendy’s, which has been vocal about embracing labor-saving technology, is launching the biggest potential expansion.
It’s not surprising that some franchisees might face more of a labor-cost squeeze than company restaurants. All 258 Wendy’s restaurants in California, where the minimum wage rose to $10 an hour this year and will gradually rise to $15, are franchise-operated. Likewise, about 75% of 200-plus restaurants in New York are run by franchisees. New York’s fast-food industry wage rose to $10.50 in New York City and $9.75 in the rest of the state at the start of 2016, also on the way to $15.
Still, Penegor said that increased customer counts more than price hikes drove the chain’s 3.6% same-store sales increase in the first quarter.
Although profit exceeded Wall Street estimates, Wendy’s shares dived nearly 9% Wednesday because of weak second-quarter sales.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
All the fast food restaurants around here are literally begging for job applicants although starting wage is around $10.50 and sometimes $12. Often the store manager is filling in as cook because previous employees were hired away at higher wage (had a conversation with a store manager last week).
Interesting
Why should people work when they can make a lot more than that in FREE government bribes, er, benefits and not have to bother themselves with getting out of bed in the morning, showing up on time, serving the public with a smile (or at least some sort of efficiency), and pleasing the boss?
It's a slam-dunk why the restaurants can't get help.
That isn’t the explanation here. Here, the fast food joints get outbid for labor and there aren’t nearly as many Latinos with provisional SSIs as there used to be. The American kids go to community college, trade school, they won’t do the work (this is what the manager told me). I know myself that TANF doesn’t compete with $12.50 /hr wages.
Ayeah, I’ll say to that what I said in another thread about small businesses complaining “We can’t find employees, oh woe is us!”
...BULLSHIT!!!
What you REALLY mean is “we can’t find enough people willing to get treated almost as bad as a plantation slave for the minimum amount of money we can get away with paying them.”
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