Posted on 05/13/2016 6:18:04 AM PDT by TigerClaws
Remember when conservatives dared to suggest that raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15.00/hour would force businesses to cut staff and would hasten the replacement of those workers with automated systems?
Well, Wendy’s just proved us right and announced that they’re rolling out self-service kiosks “nationwide” to their 6000 stores later this year:
And once kiosks are in place, those jobs are never coming back. From Investor’s Business Daily:
Wendy’s Penegor said company-operated stores, only about 10% of the total, are seeing wage inflation of 5% to 6%, driven both by the minimum wage and some by the need to offer a competitive wage “to access good labor.”
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.
This will eventually happen at every fast-food restaurant in America thanks to even the threat of a minimum wage hike. Great job, Dems!
Fine, but do you believe that our friends on the let will buy that? They have no money.
All those part time cheap labor jobs are doing is subsidizing folks who are living off handouts. Why should they be subsidized with that money? It means they're living better on the dole than off of it. They already get too much.
Don’t visit Micky D’s often, but just returned from a mini vacation and use them for rest breaks. They are upgrading their menu displays. We drive with Polaroid prescription glasses and found that the kiosk displays and lighted menu displays are unreadable unless you tilt your head radically.
Also the menu displays switch displays of items like specialty coffees, etc. the switches happen so fast there is not time to read all the items available so you have to wait for the sign to cycle.
Very bad implementation of technology ....!!!
You have a point in that the cycle will be:
More people out of a job/living on handouts = Demand for more revenue for the Federal Government = Higher taxes on the people still working at Wendy’s (including senior management who made this call).
It’s a tangled web of unintended consequences.
Having been in the fast food business, I can tell you that there’s more than meets the eye in this move to automate.
Do you ever get a less-than-welcome feeling from those behind the counter when you order your burger combo? From an overwhelming majority of fast food emporia? Aren’t some of them downright hostile? The ‘burbs are almost as bad as inner-city establishments.
Wendy’s (and others) have been surveying customers for some time now. They know what their achilles heel is. They are gambling that you’d rather have near-zero human contact to acquire your food, than the status quo, which the fast food business just hasn’t been able to fix.
It’s more than just the labor cost. The sad, sad, thing is that the purchase experience may very well be enhanced by removing the human element.
Fast food joints cannot afford to pay their employees a lot — because their customers are expecting a dirt cheap, quality, meal.
BTW, I worked in fast food, my wife too, and we gained some valuable life experiences.... but both of us were kids.
The liberals and unions have this ‘religious’ belief that ROI is fallacious and that business is there to employ people (their people!) No matter how ofter this is demonstrated to be a fallacy, these babies still insist upon being given the moon!
I remember an AMF proposal from the 1960/70s for an automated restaurant. The film clip was so dated that the father was wearing a hat. Yet even with vacuum-tube computers, the future was still visible!
What is left unsaid by all of the ‘living wage’ propaganda is that these jobs USED TO BE entry level teenage jobs to get a start in the rat-race. NOW, thanks to an INCOMPETENT Administration and ALSO valid trends in technology, the previous middle-class jobs are disappearing at a frightening speed.
Is there a solution? I do not know but I do know that an unemployed / unemployable populace without hope is a very dangerous animal.
Extremely good point. Other than Chick-fil-A, I get the “what the phuck do you want” look, by and large.
What I’m saying is that I don’t think it will mean more people on the dole. Those folks getting wages that don’t sustain them are still collecting handouts. Because they can get that slight “work subsidy” they have NO incentive to get a real job. Life for folks who need handouts should not be better than what one can sustain with a real job.
I think you are all missing the Big Picture. The Big Picture is that the Left would rather have people dependent on the Government than working. Especially if they are making enough of a wage that they don’t need Government assistance.
More Clients = More Power. The person they worry about least are the hapless taxpayers. To the Left, the taxpayer is the slave. As long as there are enough suckers around to keep food on the table, the lights on, the iPhones connected and the Starbucks open, life is good.
We have already cut our eating out to twice a month and that was through fast food only. Now it will go to only once a month, if that. Have seen Chick-Filet-A gradually creep up and seems like it just shoots a hole in a $10 bill for two of us. People’s budgets can only handle so much increase and taxes and house insurance have eaten up every extra dollar available.
Pretty soon the Dems will demand companies keep the same level of employment as before. How long before we get to Directive 10-289?
An unintended consequence: Making kiosks cost effective.
I’d rather use self serve then deal with some of the customer service people I find at Wendy’s.
Kiosks will not reduce the fast food workforce to zero, but it will reduce it by maybe 10-20%. Eventually, automation may reduce labor by 80-90%, but that may take 1-2 decades.
My daughter is a part-time waitress at a chain that has installed mini kiosks at tables. Basically, it allows the wait staff to handle about 20% more tables per person. This is good and bad. Good: faster service and more tips for those actually working. Bad: fewer wait staff needed, fewer hours per week.
Are you certain that it is 'unintended'?
My contention is hire less employees who are more efficient and use technology to replace those relatively useless slave-labor employees.
I agree that there has to be provision for entry level jobs. Temporary agencies and manager training opportunities while in school could fill that job. If the laws weren't such a mess, resourceful students could be setting up businesses and providing services. If I were going to college now I'd take some Accounting or other job-training courses while in HS so I'd be elibible for a real job.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.