She explained McDonald's strategy for implementing kiosks and it was NOT to eliminate people from their workforce. She explained that McDonald's is trying to move itself up the fast-food chain bringing new and more choices into their restaurants.
If you've noticed their menu lately, they're starting to include more customized and higher-end burger choices as one example and that's really boosting their sales. They started with "breakfast all day" and are quickly moving towards hand-packed handburgers made in the restaurant itself. This expansion of the menu means McDonald's has to dramatically change their order, food preparation and delivery processes to scale their restaurants both vertically (deliver faster) and horizontally (expand the menu choices.) They have to do all this within the footprint of their existing stores which is incredibly difficult given their size and re-engineering all their processes means they have to get it right out-of-the-box or their same store sales risk getting hurt. They can't afford that.
They're doing this by shifting the counter workers away from taking orders and moving them back into kitchen and order delivery. They're also doing remodeling in the existing footprints to reclaim cashier space with food delivery and preparation space. Hard to do while running the place and keeping things profitable.
Kiosks are but ONE step McDonalds is taking, they're doing much more.
Now the McDonald's right outside the building I work in at LaSalle and Jackson (Downtown Chicago) is one of their market test sites so I saw the kiosk's being implemented last Summer along with the expansion of the menu with new menu items as well.
In the past I'd only go into that McDonald's for coffee maybe once or twice a week. The food and service in this same McDonald's has gotten so good I'll grab a breakfast or a lunch there once a week now.
It's been a dramatic improvement. I think McDonald's has finally discovered what they need to do to turn their restaurants around.
So much so I've actually purchased McDonald's stock. I've *never* purchased individual stocks in the past. I'm so encouraged by what I'm seeing at McDonalds I had to buy some.
Separately, not sure why I stopped seeing this woman. Kinda liked her quite a bit. Wondering if I should call on her again .....
No kidding? I would have never been able to tell...☺