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As minimum wages across the country rise and restaurants face increased labor costs, one fast food CEO is thinking about replacing human workers with robots. Carl's Jr. head honcho Andy Puzder wants to open a new restaurant concept that's "employee-free," reports Business Insider. Puzder was inspired by a visit to Eatsa, the futuristic San Francisco-born restaurant where patrons order via tablet and retrieve their food from automated cubbies. He believes the idea of a restaurant free of social interaction could be especially appealing to millennials, noting that young people seem particularly fond of ordering from kiosks over humans.

Last week onClashDaily.comwe ran a story about Mormon twin sisters who founded “Beauty Redefined”, who are calling on folks to boycott Carl's Jr.’s hamburger joint because they run adverts with hot models. According to the religious twins, these ads, “objectify women”; and I guess, by that inference, girls everywhere, because of the ads, will start to feel badly about themselves, adopt some eating disorder and/or get ocean-buoy-sized breast implants in order to look like Kate Upton. Or something to that effect. Now, before I go on, here’s an FYI for forlorn ladies wanting to look like Kate after watching a Carl's...

We recently looked at how the “Fight for 15” had impacted employment in Seattle, with job numbers inside the affected zone plummeting as hiring spiked in the suburbs where wages and associated labor costs remained at relatively normal levels. So what can the employers who are hit with these higher costs do when their prices are driven to above competitive levels? One unfortunate but completely predictable choice for lower skill positions is to replace them with high tech, automated options. That’s the path that Andy Puzder, CEO of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, is considering after a recent visit to...

NEW YORK – A CEO of a fast-food company is causing a stir on social media after claiming that he wants to create a fully automated restaurant. “We could have a restaurant that’s focused on all-natural products and is much like an Eatsa, where you order on a kiosk, you pay with a credit or debit card, your order pops up, and you never see a person,” Carl’s Jr. CEO Andy Puzder told Business Insider. Puzder says the automated restaurant would be cheaper since he wouldn’t have to worry about rising minimum wage. “If you’re making labor more expensive, and...

Full title: Carl's Jr's racy new TexMex burger commercial featuring scantily-clad women playing volleyball over a border wall reflects 'what's going on with immigration', says one of its models New ad involves two sets of models representing Texas and Mexico The women are playing to determine whether the burger is 'Tex' or 'Mex' Kara Del Toro, who is in 'Team Mex', says the commercial is a 'bold move' She claims it is 'playing' on the immigration debate dominating the 2016 presidential race The American team are all blondes while the Mexican team are brunettes but Del Toro insists the commercial...

The CEO of Carl's Jr. doesn't care if you find the burger chain's racy ads offensive. Well, he cares in one respect – if no one is offended, he's going to convince the marketing department to craft an even sexier commercial next time. "If you don't complain, I go to the head of marketing and say, 'What's wrong with our ads?'" says Andrew Puzder, CEO of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's parent company CKE Restaurants, describing a conversation with the head of an unnamed organization that regularly protests company marketing. "Those complaints aren't necessarily bad for us. What you look at...

Carl's Jr. and Hardee's are cramming a summer cookout into one burger. The upcoming menu item is made with a beef patty that is topped with a split hot dog. The meaty duo sits on a layer of Lay's potato chips between hamburger buns. Ketchup, mustard, tomato, red onion, pickles and American cheese will be thrown in, too.

CKE Restaurants' roots began in California roughly seven decades ago, but you won't see the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's expanding there much anymore. Related Stories What's causing what company CEO Andy Puzder describes as "very little growth" in the state? In part it's because "the minimum wage is so high so it's harder to come up with profitable business models," Puzder said in an interview. The state's minimum wage is set to rise to $9 in July, making it among the nation's highest, and $10 by January 2016. In cities in other states where the minimum wage...

Carl Karcher, who parlayed a single hot dog pushcart into a chain of more than 1,000 fast-food restaurants bearing his name, died Friday. He was 90. The affable, burly entrepreneur, known to millions as the jovial television pitchman for the Carl's Jr. chain, died of complications from Parkinson's-related pneumonia at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, according to Beth Mansfield, a spokeswoman for parent company CKE Restaurants. A stalwart Orange County Republican, Karcher worked tirelessly for the party and its candidates, still finding time for active and enthusiastic involvement in local causes, including United Way of Orange County, Orangewood Children's...

There's the the new commercial with the billionaire Maloof brothers. If you have that much, a $6,000 Carl's Jr. Six Dollar Burger Combo Meal is a piffle. For the rest of us, its wretched excess.

Carl's Jr. said its newly opened unit in Houston set a company record with $117,203 in sales its opening week. The revenue topped the chain's domestic and international sales mark, Carl's Jr. said Thursday.

A Web site touting Paris Hilton's racy television spot for burger chain Carl's Jr. crashed for four hours as Internet surfers raced to see the seductive swimsuit-clad socialite doused in suds. The 30-second commercial, which features the hotel heiress washing a Bentley and chomping on Carl's Jr.'s Spicy BBQ Burger in a stringy black swimsuit, has generated media attention since hitting the TV airwaves last Thursday. Carl's Jr., a unit of CKE Restaurants known for its male-focused ads and hefty burgers, at the same time launched a special Web site called SpicyParis.com featuring a special 60-second version of the ad....

Paris Hilton is at it again. The 24-year-old hotel heiress is the feature attraction in Carl's Jr.'s new Spicy Burger ad campaign, aimed at the horny male TV-watching population. Scantily clad in a one-piece leather outfit plunging down to below her navel, Hilton struts into an empty warehouse, licks her finger, then suds up herself and a Bentley automobile, as a stripper-styled "I Love Paris" rendition slowly plays in the background. At the end of the spot, Hilton bites the burger and sucks her finger clean. The commercial closes with Hilton's tagline flashing across the screen: "That's Hot." The spot...

I just love this story. "The parent of the Carl's, Jr...." I've got to tell you a little story. When I first moved to Sacramento back in 1984 I took the southern route when I drove out there from Kansas City. People said, because I was going in October, "Yeah you want to take the southern route because you go the northern route you get snow. You don't want to go I-80 and all that because if you go out to the Sierra you might get snow, so take the southern route. Go into New Mexico and Arizona and southern...

A pro-family group is taking issue with a national fast-food chain for featuring pornographer Hugh Hefner and his Playboy "Bunnies" on a new television commercial. Last week, CKE Restaurants -- parent company of Hardee's and Carl's Jr. establishments -- defended a sexually provocative TV commercial for Carl's Jr. by saying it was designed to target young men. The ad shows a model simulating sexual moves while riding a mechanical bull. Apparently believing that sexual fantasy is somehow related to the decision process one goes through before ordering a hamburger, this week the corporation released another Carl's Jr. commercial, this one...

For years, Andrew F. Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, has been telling the world that while the U.S. government makes life needlessly miserable for businesses, California, where it has been headquartered, is exponentially worse. This week, CKE announced that it is moving its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee. A story at the Orange County Register failed to go beyond the company's deliberately non-combative statement to explain why. As far as I can tell, the Los Angeles Times hasn't covered the move at all (I can't be absolutely sure because...