Posted on 12/28/2022 8:04:33 AM PST by Red Badger
McDonald’s revealed a test restaurant near Fort Worth, Texas, earlier this month in which automation technology replaces many positions formerly held by employees, drawing mixed reactions from conservatives and liberals.
The fast food behemoth announced that customers can use kiosks and a mobile app to grab their orders from a conveyor belt rather than interacting with customer-facing staff. The concept is designed to give the restaurant team “the ability to concentrate more on order speed and accuracy, which makes the experience more enjoyable for everyone,” Keith Vanecek, the franchisee operating the restaurant, said in a press release.
Conservative-leaning commentators noted that the restaurant concept comes after activist campaigns and left-wing politicians spent years calling for minimum wage hikes. The new test restaurant also hits the marketplace as historic labor shortages present difficulties to companies attempting to fill their payrolls, worsening inflationary pressures and supply chain bottlenecks.
“The real minimum wage is zero and you are always replaceable,” BASEDPolitics President Hannah Cox said on social media, alluding to a phrase favored by conservative economist Thomas Sowell. “If you want more money find a way to add more value. Anyone telling you differently has no idea how to eradicate poverty.”
Liberal-leaning commentators rebutted such arguments. Fight for 15, an activist group demanding a minimum wage of $15 per hour, said that the restaurant shows workers “need to demand” higher pay. “Maybe it’s time for broad worker solidarity so we can fight back.”
“They’d rather fire people than have less profits,” comedian Billy Procida added. “This is the problem.”
On a less serious note, writer Patrick Casey observed: “On the bright side at least the ice cream machine will work.”
McDonald’s has made several recent pushes toward increased automation. The company partnered with IBM to automate drive-thrus and unveiled voice-ordering technology at multiple Chicago restaurants last year after purchasing several artificial intelligence startups. “Do I think in five years from now you’re going to see a voice in the drive-thru? I do, but I don’t think that this is going to be something that happens in the next year or so,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said at an investor conference.
Beyond large corporations, worker shortages and higher wage pressures have prompted roughly 30% of small businesses to implement new technology systems, according to a poll from Morning Consult conducted last year.
Some policymakers nevertheless continue to call for increased pay in the restaurant services industries. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act three months ago, creating a Fast Food Council empowered to raise minimum wages for the industry up to $22 per hour, representing an increase of over 40% from the $15.50 per hour minimum wage slated to take effect in 2023.
A report published last year by the Congressional Budget Office found that a nationwide minimum wage of $15 per hour would result in 1.4 million job losses, even as 900,000 workers are lifted from poverty. Such a wage hike would affect 17 million workers whose pay would otherwise be below the threshold.
Look for the “Automat” to make a comeback....................
Been in HK for over a decade.
They work great
Asians are more at ease with automation than average Americans.
But that will change.
I might actually visit a McD’s again.................
This is big ..even if it doesn’t feel big.
Because every company across America is asking itself can i go automated?
$22/hour x 168 hours per week x 52 weeks is $192K, assume you need 4 ft people to cover that, that is probably another $110K in benefits (health insurance etc) - so $300K per year.
Even if a robot costs a million dollars, replacing 4 people at $22/hr with benefits, it will pay for itself in ~ 3.5 years.
Nice kiosks.Frees more workers to wipe the tables clean.
Entry level jobs requiring no skills were never int5ended to support a family, they were intended to teach youngins how to show up, work and get the job done while following their bosses orders.
Some Large ‘sit down’ restaurant chains now have ordering by tablets at the tables, and pay by card at the tables too...............
I’m sure just about every business is looking at how automation may reduce their cost of doing business , and/or make for more efficient business operations.
I know we have ongoing debates in this country about the minimum wage and whether it should be a so-called living wage and all of that. But the fact is in most businesses, labor costs, the expense of paying all the hired help, is the biggest single expense most businesses have.
So if businesses try to firm up their bottom line, which in some businesses is a rather slim profit margin, looking at cutting labor costs will happen.
McDonald’s seems like a prime opportunity for automation.
Basically you need one cook and one cleaning staff, the rest can be done with automation.
The cleaning can be outsourced..................
Now just get rid of the rest of them. No servers no cooks no jobs.
Plug in the aggravations costs for the manager trying to hire, train and retain and deal with the absences.
Perhaps the globalists realize that automation is going to eliminate a massive number of jobs and that supporting all those people is going to be near impossible.
BINGO!...................
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