Pretty soon fast food outlets will have self serve checkout.
Fine with me. I don't eat at fast food joints.
True. And that's not the only fast food trend that is easily spotted. McDonald's just tore down a perfectly good building near me to allow the addition of a new one with a super-small seating area plus a Drive-Through. Most days at the busy time there are 10 or more cars lined up and no place to sit inside.
Not for me. Off to Del Taco I go.
I believe the FRIDAY’S restaurant chain is experimenting with touch-screen ordering at their tables. That means that the person who normally busses the table will probably deliver the food. A lot of fairly decent waiting jobs for college-age students and new graduates will disappear.
Does that mean I won’t get snarled at and have my order purposely messed up because I am a crackah? Bring on the burger-bots!
Actually a Taco Bell near me, they have a Kiosk or whatever it is called. You can bring up the menu and place your order and pay. It gives you a receipt and number and someone will call your number to pick up at the counter. So it is not that far away.
Pretty soon fast food restaurants will be mostly automated. One person who alternates between re-stocking the machines, and cleaning/restocking the dining area, and one manager and one tech who float between 4-5 restaurants. . . .
I have already seen it, daughter took me to one in El Paso a couple years ago. When you walk in there is what looks like an ATM, you order on the screen, check to make sure it is correct and pay with cash or card. It prints your receipt and you go pick up your order. The only people I saw working in there were preparing orders. I think it was being tested then, only saw the one. I thought it was great, my limited experience with fast food places is they always seem to mess up the ordering process.