Then the business owners can focus on excellent employees with the desire to begin at entry level and progress fast into higher skill work at the business. 
Posted on 09/06/2014 7:19:39 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Want robots at McDonald's? Hike minimum wage: Zell Matthew J. Belvedere | @Matt_Belvedere Wednesday, 3 Sep 2014
Video
Federal and state efforts to increase the minimum wage are misguided and pose serious risks to the economy and the job market, billionaire Sam Zell told CNBC on Wednesday.
"The tinkering with the minimum wage is a very dangerous game," the chairman of Equity Group Investments said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "You start talking about a $13 or a $15 minimum wage, and you're going to have robots that are operating McDonald's."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
They’re already working on that. But what I’m getting at is that there *are* bots fully capable of preparing every item on the McDonalds menu *right now* in the volumes required inside the restaurants.
Dang, and all this time I thought that a robot WAS a machine. I feel silly.
Please make technology cheaper than labor? Liberals are totally destructive.
Most unemployment is a direct result of urban Democrat policies - licensing, permitting, etc. Toss in a crummy education and abundant welfare...
Why stop there? Do you think you could open up a McDonalds today that needs no human workers?
Nope. Still need a manager and maintenance staff on site. Someone will have to receive shipments, process cash, ensure the machines are running, perform updates, reload the machines, ensure the machines are cleaned, etc. But with existing technology, you could reasonably get it down to 3 people max per shift.
Best of all the robot doesn’t spit on your ordered food.
As the tech advances, though? I expect McDonalds locations to become increasingly automated and unattended - not unlike the old 24 hour automats that used to exist, only without human cooks.
How about this. At today’s robot prices and workers wages/pay packages would the robot investment pay off for the McDonalds you describe? To make this more interesting, how about if a McDonald’s franchisee who owns 200 of them says he will go this way. This way he pays lower prices for ‘bots.
The break even point for McDonalds to replace the cooking and prep staff with burger bots is reportedly at around $10-12 per hour for minimum wage. (Adjusted for regional COL and price differences, of course.)
The $15/hour minimum wage? All of a sudden, the bots don’t just look interesting any more but *mandatory* if they want to stay in business. There’s not a lot of elasticity in fast food prices any more and there’s not a lot of room to increase wages without large price increases.
Likely put together by robots as well.
Have to build lots of Git & Go type stores peoples gots needs.
Machines and robots are the same? Or are these machines simply called robots? Is your ATM a robot? People with English degrees want to know.
If they were the robots did a good job, they are better than the ones at McDonalds!
Should have thought of that before they tried to vote themselves bread and circuses.
I met Sam Zell years ago, a dorky looking little guy with more money than all the rest in a room full of multimillionaires. Smart as they come. I always listen to winners, because they tend to know how the world works.
(No, don’t even ask — I never was wealthy, but worked for a big investor and attended the meeting with him. )
EXACTLY. And unions -Their wages are tied to min wage and automatically compensate.
Then the business owners can focus on excellent employees with the desire to begin at entry level and progress fast into higher skill work at the business.
Burgers via call center? Jack in the Box...outsourcing fast-food orders.
The Christian Underground ^ | n.d. | Craig Portwood
Posted on 9/8/2014, 2:53:05 PM by WhiskeyX
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3201855/posts
Very well said...and thought.
You've never come across a newspaper vending machine? LOL! You must be very young!
The only difference now is the machines accept credit cards.
But newsprint is a dying medium in any case. These days, folks aren't interested in slanted, stale news printed on dead trees, whether sold by a human or a machine.
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.