Posted on 04/21/2016 6:16:47 AM PDT by xzins
A little while back we told you about how the CEO of Hardees/Carl’s Jr. was thinking about replacing employees with machines thanks to the ridiculous minimum wage hike to $15.
Well, it appears he has done it.
It was only a matter of time before this started to happen and you can expect to see more of this in the future.
I agree. It is much less likely that you will screw up your own order than someone else tapping it in.
Rotflol!
Not exactly hygienic, IMO. Touching the same screen that other people have touched. Correction — hundreds of other people have touched and probably at least one of them with a disease.
Wash your hands kiddos!
Wonder how often the screens are cleaned. The other day, I noticed an Ipad that was used by employees at a restaurant that was used for seating that had probably never been cleaned.
I guess it is no different than touching the door handle. But it still bothers me.
The problem isn’t the *machine* here. :P
Yeah, I know. Old age is problem. LOL.
You don’t really get human interaction in a fully staffed fast food restaurant *now*. :P
Also, the automats of old may have had humans behind the wall of food, but at many of them you never saw a human from the time you walked in until the time you walked out. You put coins in slots and pulled your desired item out, no cashier.
There will still be humans in the store assuming they don’t go to a ‘giant kiosk’ model - have to have someone supervising the machines and able to step in if something happens. If they do the giant kiosk model, there won’t be anything but a flat wall where the counter used to be, which will be studded with order touchscreens, money handling input and outputs and a food dispensing slot.
FYI, they already have fresh pizza making kiosks/vending machines. The Italians came up with it and apparently it’s all the rage over there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChQ8ylWiq80
My main concern with public-access touch devices is that they are big time disease vectors.
Remember, Mohammad Al-Lefthandwipiya is touching them too, along with the full spectrum of cleanliness-optional characters our wonderful newly diverse country sports with pride.
You’re crazy. People are unsanitary even when they’re not spitting or depositing other body fluids in your food.
Too many stories of malcontents contaminating the food, either intentionally or unintentionally, drove me away.
Yep. I was just thinking that if a robot got an attitude we might wind up with nuts and bolts in our burgers.
For those that don’t wish to touch a public screen, there is an option for you to use your own smartphone to make your order. Taco Bell is already experimenting with this in their stores.
Panera Bread has been doing this. I often use them.
I actually prefer this interface as opposed to dealing with somebody with broken English who doesn’t bathe regularly and gets my order wrong half the time.
Still, you need to worry about who’s behind the curtain preparing the order. You might not want to know.
I actually had that happen to me a few decades ago.
Place a container of hand sanitizer next to the kiosk.
I go to the same one or two places over and over so I get to know most of the people there. All of the people at Taco Bells know me by first name and most of them know my order before I get to the counter. We actually have developed friendships and talk about family things.
I don't see why they wouldn't. I imagine these are roughly the same screens the employees would use to order the food for you. All the machines have done is eliminate the order- and money-taker -- basically, the counter help.
Way to go, minimum wage-ists! Your new slogan: "From undperpaid to unemployed."
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine!
It happens more than most people want to know!!
Arby in Colorado tried this in 1993 with the Touch 2000 system (helped build it). It didn’t work out too well. Society has too many people that simply cannot use a computer system, plus there are just too many questions people need to ask about the menu and the computer doesn’t do that.
Also, at the Denver airport, same thing: Put the kiosks in, took them out.
I like it but I’m not sure it will be as wonderful as we all assume. My husband and I came across a soda dispensing kiosk machine. It provided a surprisingly large menu of flavored Coke products. However, the only Coke it dispensed was original flavor.
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