Posted on 12/01/2016 7:19:43 AM PST by rktman
A former McDonald's CEO is laying the blame on the "Fight for $15" movement as for why the company is embracing automation in its restaurants. McDonald's will install self-serve kiosks in its restaurants around the country to replace human cashiers.
Let’s start with automation. In 2013, when the Fight for $15 was still in its growth stage, I and others warned that union demands for a much higher minimum wage would force businesses with small profit margins to replace full-service employees with costly investments in self-service alternatives. At the time, labor groups accused business owners of crying wolf. It turns out the wolf was real.
Earlier this month, McDonald’s announced the nationwide roll-out of touchscreen self-service kiosks. In a video the company released to showcase the new customer experience, it’s striking to see employees who once would have managed a cash register now reduced to monitoring a customer’s choices at an iPad-style kiosk.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Former employees could man the eff up and go to Tech School, and earn a diploma in manufacturing technology including courses on PLC and robotics. Will they? Probably not. They’d rather strong-arm for unequal production-to-wage pay and call flipping burgers a lifelong career.
Our new McD’s has two of them up already.
They would have done it anyway.
Panera Bread has them now but they’re not used much.
The biggie will be the ability to order using your phone (your very own kiosk).
Noe Why did we not see that coming? DUH,,,
Wawa and Sheetz convenience stores in Virginia and elsewhere have used ordering terminals for several years. They work nicely.
It has been said that the laws of economics, like those of physics, “cannot be broken”.
OK so they still need people to cook the order. They need people to deliver the food. They need people to take the money. They need people to mop the floor and restock the drink glasses and clean the restroom. I’m not seeing where there is going to be a huge headcount reduction because of this.
There isn’t an economist on the planet who can’t say: “I told you so.” The only thing these $15/hr idiots won is the right to say: “I’d be making $15/hr...if I had a job.” Stupid...just plain stupid.
One employee would cost the company 22500 a year (working 30 hours a week at $15) I highly doubt those kiosks would cost more than 2-3K each. manufactured in bulk. They will pay for themselves in a few months. let alone savings in insurance and benefits.
As long as it ain’t sushi.................
Because the very idea that you blew off your education and have no foresight that you have to work in Mcdonalds may offer up a clue?? :)
I’d rather order from a kiosk. Then I know the order is right.
And just how the hell are the unemployed workers supposed to pay for Tech school?And what about their normal living expenses while in school? Do you seriously think there are going to be as many robotics servicing jobs as jobs eliminated by robots?
No argument that demanding high minimum wages destroys jobs for less skilled workers.
I am fairly certain this technology would be advancing regardless of what the minimum wage is.
Duh!
People don’t understand. If employers are forced to pay money to their employees that they do not have, they have to shut down completely. The point of the business is to make money so they can survive. Workplaces are not charities. The economy is not great.
So when it comes time to force employers to pay more, they will a)hire less people and b) try to use tech to keep costs down.
The machines don’t have babies or arrive late. If they get “sick” you can replace them. They don’t sue for workplace injuries.
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