shower thoughts..Wendy's serves up kiosk as wages go up

[werepossum]

You're welcome..... Don't forget what I have heard came from the Germans said in the trenches in WW!: Die Lage ist hoffnungslos, aber nicht ernst.

The situation is hopeless but not serious.

That is brilliantly German.

I don't often go to Wendy's, but so far I haven't used a McD's kiosk. Mostly because I usually just stop in to grab a shake, and you can't ask the kiosk "so, is the shake machine working today?" before you get on line. (For some bizarre reason, NYC has been experiencing a real epidemic of frequently broken shake machines over the past couple of years. Until it finally dawned on me to ask about it first thing, it had gotten incredibly irritating...) And before anyone says "they could/should/would program the kiosks to know when the shake machines are broken", let me just say: ^_^

And of course there was no question of customization. You put a nickel in the slot, and took out your dish of <whatever> just as it came out of the kitchen... and of course you had to repeat the process for every item you wanted, rather than getting your entire order on a single tray at the same time. Realistically, if it had remained an efficient way of running even a fast-food "restaurant", they'd still be around...

You have to ask though. I pick up McD Frappacinos for the wife and I can't count the times that I have paid for one and had to get my money returned because the girl forgot/didn't know that the machine literally five feet away wasn't working - even though the cashiers are the ones who use it.

There is not a mental struggle over whether to go into fast food or theoretical physics.

 

[Mike64]

You have to ask though. I pick up McD Frappacinos for the wife and I can't count the times that I have paid for one and had to get my money returned because the girl forgot/didn't know that the machine literally five feet away wasn't working - even though the cashiers are the ones who use it.

Yeah, I did finally figure that out. Now I go straight up to the cashiers and ask before I get on line at all. Though in defense of NYC-area McD's employees, I will say that they themselves usually check the machine before ringing up the order if they're not sure it's working (or not, as the case so often is.) (As I said, it's a major epidemic in these parts and I guess they've adapted.) The irritating part was waiting in line when it was going to turn out that the only thing I was there for was unvavailable...

 

[Oyeve]

The real problem is the people who eat at these places so much that a kiosk is a problem.

 

[senseamp]

There is no net gain in having humans doing crappy jobs that computers and robots could do. Also, doesn't matter if there is or isn't a legal minimum wage, there is a minimum amount you need to survive, and eventually computer and robot is going to do it cheaper than that amount. If that amount is lower, it will take a couple years later, but it will happen. Also, now the big push is to automate everything that can be automated, it's not just going to be fast food and truck drivers, if you are majoring in radiology now, I would seriously reconsider.

 

[buckshot24]

Do we really want to know what an old man thinks about in the shower?

 

[sportage]

Kiosks. Really?
So their only two employees working in the back no longer need to run to the resister to take an order?
Does this mean the fries will still be stone cold and the buns moldy?

 

[Ichinisan]

Hmm I bet it won't work as well as they hope, I mean just look at the self checkout lanes in grocery stores and see how many people need help with it/fuck it up/take forever. We like to laugh at fast food employees being slow or stupid but personally I doubt people who frequent mcdonalds or wendys will do things any better on their own.

The self checkout at Kroger and Walmart saves me LOADS of time.

 

[Ichinisan]

Kiosks? How quaint. Just wait until they release the Phone App.

Many/most already encourage you to order from the mobile app.

 

[feralkid]

Awesome. So we can become just like Europe then. Import 1-2 million immigrants a year the majority can go straight on welfare and vote for for more state. The problem with this fantasy is you can only keep the game going until the state collapses and the nation predictably splits like Yugoslavia.

You'd do well to study up on Yugoslavia before making ignorant guesses.

 

[Triumph]

For the Wendy's near work, this would be a great thing! All the Wendys around here are sticking to the drinks-behind-the-counter model. Which, I guess, is their way of discouraging free refills since you have to wait in line or cut in line and get the cashier's attention if you want a refill.

And every order is messed up at this Wendys. Routinely. So I applaud this progress.

 

[soundforbjt]

I can't remember the last time I ordered anything other than a drink at a fast food place.

 

[gorcorps]

Awesome. Not new by any stretch but I'm glad to see more places thinking about putting them in.

Though it's not specifically stated, I'm assuming these are for in-restaurant ordering. I'm still waiting for an ATM style outdoor kiosk.

 

[Triumph]

I can't remember the last time I ordered anything other than a drink at a fast food place.

 

[purbeast0]

why the hell would you go to a fast food place just to order a drink? why not go to 7-11 or the gas station instead, where they have much more of a variety?

 

[IBMer]

This is no different than people working in the coal industry in towns where the mines are being shut down. We are failing at training out population to keep up with the changing job environment. Regardless if companies are going to automate things, people should always be able to make a living wage.

 

[waggy]

Do we really want to know what an old man thinks about in the shower?

stop dreaming of me in the shower buck. you aren't my type. I don't like bible thumpers.

 

[waggy]

For the Wendy's near work, this would be a great thing! All the Wendys around here are sticking to the drinks-behind-the-counter model. Which, I guess, is their way of discouraging free refills since you have to wait in line or cut in line and get the cashier's attention if you want a refill.

And every order is messed up at this Wendys. Routinely. So I applaud this progress.

they must teach this at wendy's. The one near me is bad. i swear 40% of the time they mess up the orders.

 

[SMOGZINN]

This is no different than people working in the coal industry in towns where the mines are being shut down. We are failing at training out population to keep up with the changing job environment. Regardless if companies are going to automate things, people should always be able to make a living wage.

What would you have them be trained in if everything is being automated? We are now in fact automating jobs faster then we are creating new ones. We are losing jobs not just changing them.

We have to also remember that a lot of people are in these jobs because they don't have the ability to get advanced degrees. The are missing the drive or intelligence required to do so. Some of those that do have the drive or intelligence don't have the opportunity to do so.

Education is not the simple solution to this problem.

 

[sandorski]

What would you have them be trained in if everything is being automated? We are now in fact automating jobs faster then we are creating new ones. We are losing jobs not just changing them.

We have to also remember that a lot of people are in these jobs because they don't have the ability to get advanced degrees. The are missing the drive or intelligence required to do so. Some of those that do have the drive or intelligence don't have the opportunity to do so.

Education is not the simple solution to this problem.

Phone App Development. Make the Kiosk Manufacturers Inefficient and Redundant.

 

[soundforbjt]

why the hell would you go to a fast food place just to order a drink? why not go to 7-11 or the gas station instead, where they have much more of a variety?

If you're riding with someone who wants to actually eat that "food ", you have little choice. I try to eat healthy.

 

[woolfe9998]

First off, yes it's politics.

Second, processes get automated no matter what the minimum wage is. The cotton gin was invented when the cost of labor in the South was zero. It's just handy to take a process that was already going to be automated anyway (Sheetz and Wawa have kiosk ordering, and I imagine many other places) and pretend it's because of minimum wage increases.

This is essentially it. At most a minimum wage might affect the timing of implementing automation to some degree. In the long run, lots unskilled jobs have already and will continue to be progressively eliminated, in such areas as retail, house cleaning, customer service, etc.

 

[SMOGZINN]

This is essentially it. At most a minimum wage might affect the timing of implementing automation to some degree. In the long run, lots unskilled jobs have already and will continue to be progressively eliminated, in such areas as retail, house cleaning, customer service, etc.

If you think it is just unskilled jobs that are going to be lost to automation you are sadly mistaken. Most information work will be replaced as well. A good expert system can do most information jobs better than a person ever could. So, while it might be a long time until they completely replace people in positions like lawyer, they are going to replace a lot of the bulk of the time consuming work that requires companies to have a lot of people doing those jobs. Even small efficiency increases eliminate jobs which in turn lowers wages.

 

[Exophase]

I was just thinking (hey gotta do something when mowing the yard) what if the whole $15 per hour BS was started by the makers of the kiosk? That they started this knowing the resturants won't pay them $15 and it would be cheaper to buy the kiosk?

I don't see how the kiosks aren't cheaper than even ~$7/hour employees in the long term, especially given the high turnover rates for fast food workers. One kiosk is maybe a few thousand tops and a negligible amount in electricity and maintenance.

Where the self-order tablets really threaten workers is in replacing restaurant wait staff (although not all of them). There they're much cheaper and big time savers for customers. You don't have to wait for someone to take your order, wait for someone to finally notice you need a drink refill, wait for someone to take additional orders like desert, wait for someone to bring your check, or wait for a receipt that you need to sign. Servers would still need people to bring out the food and drinks and help with the occasionally person who can't deal with the technology or has some other issue. But I imagine they could cut the wait staff by at least half, for tablets that literally cost less than $100 per table.

Some restaurants have already had these for a while, but they've largely shied away from actually cutting down on wait staff. For now.

Hmm I bet it won't work as well as they hope, I mean just look at the self checkout lanes in grocery stores and see how many people need help with it/fuck it up/take forever. We like to laugh at fast food employees being slow or stupid but personally I doubt people who frequent mcdonalds or wendys will do things any better on their own.

Despite how many problems they cause, they've still replaced a lot of checkout people and I haven't seen them go down in deployment.

Fast food kiosks are a lot less problematic because you don't need to scan and bag anything, you just select your order from a pre-defined menu. There's much less to go wrong, and all things considered it'll probably get your order right more often than a person would. You might think it's harder to customize orders this way but the fast food places already have online menu builders that let you do this. And the kiosk will be able to easily provide things like ingredients and calorie counts that are precise to your order.

The real barrier is going to be drive through, at the very least the stores are going to have to step up their microphone and speaker quality so that a device can reliably understand what you're saying. But given that I think the speech recognition technology is there, at least for major franchises who can front the software costs for their franchisees.

 

[Subyman]

why the hell would you go to a fast food place just to order a drink? why not go to 7-11 or the gas station instead, where they have much more of a variety?

Because it has a drive through, duh.

 

[hal2kilo]

Because it has a drive through, duh.

Yea, really. 7 Eleven in pajamas? Although, I don't even think that stops people anymore.