Wendy's to install self-ordering kiosks at 1000 locations

[UglyCasanova]

http://www.wmal.com/2017/02/27/wendys-plans-self-ordering-kiosks-at-1000-locations/


Other fast food restaurants are already doing this and the trend will only be to continue to add more. Their rationale is:

Wendy’s chief information officer, David Trimm, says the kiosks are intended to appeal to younger customers and reduce labor costs. Kiosks also allow customers of the fast food giant to circumvent long lines during peak dining hours while increasing kitchen production.

The appeal to younger customers is just or fluff, the labor costs is the meat of it. The recent push for a $15 minimum wage undeniably put the fear into CEO's and as a result r&d is being spent on more and more automation. These kiosks obviously won't replace all labor, but it will certainly do away with some of it. More and more jobs will continue to become automated, while more and more responsibility and work put on the back of those that remain.

I don't necessarily expect fast food workers to understand much about economics, but it's a bit crazy that a lot of educated people were really behind the push knowing full well what the outcome would be. These aren't jobs meant to raise a family on, the value of the work according to the free labor market simply isn't enough to do so. Now due to the fear that places will enact legislation drastically raising their cost of labor they're pursuing automation and who can blame them, they have a business and bottom line to protect.

 

[senseamp]

But where is Trump Trash going to work once the illegals are deported?

 

[Puffnstuff]

But where is Trump Trash going to work once the illegals are deported?

Last time I checked it was pay me $15 per hour to flip burgers liberals doing those jobs.

 

[UglyCasanova]

But where is Trump Trash going to work once the illegals are deported?

Where is Trump Trash going to work, what does that mean? And what do illegals have to do with this?

 

[Jhhnn]

http://www.wmal.com/2017/02/27/wendys-plans-self-ordering-kiosks-at-1000-locations/


Other fast food restaurants are already doing this and the trend will only be to continue to add more. Their rationale is:



The appeal to younger customers is just or fluff, the labor costs is the meat of it. The recent push for a $15 minimum wage undeniably put the fear into CEO's and as a result r&d is being spent on more and more automation. These kiosks obviously won't replace all labor, but it will certainly do away with some of it. More and more jobs will continue to become automated, while more and more responsibility and work put on the back of those that remain.

I don't necessarily expect fast food workers to understand much about economics, but it's a bit crazy that a lot of educated people were really behind the push knowing full well what the outcome would be. These aren't jobs meant to raise a family on, the value of the work according to the free labor market simply isn't enough to do so. Now due to the fear that places will enact legislation drastically raising their cost of labor they're pursuing automation and who can blame them, they have a business and bottom line to protect.

Please. The push for higher wages has little to do with it. Automation is a trend in every industry, has been for a long time. It's simply becoming more intense. It's almost like Moore's law.

The truth is that working for a living is becoming an obsolete economic model. There's not enough work to go around, not like there once was. It's what's happening in the inner cities & now in Trump country as well. Human beings are the inefficient part of Capitalism.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Please. The push for higher wages has little to do with it. Automation is a trend in every industry, has been for a long time. It's simply becoming more intense. It's almost like Moore's law.

The truth is that working for a living is becoming an obsolete economic model. There's not enough work to go around, not like there once was. It's what's happening in the inner cities & now in Trump country as well. Human beings are the inefficient part of Capitalism.

It's not Moore's law, we aren't talking about the processing power of computer chips.

And I do agree that automation is taking over, not just low level jobs like this but higher skilled jobs as well. It is becoming more intense, but what's driving that? Advent in technology certainly, but money is being funneled into that not just for the hell of it but because economic forces drive it. The quest for more efficiency and to combat the most expensive variable for many companies which is labor cost.

I get that you want to push for basic income, but we aren't there yet. Money is a store of value, we have to make sure there is actual value behind those dollar bills. Merely printing money and handing it out to everyone saying "here ya go, here's your monthly stipend" is worthless unless there's actual value and wealth being transferred to them.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Prevent long lines? My experience has been the opposite here where McDonald's has these kiosks. Everything is custom. Takes five to ten times as long to get food if not longer. Last time it took 15-20 minutes for my just my son and myself.

Last couple places I took my son so he could play on the equipment were disgusting messes. No front staff to maintain things. Wasn't the place it was when I was younger. Or even a couple years ago before they went this route.

 

[senseamp]

Trump's big plan was let's deport illegal immigrants so that the crappy jobs that they are doing are going to be freed up for his supporters whom I lovingly call Trump Trash. But now it looks like legal immigrants in Silicon Valley will take those jobs through automation. What's plan B for Trump Trash?

 

[UglyCasanova]

Prevent long lines? My experience has been the opposite here where McDonald's has these kiosks. Everything is custom. Takes five to ten times as long to get food if not longer. Last time it took 15-20 minutes for my just my son and myself.

Last couple places I took my son so he could play on the equipment were disgusting messes. No front staff to maintain things. Wasn't the place it was when I was younger. Or even a couple years ago before they went this route.

That's just more pr fluff. The sole reason for automated kiosks is labor cost, it's just not pc to come right out and say it.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Trump's big plan was let's deport illegal immigrants so that the crappy jobs that they are doing are going to be freed up for his supporters whom I lovingly call Trump Trash. But now it looks like legal immigrants in Silicon Valley will take those jobs through automation. What's plan B for Trump Trash?

Calling a large chunk of people trash speaks highly of you. High school unemployment rates are extremely high, there's plenty that would love an entry level job. If that's picking crops so be it. The idea that illegals take the jobs that us citizens don't want is rubbish. Are they jobs someone wants to make a career of? I doubt it. But entry level jobs are just that, entry level.

This thread isn't really about illegals though, it's about low skilled American workers pricing themselves and their kids out of entry level positions that help pay their way to a better future.

 

[senseamp]

That's just more pr fluff. The sole reason for automated kiosks is labor cost, it's just not pc to come right out and say it.

Humans need food, shelter, and medicine. So there is a minimum wage even if the government doesn't set one, even slave labor (except death camp labor) would have that cost. Moore's law effectively says computers will do same thing for roughly half the price in roughly two years. As you can see, one curve is a function of the consumer price index curve, which is exponentially growing at a couple percent a year with inflation, and the other curve is exponentially decreasing by tens of percent per year with Moore's law. Those two will intersect eventually, and reducing the human cost by even a factor of two will delay that interception by only a couple years.

 

[senseamp]

Calling a large chunk of people trash speaks highly of you. High school unemployment rates are extremely high, there's plenty that would love an entry level job. If that's picking crops so be it. The idea that illegals take the jobs that us citizens don't want is rubbish. Are they jobs someone wants to make a career of? I doubt it. But entry level jobs are just that, entry level. This thread isn't really about illegals though, it's about low skilled American workers pricing themselves and their kids out of entry level positions that help pay their way to a better future.

That is my opinion of a them, I am sorry it's not PC.

 

[Bitek]

Please, this was happening one way or the other. Acting like it's just the fault of underpaid workers demanding enough pay to be able to eat and sleep is incredible blame shifting.

They have had kiosks like this in other sites for quite some time, even before Occupy and the recent wage hike protests. Supermarkets have had self checkouts for better part of 20yrs.

The best argument you can make is that they shifted the decision a couple of years, which means, who cares. Your point is irrelevant.

This was coming no matter what. Stores like to shift their workers into the production areas in the kitchens. There is little value in a cashier.

 

[Bitek]

So where's trumpsters plan to deal with this? Will he shit tweet Wendy's with vague threats and tariffs?

Or are these jobs not good enough? Only cares about unemployed coal miners and air conditioners?

 

[Jaskalas]

The quest for more efficiency and to combat the most expensive variable for many companies which is labor cost.

Compared to cost of living, Labor was paid a HELL of lot more just one generation ago. $15 an hour doesn't even cover the losses.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Compared to cost of living, Labor was paid a HELL of lot more just one generation ago. $15 an hour doesn't even cover the losses.

I agree, but it was a different world then. Labor in the US didn't directly compete with the third world. Unions had more clout because packing up and leaving for Mexico or China wasn't really an option. Or course things were better. We got a lot of cheap shit in return though, so we're still "better off" right?

 

[Bitek]

I agree, but it was a different world then. Labor in the US didn't directly compete with the third world. Unions had more clout because packing up and leaving for Mexico or China wasn't really an option. Or course things were better. We got a lot of cheap shit in return though, so we're still "better off" right?

How would we outsource Wendy's to China?

By your logic, workers should unionize.

 

[fskimospy]

http://www.wmal.com/2017/02/27/wendys-plans-self-ordering-kiosks-at-1000-locations/


Other fast food restaurants are already doing this and the trend will only be to continue to add more. Their rationale is:



The appeal to younger customers is just or fluff, the labor costs is the meat of it. The recent push for a $15 minimum wage undeniably put the fear into CEO's and as a result r&d is being spent on more and more automation. These kiosks obviously won't replace all labor, but it will certainly do away with some of it. More and more jobs will continue to become automated, while more and more responsibility and work put on the back of those that remain.

I don't necessarily expect fast food workers to understand much about economics, but it's a bit crazy that a lot of educated people were really behind the push knowing full well what the outcome would be. These aren't jobs meant to raise a family on, the value of the work according to the free labor market simply isn't enough to do so. Now due to the fear that places will enact legislation drastically raising their cost of labor they're pursuing automation and who can blame them, they have a business and bottom line to protect.

Do you think you know a lot about economics? If so, what does the overall economics literature say about the relationship between the minimum wage and employment?

 

[fskimospy]

How would we outsource Wendy's to China?

By your logic, workers should unionize.

People generally VASTLY overestimate the impact of foreign competition on labor. The vast majority of US jobs cannot be outsourced. What they can be is automated, but automation is a good thing.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Do you think you know a lot about economics? If so, what does the overall economics literature say about the relationship between the minimum wage and employment?

It's very easy, Econ 101 stuff

I have no doubt you can dig up whatever you'd like that says the contrary, but ultimately you can't fight the fundamentals of economics.

 

[Jaskalas]

There's an economic view to embrace global trade, to use it to fuel our production. To then turn such wealth into basic income.
Our workers would then compete with others, but not for life or death. We can provide for them, employed or not.

 

[MongGrel]

It's very easy, Econ 101 stuff

I have no doubt you can dig up whatever you'd like that says the contrary, but ultimately you can't fight the fundamentals of economics.

The fact you still seem to hang out on AT and try to justify your BS when you are is ridiculous to begin with.

If you hate AT so much go away, you've already stated you do not care for the forum in other threads.

 

[UglyCasanova]

The fact you still seem to hang out on AT and try to justify your BS when you are is ridiculous to begin with.

If you hate AT so much go away.

I love AT, I've been here for many years (much longer than you). I hate what it's been allowed to become. It's also much less active and vibrant than it used to be, I wonder why?

 

[MongGrel]

I love AT, I've been here for many years (much longer than you). I hate what it's been allowed to become. It's also much less active and vibrant than it used to be, I wonder why?

I was on Compuserve in the 80's also, you can ride that join date all you want.

*shrug*

 

[agent00f]

It's very easy, Econ 101 stuff

I have no doubt you can dig up whatever you'd like that says the contrary, but ultimately you can't fight the fundamentals of economics.

Intro econ doesn't teach real models. Simple graphs like this are for dumbshits to pretend they know something about economics.