> While some consumers may appreciate the novelty or added convenience, the conveniences come at the cost of entry-level jobs.<p>Added convenience? In the past, someone else would translate my spoken word into the inputs that the computer screen required. Now, I don't have to speak, but I do have to figure out how to use this interface. Any bets how long it takes me order my food? If Wawa is any indicator, at least 3 times as long.<p>(Insert secondary rant about the "convenience" of DIY grocery checkout. I cannot stand those things!)
This discussion has already devolved into a war of slogans and soapboxing. It's barely been an hour.<p>I can't really blame HN. The article focuses on minimum wage and largely blames it for automation, and the author is under the impression that it's still possible to go from working the register to CEO.<p>This is not a good article. It lacks any insight or perspective.
I find it interesting that much more automated fast food actually did exist for a long period of time and fell out of favor.<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat</a>
> A study by University of Virginia and Middle Tennessee State University economists found that teenagers who held part-time jobs in school had annual earnings that were 20 percent higher than their counterparts without experience six to nine years after graduation.<p>> These entry level jobs such as flipping burgers or taking customers orders teach teens valuable jobs skills such as customer service and applying basic math skills. Skills that could ultimately lead to the career stepping stones for a working teenager to become an engineer or accountant.<p>I think these are good points, but I think that we should be careful that we're not giving young people advice that's obsolete. Times change!<p>Here's a thought exercise: Imagine the time when the first jobs for hourly pay came into existence. What advice was the older generation giving to the youth of that time? (I can imagine my elders telling me that it'd be important to learn to take care of animials, or harvest wheat, etc.)
I like the kiosks at least in Manhattan. No line, I don't have to deal with a moody cashier, and the menu is more complete. It's like using the Starbucks App.
I think the basic idea is good.<p>In Germany we already have many such Kiosks, but you can still go to a regular person and buy your stuff, without using this computer.<p>I had the impression many people don't use the Kiosk, don't know why.<p>My take is, you're standing right before a big screen and everyone behind you can see what you're doing, which feels kinda awkward.<p>Maybe they should have used an app for this.<p>Only you can see what you buy, you can take as long as you like, pay online, get your number and with it your food without the need to stand in line or something.
FYI this is an opinion piece written by a former McDonalds CEO. As for my opinion, I welcome the kiosks as there will be less communication barriers and greater order accuracy. Innovation will always lead to a reduction in human labor costs, but we should not artificially keep human labor where it's not needed.
I can't read forbes anymore since it only displays a blank page to me. Personally I have been using kiosks at Mc Donald's for years. Compared to self checkout at grocery stores, they are usually a good experience. My only problem is that some of the promotions don't work with them.
I used to work right near a McDonalds in Los Angeles that has had two of these in addition to cashiers for a few years.<p>Here is what I've noticed:<p>- All other things being equal and given the option, it seems that most people went to the human cashier. I can't ever remember seeing a person using one of these if there was no line at a person.<p>- During peak traffic times (lunch hour, as this McDonalds was near a bunch of business parks) they often needed an employee manning the kiosks to answer questions and help customers who got stuck. In this case, it was one employee for two terminals, but it could probably have been a 1:4 or 1:6 ratio no problem.<p>- Kind of unsurprisingly, people you would assume were not good with technology (older patrons) seemed to struggle more and take longer to order and get stuck more.<p>- There was a little bit of a learning curve to be able to confidently use on quickly, but even once I had gotten the hang of it, going to a cashier was always faster. Having a friendly, categorized, nested UI is just slower than what the cashiers have. Also, the terminal touch screen wasn't super responsive.<p>This all leads me to believe that this really isn't that big of an issue at this point. I expect to see a hybrid style approach like we do we self-checkout at grocery stores, where you have the option to do it yourself, but it's not the only option.<p>No matter how simple they make these to use, it's still a new "thing" to learn. Frequent McDonalds customers may opt for the terminal, but infrequent customers aren't going to want to take the time to learn how to use these, especially when they are in a rush or have other pressing issues (imagine a one parent 3 screaming children type scenario).
I've had nothing but positive experiences with the kiosks.<p>As for automation reducing the amount of available jobs... well, yeah, that's going to happen. Humanity will adapt. It's what our species does best.
I rarely, if ever, go to McDonald's at home. However, I realized that the kiosks in foreign countries allow you to order in english. They are quite convenient if you want food quickly but don't want to deal with a language barrier. I am looking forward to seeing more kiosks at fast food places in the future.
I have two problems with this approach to cost control. Neither is concerning the potential loss of jobs (or at least the lack of need for additional hires).<p>First, I don't think it will be more convenient. Sure, it is much more convenient for McDonald's to do this. But probably not for the user. Is it really easier to press a bunch of buttons on a system you don't use that often? Or is it easier to just verbalize what you want to a human being and have them enter it appropriately because they are more familiar with the system and can do it faster? I think it's a no-brainer that just saying what you want is far better for most consumers. If you order the same thing whenever you go and memorize how to quickly enter it, then it could be simpler. But that's probably the only case. That's what I do at Wawa - I always get the same sub so it's not time consuming for me to order. If I got different stuff, it would take me longer to order than just telling someone.<p>The other issue I have is that this whole concept of adding devices supposedly improves the bottom line of the company but they will surely charge customers the same prices. It also provides the customers with <i>less</i> service, not more. I remember when Applebees was testing out the same thing - trying to push everyone to order on those table devices that they have which have the games for kids on them. I outright (but politely) refused and requested a normal server/service. They happily obliged. But the reason is because it's more of a pain for me to put in the order and then it's an annoyance to call someone by pressing the button to notify them like they are flight crew on a plane.<p>Things get more complicated if you have coupons, or special requests. My wife is currently pregnant and these kiosks were at the McD I went to recently. She had asked for the McD big breakfast but since she can't have the sausage due to her pregnancy she wanted it totally separated so I could have it. Now I have to, presumably, type in notes for my special request?<p>Another thing I just thought of is the issue with errors in ordering. When McD (or anyone else) currently makes a mistake, it's on them. But now there's a chance that I will enter it wrong by incorrectly using their system. I'll never make a mistake ordering verbally. There's a decent chance I mess up when doing it via kiosk.
"I started working at McDonald’s making the minimum wage of 85 cents an hour. I worked hard and earned a promotion to restaurant manager within just one year, then went on to hold almost every position available throughout the company, eventually rising to CEO of McDonalds USA."<p>Howmany people didnt make it up that far?
I've been using the McDonald's iPhone app, which shares the same objective as the new kiosks. Besides several glitches here and there, I definitely think that's the future. However, I wonder if it is a humanity milestone to liberate us from cashier jobs.
Tried this a few years ago, it was interesting. Foreign country, not very good at the language. Sure, let's try the kiosk. What I didn't think of that they would mumble the number of my order when I was supposed to pick it up.<p>Tried this recently again, it failed horribly.<p>Enter local McDonalds, see huge queue at normal counter and short queue where you grad your stuff.<p>Notice new kiosk, choose stuff, it works flawlessly and quick.<p>Try to pay with card, machine doesn't accept my card. Now I have to use the long queue to pay. Awesome. Of course the card worked there.<p>That's my main problem with these "automated" things - it's fine for the regular use case, but you better not run into any trouble (which is not your own fault).
This move is extremely bad in terms of execution. At least the one I see in France.. gosh, I don't even want to go to McDonalds. It's ridiculous both in technical and cultural terms.<p>The old cashier / queue was part of the spirit. Rush hour sucked but after seeing the new 'decoupled' scheme, I regret waiting 10minutes for my hamburger.<p>The kiosks are damning, huge and not very efficient, often breaking the space in the worst possible way.<p>The kitchen which was a tense flow of cooking is now a boring sight of randomness. The other employees are looking at each others waiting for someone to answer their ticket number.<p>Almost comical. Bonus point, there's opportunity to snatch some receipts and get free lunch from time to time.
The McD's up the street has a couple of these but they don't accept cash which makes it necessary to for me to use the cashier since I'm a 99.99% cash-only person.<p>The main benefit AFAICT is they only use the fancy table tents so they bring your order out to you, using the cashier is hit-n-miss on those things and seems to totally depend on how the cashier's day is going.<p>One thing I have noticed lately is there's a whole lot more kids doing the entry-level jobs at McDonalds these days, for a while it was almost exclusively older folks and the youngins were just out of luck trying to get a foothold in the job market.
I have a friend who works for a McDonalds competitor (a Little Caesar's) in a small town in North Dakota, where McDonalds is already the big spender at 15 bucks an hour, not because they desire to replace entry level jobs, but because hiring people who are competent and reliable is a literal day to day struggle.<p>This seems like the inevitable result of both the pressure to hire decent workers and a desire to keep costs down.<p>Once customers become fluent in the interface, I can't imagine businesses not adopting it en masse.
What's to lose, if you're struggling to keep meatspace workers?
Soon, I imagine places like McDonald's will let people pre-program their favorite orders into their phones and order via something like NFC. Walk up, wave your hand, and your order is in the queue.
This is one of those things where I wonder if it will be faster, or take longer. I'm sure the idea is to have multiple kiosks open so that more people can order simultaneously, so that would typically result in faster orders. But having stood behind many people at the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines watching them figure out how to use it and decide what they want to drink, I can see this making things a lot slower even with 2-4 times the kiosks vs human cashiers.
I prefer kiosks for these type of transactions. The only problem I see arising is if a customer has a specific question about a menu item, though I can't remember the last time I had a question like that.<p>Maybe the 3-4 cashiers this displaces can now focus their efforts on helping out in the kitchen or perhaps roving the dining area providing Chick Fil A level service by getting me refills or taking my tray away.
Is someone in the world already working on the 3D printing of the cheeseburger?
With the Mac food being so standard why even use a single human in its preparation? Get a 3D printer and open the shop. BYOD for the consumer UI instead a kiosk, too.
They make it sound as if the reason for the switch is the minimum wage raise but in reality they would do it anyway. Human cashiers probably have less communication with customes than kiosks so not much to lose there.
This is literally what Andy Puzder threatened to do back in 2016. We cannot leave labor decisions to capitalists. They are the class enemy.<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/23/andy-puzder-on-automation-if-robots-take-your-job-the-minimum-wage-is-zero.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/23/andy-puzder-on-automation-if...</a><p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mcdonalds-ceo-labor/mcdonalds-ceo-sounds-positive-note-on-trumps-labor-nominee-idUSKBN15H2QS?type=companyNews" rel="nofollow">https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mcdonalds-ceo-labor/mcdon...</a>