McDonald's beginning to replace cashiers with touch screens

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Throckmorton

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
3
0
Considering a machine makes $0 and is cheap to buy and maintain, why would minimum wage have anything to do with this?
 
Steeplerot

Steeplerot

Lifer
Mar 29, 2004
13,051
6
81
Anyone actually think the capitalists will pass on the decreased labor costs to the customer instead of hookers and blow?

Oh well, it's not like they bothered to pay their employees in the first place. Same difference.
 
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IGBT

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,962
140
106
TheRedUnderURBed said:
Anyone actually think the capitalists will pass on the decreased labor costs to the customer instead of hookers and blow? Oh well it's not like they bothered to pay their employees in the first place.
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if your already used to paying current prices for your crap burger.. Why should they change the price??
 
Steeplerot

Steeplerot

Lifer
Mar 29, 2004
13,051
6
81
IGBT said:
if your already used to paying current prices for your crap burger.. Why should they change the price??
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This is the sorriest defense of free market fundamentalism I have seen in awhile. /taps sarcasm meter
 
Imp

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
106
Still going to need people to make and serve the stuff. Also going to be more techs maintaining the stuff.

I'm actually glad. No more dealing with people having a shitty day, who just don't give a shit, give attitude, etc. Just put my crap on a tray...
 
C

charrison

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
17,033
1
81
Throckmorton said:
Considering a machine makes $0 and is cheap to buy and maintain, why would minimum wage have anything to do with this?
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Because the machines are not free and do operate on a fixed cost(R&D, support and maintenance). I am not sure at what wage it hits the tipping point, but that point has obviously been exceeded.
 
sandorski

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,329
5,896
126
charrison said:
Because the machines are not free and do operate on a fixed cost(R&D, support and maintenance). I am not sure at what wage it hits the tipping point, but that point has obviously been exceeded.
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Probably <$1/hr. There really isn't much expense doing this. One Workers Wages for a Year probably would pay for multiple Stores.
 
wuliheron

wuliheron

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2011
3,536
0
0
McDonald's has already built an experimental restaurant that is completely automated. Not even people in the back flipping burgers. I suppose they have to have people come in to clean the place regularly, but that's about it. You might be surprised just how many patents for stuff like this already exist that haven't been implemented yet for one reason or another. Dominoes Pizza already has a heat lamp oven that will cook a pizza in two minutes flat, but its overkill for most places and doesn't really speed up the delivery that much.

There are also experimental factory farms that are completely automated and indoors. Trucks just off load supplies at one end, and pick up produce at the other. Saves on all the insecticides and whatnot but, its still not yet as cheap as the vast monocrop fields and cheap imports.

Where it all ends is anyone's guess, but with the military spending a lot on robotics research these days you can be sure the pace towards automation is going to increase in the near future.
 
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DominionSeraph

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
8,386
32
91
glenn1 said:
Another "it sucks to be a minimal-skills worker" news item. Of course, minimum wage laws and the price of labor have nothing whatsoever to do with the decision of employers to utilize automation in place of teenagers and high-school dropouts, nothing at all. Also, developments like this are even more reason to support "living wage" laws, right?
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Stupidity: Cheap entertainment for the smart.

1299725545184.gif
 
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C

charrison

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
17,033
1
81
sandorski said:
Probably <$1/hr. There really isn't much expense doing this. One Workers Wages for a Year probably would pay for multiple Stores.
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They are probably more expensive than you think. A grocery store close by ripped out its self checkout machines because of support costs. Low volume embedded hardware and software solution is all that cheap to produce.
 
S

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
glenn1 said:
Another "it sucks to be a minimal-skills worker" news item. Of course, minimum wage laws and the price of labor have nothing whatsoever to do with the decision of employers to utilize automation in place of teenagers and high-school dropouts, nothing at all. Also, developments like this are even more reason to support "living wage" laws, right?

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/mcdonalds-to-replace-cashiers-with-touch-screens-1691/
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lol OP fail, but I don't blame you. If you've never worked in fast food then I wouldn't expect you to know how it works. The people who take your order at McDonalds and Wendys are also responsible for getting your fries and your drinks. Even with the automated purchasing thingy, that same exact person is doing the exact same thing they did before - get your fries and drink.

I totally support this. Everybody always complains that we're going to lose jobs to machines, yet it never happens. I engineer stuff on a computer and I do it just as hard as people did with paper and pencil. Secretaries with computers have just as much work as when they had typewriters. It's just a different kind of work.
 
IGBT

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,962
140
106
Imp said:
Still going to need people to make and serve the stuff. Also going to be more techs maintaining the stuff.

I'm actually glad. No more dealing with people having a shitty day, who just don't give a shit, give attitude, etc. Just put my crap on a tray...
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that's the good new here. More tech jobs and if you like to eat goober food you can get it at the push of a button.
 
Q

quikah

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
4,124
689
126
Jack in the Box in Palo Alto, CA has one of these. After waiting in line for the bumbling fools at the grocery self check outs I don't see how this will speed anything up.
 
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frostedflakes

frostedflakes

Diamond Member
Mar 1, 2005
7,925
1
81
sandorski said:
Probably <$1/hr. There really isn't much expense doing this. One Workers Wages for a Year probably would pay for multiple Stores.
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It's not just the cost of buying and maintaining the equipment. Customer satisfaction is probably a big part of the equation as well I'm sure. The technology has probably been cheaper for a while, but if it isn't easy to use and customers hate it, it would hurt business and they could potentially lose more in sales than they stand to gain from reduced operating costs. Obviously, though, McDonalds now thinks that the technology has finally gotten to the point (both in terms of cost and user friendliness) that it makes sense to deploy, at least in Europe where wages tend to be higher than the US and there's more incentive for automation like this.
 
Patranus

Patranus

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2007
9,280
0
0
So does this mean no more YouTube videos of people going apeshit over messed up orders?
 
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