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[Charles Brandon]

We have these in some places in Brazil too. There are still cashiers though, and usually there's a line for the human cashier while the panel is free (which is the reason why I always use it).

yeah there are still cashiers as well. People still queue for the cashier at the supermaket when the machine is free, so they will still queue at McDonald's. Personally, the quicker the better.

 

[Staf]

If you think it's super awkward to talk to a cashier then you must not go to restaurants.

What? Me and my GF go to restaurants all the time. Would not like the service automated there. But if i'm at a take-away restaurant i want it quick and automated.

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

I always use those kiosks here in Portugal.

Shame for people losing their jobs. Automation can be a bitch.

 

[RulkezX]

Here's how this will go: They lose the cashier, but machines are finicky and people are stupid so the lines will go out the door. Then they'll need someone to help people with the machines and nothing is solved. This exact scenario happened at my movie theatre and happens at self checkouts in my town.

Are Americans especially dumb or something ?

These things are pretty common in many countries and are as difficult to use as a tablet or smartphone. They absolutely slash the wait time during peak hours here, can't imagine it'll be any different in the US

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

I'm curious what teenagers do for work experience when all the jobs like this are automated away. When I was growing up something like McDonald's was what you did for some pocket money and a first job.

I know there are still jobs for humans in McDonald's, but for how long?

Supervising work. Someone will have to make sure the robots are doing their jobs and the customer isn't pissed at them.

 

[The Elite]

Sadly this is true. I'll use automated cashier systems if they are quick and efficient. Otherwise, I'll go to the flesh and blood employee.

The automated cashiers are great. It's the people using them that will be the problem if they have difficulty dealing with basic menu options. A lot of people like to take their time with this shit.

 

[Despera]

Hmmm, I'm sure we already have these in the UK. You use a touch screen to order and make adjustments and then make a contactless payment with your phone or card. You then get a ticket and wait for your food, which (in some restaurants) is then delivered to your table.

Seen this in France as well.

 

[fastford58]

Wall street cheering. Fucking scumbags.

 

[Kill3r7]

To be even fairer, that was a very misjudged proposal, where it was not clear where the money would come from, what would change, ànd with a ridiculously low actual monthly income.

Not sure what one would be voting for if he said "yes" in that referendum.

Let me know when people vote for a more well thought out proposal. Basic income will always be a huge hurdle especially in our (US) culture where we are willing to fuck over Dick and Jane to save a couple of dollars in our taxes.

Here's how this will go: They lose the cashier, but machines are finicky and people are stupid so the lines will go out the door. Then they'll need someone to help people with the machines and nothing is solved. This exact scenario happened at my movie theatre and happens at self checkouts in my town.

They work pretty well at Wawa's, Panera and many other stores but yeah you have to supplement them with cashiers.

 

[KSweeley]

It's like this in New Zealand too. You still have the option to order at a cash register if you wish,the kiosks just help with the crowds. I suspect they'll still have cashiers, because those kiosks don't accept cash payments

Actually, the U.S. kiosks accept cash payments:

 

[FStubbs]

Automation is coming and yet no one in government seems to give a fuck. How many retail jobs have been lost just this year alone?



To be fair, even the Swiss voted overwhelmingly against it.

The rich want the "useless people" to hurry up and die.

 

[Charles Brandon]

Here's how this will go: They lose the cashier, but machines are finicky and people are stupid so the lines will go out the door. Then they'll need someone to help people with the machines and nothing is solved. This exact scenario happened at my movie theatre and happens at self checkouts in my town.

Meh. The machine works fine. Self-checkouts are getting much better now too. I never have the "unidentified item in the bagging area" problem anymore. Booze is the only issue.

Some people just don't like to use machines or don't understand them, so a human will always be needed but automation is here to stay. There are some supermarkets here where you scan all your items with your phone as you put them into your trolley and bag them as you go. Then, when you leave, you just settle up at a machine and walk out.

 

[The Elite]

Taxi/Uber drivers next pls. I fully embrace our automated future.

Just be ready to pay higher taxes to support guaranteed income.

 

[Joey Fox]

Sadly this is true. I'll use automated cashier systems if they are quick and efficient. Otherwise, I'll go to the flesh and blood employee.

The McDonald's kiosks are excellent. Discount deals readily accessible, customization options, and very slick without any risk of attitude.

 

[Shredderi]

The automaton engineers should all refuse to work on the automatons. That way it wouldn't matter how rich you are, you can't will these things into existence by throwing money around you. It's sad because the engineers need work so they will work on them automatons. Ironically the automatons they build will in time be their downfall when the automatons finally do the engineering instead.

 

[SlipperyFishes]

Who do you talk to if your order isn't correct?

 

[M3d10n]

This is why the world needs basic income. But the USA will watch it burn before looking ahead.

The US will just come up with new ways to send poor people to jail. That's their basic income.

 

[slit]

Unfortunately, this will only affect the poor so nobody will care. We'll have to wait for automation to start hitting the middle class hard before anything is done.

 

[DiGiKerot]

They have the kiosks in most of my local McDs at this point, and I guess I'm part of the problem for always using them. That said, that tends to be 50% because most people seem to insist on queuing for the actual cashier even though most the kiosks are unused, and 50% because it makes it way, way easier to see the modification options on stuff and apply them (Hey, there's certain vegetables and the like I absolutely cannot stand on my burger).

Being able to do this does rather rely on everyone using the store to have some kind of credit device set up, be it a card or Applepay or what have you. I'm not "down" enough with "the kids" these days to know if that's common for the kind of youngster who'd typically be associated with fast food these days or not, though!

 

[WillyFive]

Who do you talk to if your order isn't correct?

The manager as usual.

 

[The Elite]

Who do you talk to if your order isn't correct?

 

[biggersmaller]

To all those complaining - do you use grocery self check out, ATM machines, Amazon, or never read a newspaper?

If so, you need to STFU and realize you are no better for the working man than McDonalds. This is progress. People will lose jobs. We as a culture need to find ways of creating new jobs for low skilled workers, but bitching about old days gone by is not the way to do it.

 

[SlipperyFishes]

The manager as usual.

And how do you get their attention. Shout at a robot?

 

[Kill3r7]

The rich want the "useless people" to hurry up and die.

Probably true for some but these folks are McDonald's/fast food industry's main customers.

 

[slit]

And how do you get their attention. Shout at a robot?

You won't even have to always talk to the manager. There are still people working inside making the stuff, for now anyway.

 

[WillyFive]

And how do you get their attention. Shout at a robot?

Same way you get your food, at the counter. Just because the cashier's are computers doesn't mean they put a wall in-between you and the counter.

 

[FLAguy954]

I feel bad for people losing their jobs

.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

To all those complaining - do you use grocery self check out, ATM machines, Amazon, or never read a newspaper?

If so, you need to STFU and realize you are no better for the working man than McDonalds. This is progress. People will lose jobs. We as a culture need to find ways of creating new jobs for low skilled workers, but bitching about old days gone by is not the way to do it.

It's perfectly cool to use today's technology and still be worried about the possibility of less jobs in our already poor job market. We're not creating enough jobs fast enough is the problem.

 

[Skyball Paint]

The cute cashier at the McDonalds is gonna be replaced by a fuckin' tablet.

Living in the future fucking sucks

 

[Teletraan1]

They have this at the McDonald's my sister worked at. They actually had to hire people since they needed someone to assist people at the kiosk. I live in an area with a large senior population. Most of the feedback was that people didn't want to use the Kiosk because someone was losing a job but this really wasn't the case (yet), they are just utilized as a server or as that assist person. From the stories I heard from her it might be a blessing if you lost your job there tbh.

 

[Mendrox]

Here's how this will go: They lose the cashier, but machines are finicky and people are stupid so the lines will go out the door. Then they'll need someone to help people with the machines and nothing is solved. This exact scenario happened at my movie theatre and happens at self checkouts in my town.

So how do other countries manage? Like Japan? Or like France/Germany where I've seen and used such machines too? They are godsend and people have more time to prep food so you get it faster like it's suppose to be and you don't have to interact with someone that could manage to make a mistake even though you talk slowly and carefuly when you order.

 

[DonShula]

That's 2,500 restaurants in the title, so it'd be more than 2,500 cashiers losing their jobs.

I'd expect a lot of people to be retained for one reason or another. The kiosks won't replace the cashiers 1:1 at first, so those stores will probably still have at least one cashier. Depending on the store, there might only be two or three cashiers working during peak times anyway (I remember instances back in the day when during slower times the drive thru cashier was also the in-store cashier). Send one of them back to the grill to keep up with the increased speed at which orders come through. And you still need a single person to get the food from the grill to the customer.

More than 2500 jobs may be lost eventually, but that number seems fairy close to start.

Edit: and with turnover at places like McDonalds, you are going to probably going to lose part time jobs through attrition and just not fill them. I'd expect fewer "two nights a week" types that are just making a little extra money for school or similar. Not minimizing the impact, just trying to be realistic.

 

[0ptimusPayne]

Sucks for people losing their job, but the kiosk are great actually. When I saw that Wawa used touchscreen's for all of their food orders for the first time, I knew that this would be the future for a lot of these FF chains going forward.

 

[Amory]

This is increasingly going to be the future we will live in folks. Human beings wont have any need eventually for anything. Humanoid robots coupled with advance AI will make the idea of humans needing to work obsolete.

Let's calm it down. These are cashiers. There have been cashier replacements for a decade at least already

 

[The Elite]

They have this at the McDonald's my sister worked at. They actually had to hire people since they needed someone to assist people at the kiosk. I live in an area with a large senior population. Most of the feedback was that people didn't want to use the Kiosk because someone was losing a job but this really wasn't the case (yet), they are just utilized as a server or as that assist person. From the stories I heard from her it might be a blessing if you lost your job there tbh.

I was fired from McDonald's after two months for not smiling enough. I smiled that day.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

I feel bad for people losing their jobs

these kiosks are all over nyc. I see the same number of people working as before

 

[RumblingRosco]

Let's say there are 2 cashiers per shift in-store (not counting 1 cashier in the window). Let's say there are 16 cashiers per store to cover all shifts/back-ups/non-full-time hours. That's roughly 40,000 people losing their jobs at this point.

However, people will need to be hired to build, install, and maintain the digital order menus. I'm guessing that number of people will make up at least 25-50% of the total cut workforce. The difference being, the people building the menus are unlikely to be located in the same location as the McDonald's restaurant itself, so the local economy will definitely take a hit.

 

[robo]

But cant the cashiers just be the ones delivering the food.

My local maccies seem to have the same number of staff as before they put the kiosks in.

 

[Dryk]

The automaton engineers should all refuse to work on the automatons. That way it wouldn't matter how rich you are, you can't will these things into existence by throwing money around you. It's sad because the engineers need work so they will work on them automatons. Ironically the automatons they build will in time be their downfall when the automatons finally do the engineering instead.

How about instead of engineers refusing to do their jobs, politicians start doing theirs?

 

[TheOMan]

I don't think a McDonalds employee only works as a cashier.

Pretty sure the ones that work as cashiers are still losing their jobs.

 

[Enco]

To all those complaining - do you use grocery self check out, ATM machines, Amazon, or never read a newspaper?

If so, you need to STFU and realize you are no better for the working man than McDonalds. This is progress. People will lose jobs. We as a culture need to find ways of creating new jobs for low skilled workers, but bitching about old days gone by is not the way to do it.

This.

Lmao at complaining about humanity making progress.

We should go back to the glory days before the evil technology took peoples jobs!!! No more automatic car washes! No more mobile phones!

We gotta freeze the progress of humanity so that people don't lose their precious shitty low skilled jobs!

For young people to be against this is absolutely mindblowing. Let them cry as the changes take place. People moan about every bit of progress humanity makes anyway.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Unless they're an old person that can't do anything else but cashier, a cashier won't be fired instantly once these go live.

 

[slit]

To all those complaining - do you use grocery self check out, ATM machines, Amazon, or never read a newspaper?

If so, you need to STFU and realize you are no better for the working man than McDonalds. This is progress. People will lose jobs. We as a culture need to find ways of creating new jobs for low skilled workers, but bitching about old days gone by is not the way to do it.

You need to STFU. Don't tell others not to feel empathy just because you've decided progress means we can't feel for others.

 

[Charles Brandon]

It's not like mechanisation is anything new. Way back in the industrial revolution in the early 1800s people rioted in England over automated textile machines. These people were called the Luddites and that name has become synonymous with the rejection of technological progress. Many jobs were lost but new jobs were created as time moved on. Overall, people work less now than they did then but they have more comfortable lives. Easy for me to say though as my job is unlikely to be automated anytime soon.

 

[Theonik]

I mean this concept isn't new. Much of Japan's restaurant industry works using vending machines that dispense meal tickets.

It's the way forward. Sadly it does mean loads of people will suffer but oh well.

 

[jiggles]

But cant the cashiers just be the ones delivering the food.

My local maccies seem to have the same number of staff as before they put the kiosks in.

Until the drone tech is up to it, yeah.

 

[Shredderi]

How about instead of engineers refusing to do their jobs, politicians start doing theirs?

Maybe it's the politicians who should be replaced by automatons first?

 

[smokeandmirrors]

No one is prepared for the automation apocalypse. It's going to be a deadly latter half of this century.

 

[BobTheFork]

Let's calm it down. These are cashiers. There have been cashier replacements for a decade at least already

They clearly are moving to as much automation as possible. You almost make it sound like you think it ends with this...

 

[Kusagari]

Self-checkout machines never work in Target or Walmart in my area. They need 2-3 people policing the area just in case the things lock up or malfunction.