See we told you.. Mcdonalds is ordering 7K touch screen to replace cashiers

[Jroc]

Detroit Police officers start out at $14 per hour. McDonalds employees should make more?

From where did you get that information?
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that cities do not have to make public names of employees or their wage information. That's unprecedented in that ALL public employee wage and benefit information should be readily available to those who pay the bills.
It is OUR money. We have a right to know where it goes and who is getting it.
Government should not have the right to work in secret.

Umm...I have friends and family who are Detroit police officers... anything else?

 

[Indofred]

Any society, be it capitalist, communist or whatever, needs prols to service the upper classes.
The rich and powerful, yes, commies have them as well, need lowlife twits to carry out the trash and serve the burgers.

However, as technology improves, the prols are far less important and can be easily replaced by machines when they start to believe they're worth more than they really are.

The car industry saw this when the greedy, grabbing union commies tried to make all the workers (that's commonly a joke) rich.
Now we see robots making cars and the prols with cardboard, "cold, hungry and homeless" signs, hoping for loose change from passing burger burners and other lower life forms.

The ironic thing, the previous car workers don't have the brains to understand why they are the proud owners of cardboard signs, so can't pass that wisdom on to the next lot that are about to move into storm drains, pushing their stolen supermarket trolley.

The trolley is really a miniature of their wasted life; it carries little of any real value and will eventually fall apart and be dumped, but no one will really miss it.

 

[Indofred]

The customer is.

which appeared to be the jist of the thread

--LOL

I'm guessing Sarah is a blonde

probably a fast food worker - they tend to be thick.

 

[RKMBrown]

So if they're going to get rid of cashiers, who's going to touch the screens of these new touch screens? The managers?

There have been pilot studies underway for a decade with regards to the customer using a touch screen to order. They have the technology 100% perfected now.
The argument that there are too many stupid people who won't be able to figure out how to order is nonsense.
The touch screen ordering procedure has been so 'dumbed-down' even a six year old can use it.
Not to mention once the customer realizes their order will be perfect every frigging time from then on they will refuse to deal with some illiterate again. Consumer testing has long since proven this fact.
Just left a 'big box' grocery store where there were dozens of 'do-it-yourself' check-out stations. More people were using them than were using the cashiers. There was ONE person walking around helping first timers navigate the check-out stations.
Wave of the future.
The ONLY reason the fast food companies haven't installed the automated ordering systems is b/c of local politics. I mean where do the local illiterate drop outs go to earn minimum wage right?
Watch for McDonalds etc to offer 'employment education' classes in local towns: The franchise owner goes to the town council and says: "We employee x number of 'entry level' mostly young people with employment 'challenges' a year. We will pay that number of people the same wage they would get working x number of hours per week for x number of weeks to attend our 'employment education' classes. The kids in essence get paid to learn employment skills and we replace them with our 'customer order system'. Win-win.

Small point...

A human will read the order you placed, then make the food and place it in a bag, and hand it to ya with the drink etc. Humans make mistakes. I doubt the majority of the errors were by the person who was taking the order. Let's say half. That would mean the process will have been improved by 50%. This assuming the person punching the order does not make mistakes and the tool / touch screen is working correctly. Again with the tool, the design needs to be good. Look at all the e-voting machine errors. Those touch screens are gonna be taking a beating.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Has McDonald's said how much the minimum wage would have to be lowered before they'd abandon the touchscreen idea?

 

[NYcarbineer]

Yep--they certainly won't need to pay for a machine's medical insurance.

No. You will pay the Medicaid for the unemployed.

 

[RKMBrown]

Another small point...

Lets say you want to know what are the ingredients in an item.. or maybe you want to know what's good on the menu... how about you just want to ask why you got onion rings instead of fries...

In a big way the cashier was also supposed to communicate and befriend the customer. A smiling young face or a touch screen? What happens if one of the workers needs to go to the bathroom, opps sorry no cashier to go get those fries for ya.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Why do conservatives act as though this is a good thing? That's the mystery...

...okay, it is what it is, automation killing jobs that humans might have needed has been around forever,

it is what it is,

but to cheer it and gloat as if the right wing has won some sort of big victory...jeezus...what is wrong with you people?

 

[Lonestar_logic]

Another small point...

Lets say you want to know what are the ingredients in an item.. or maybe you want to know what's good on the menu... how about you just want to ask why you got onion rings instead of fries...

In a big way the cashier was also supposed to communicate and befriend the customer. A smiling young face or a touch screen? What happens if one of the workers needs to go to the bathroom, opps sorry no cashier to go get those fries for ya.

What ingredients are in french fries? A burger? Only an idiot would have to ask.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Some convenience stores with a fast food section around here have already gotten these touch screens.

They're comical sometimes in a way, to be standing at a screen punching in your order while 10 feet away behind the counter is the guy whose going to get your order, looking at you. It's like you're now forbidden to just tell him what you want.

 

[thereisnospoon]

McDonald's orders 7,000 touchscreen kiosks to replace cashiers - Neowin


YOu wanna walk out on your job for more money. Guess what you now might lose your jobs all because of UNIONS who are greedy..

That's bullshit. How the **** are people meant to get a job and earn money to pay their own way if companies do this to them?

HUH?....This is entry level low skill work. And as such, these are the most abundant type jobs.
Gone from McDonalds on Monday, working at burger King on Tuesday.
Where's the problem?
Do you really believe a job is an entitlement?
No one is doing anything to anyone.
Don't forget, a fast food restaurant is a small business. And as anyone in the franchise business knows, margins are very thin. As such, where there is an opportunity to make that margin a little less thin, the owner would be a fool to not take advantage.
The franchisee is not in business to keep YOU employed. He owns the store to feed HIS kids and keep a roof over THEIR heads.
Not only does he have to pay his bills, hire an accountant to do financials, he has to make sure you screamin knuckle draggers are taken care of. He has to be concerned with you making it to work on time every day and free of any drug or alcohol induced after affects. He has to make sure the work schedule is complete. Make sure he is in tune with every female employee's social calendar, the male employee's date nights. Whether or not there are people in his employ who do not get along, are good workers but cannot be scheduled on the same shift. Then there is the government mandated paperwork. The quarterly tax filings along with background checks workers comp insurance premiums. And God forbid any employee files even a frivolous claim....
Do you really think owning a business is easy? You can sit there and scream "PAY ME MORE!"...And "don't you dare bring in those self service machines I NEED A JOB!"
Why don't you shut the hell up, scrape some money together and stake your claim. Start your own business and hire 25 miscreants who's first priority is to squeeze you for hours by milking the clock with their unauthorized smoke breaks and cell phone breaks. Taking food without paying for it...Etc...
All of you whiny self entitled runts who think a magic wand can be waved and VOILA!!! More in your check, is possible think again.
Don't go thinking anything until you've walked a mile in the business owner's shoes.

 

[RKMBrown]

Another small point...

Lets say you want to know what are the ingredients in an item.. or maybe you want to know what's good on the menu... how about you just want to ask why you got onion rings instead of fries...

In a big way the cashier was also supposed to communicate and befriend the customer. A smiling young face or a touch screen? What happens if one of the workers needs to go to the bathroom, opps sorry no cashier to go get those fries for ya.

What ingredients are in french fries? A burger? Only an idiot would have to ask.

Some people have allergies.
Do you know how many different types of oils there are for cooking?
Do you know how many different types of flour there are for buns?
What's in the meat, all beef, free-range, or corn fed...
Sometimes I ask whether the lettuce / tomatoes look good before asking for that... might ask if the jalapenos are pickled.
Tell George to put a couple of his spicy onion rings on that for me...

At the local BBQ joint I walk in .. they know me, the bubbly cashier tells me to say hello to my younger son, the cook played football with my older son, ... Why would I go to a McDonalds robo mart when I can go to a place with people I know and get fresh food served by humans.

 

[dannyboys]

Has McDonald's said how much the minimum wage would have to be lowered before they'd abandon the touchscreen idea?

Actually the 'touch screen' has already had it's day. They have been in fast food businesses for a decade.
At this moment 'Audio Ordering' with voice recognition and optic readers are coming to a McDonalds near you.
The technology is already tested and perfected.
You will drive up to where you place your order and look at the camera with the 'Happy Face'. "I want three Big Macs". You then see on the screen a prompt: "Did you mean three big macs?" You say "yes". The audio portion picked out 'three big macs. The camera recorded your lips moving saying 'three big macs' and when prompted you confirmed your order. Then the screen prompts you to insert your 'Pre-paid' McDonalds card or bank card or credit card. No cash transactions. At the window as you wait about 30 seconds for your 100% always correct order you are prompted to purchase some pre-paid McDonalds cards for the family. When your order is ready the window opens and there's your daily portion of fat/sugar and salt.
Inside (no seating) is a crew of three humans basically 'tending' and supplying the robots with cases of this or that as required.
If you really want to see the future visit Tokyo. It will blow your mind what robotics can do.

 

[Jroc]

Has McDonald's said how much the minimum wage would have to be lowered before they'd abandon the touchscreen idea?

Evil McDonalds now?.....You're an idiot

 

[Jroc]

Yep--they certainly won't need to pay for a machine's medical insurance.

No. You will pay the Medicaid for the unemployed.

Obama seems to be happy with that scenario.

 

[thanatos144]

Detroit Police officers start out at $14 per hour. McDonalds employees should make more?

Detriot is different from say new york city.
Detriot you can buy a home for 500 bucks..new york 500 bucks might get you a fancy cardboard box to sleep in.

Context matters.

Proof you dont know shit about Detroit.

 

[SAYIT]

Yes, but I don't think you will find very many McDonalds not making more than is required of them to make, and this in order to satisfy their agreements made in the contract, and then some or a lot more after that.

Ironically (or hypocritically) the same posters who want gov't intervention on the minimum wage side of the equation will be the same ones whining loudest as fast food prices rise to accommodate the new wages.

Everything is somehow leveraged isn't it, so does that make you proud when you use these kinds of analogies in protection of those who would hold this as a gun to our heads ? Is this how capitalism works once the monopoly is completed ?

Now you sound like my mom. Neither McDs nor the fast food industry has a monopoly over your eating choices. This isn't a matter of pride but rather one of dealing with the realities of the situation. If you owned an asset which you sacrificed to acquire in hopes of turning a profit would you smile and wave as its earning capacity was diminished or destroyed?
The gangster activity here is in the actions of the workers and the gov't, neither of whom sacrificed or own a damn thing but strive to impose their will anyway.
Disgusting.

 

[GHook93]

They didn't need them, but offered senior citizens an easy job to earn extra cash.

My grandfather's (RIP gramps) best friend used to be a greeter. He did it for three reasons; (1) It got him out of the house and he enjoyed saying high to people, (2) He received medicare supplemental insurance from Walmart that his sick wife needed and (3) He and his wife lived off SS, the little extra income helped a lot.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Right, and self checkouts at grocery stores would take over too. Dream on, conservatives Your predictions rarely come true.

Check out cashless tolling systems.
for example, in the next 10 years, every toll road and toll bridge in the State of Florida will have unmanned toll stations.

And why aren't you cheering this?

Isn't that the Right-Wingers wet dream - to have usage fees for everything?

That's what Mittens did in Mass. And what Republican governors in Florida have done: jack up drivers license and registration fees, erect tolls, charge more for hunting licenses, etc.

Yep....User fees are the way to go. Simple. If you use it, you pay for it. If you don't ,you don't.
Why should people who already use their own vehicles to get to work subsidize mass transit so that some room full of overstuffed executives and line workers represented by greedy unions can be paid absurdly high salaries while users of the system pay less than 50% of the true cost of their fare?
Yes, put in the tolls. The concept of a "free" way is old hat. Too many users and not enough revenue to maintain the roads means someone has to pay. May as well be the people using the roads on a daily basis.
Hunting and fishing license fees? Yep....Users. Someone has to pay for wild life and aquatic management. Let the users pay for it.
I think cashless tolls are a great idea. There is no need to have people in these buildings to collect money and make change. Especially in states where these people who have few skills other than to add and subtract making $65k per year not including benefits...
When the NJ Turnpike Authority announced EZ PASS expansion, the union went nuts.
Gee why is that?...They were told the cost to employ toll takers was the main reason tolls were nearly doubled. The union didn't listen and back off their demands. So the Authority went ahead with the expansion. It was inevitable. They just bumped it up a few years.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

Another small point...

Lets say you want to know what are the ingredients in an item.. or maybe you want to know what's good on the menu... how about you just want to ask why you got onion rings instead of fries...

In a big way the cashier was also supposed to communicate and befriend the customer. A smiling young face or a touch screen? What happens if one of the workers needs to go to the bathroom, opps sorry no cashier to go get those fries for ya.

What ingredients are in french fries? A burger? Only an idiot would have to ask.

Some people have allergies.
Do you know how many different types of oils there are for cooking?
Do you know how many different types of flour there are for buns?
What's in the meat, all beef, free-range, or corn fed...
Sometimes I ask whether the lettuce / tomatoes look good before asking for that... might ask if the jalapenos are pickled.
Tell George to put a couple of his spicy onion rings on that for me...

At the local BBQ joint I walk in .. they know me, the bubbly cashier tells me to say hello to my younger son, the cook played football with my older son, ... Why would I go to a McDonalds robo mart when I can go to a place with people I know and get fresh food served by humans.

Then I'm certain that those people are well aware of the ingredients in burgers and fries.

If you think the employees at McDonalds know what flour is used in their buns then you give them way too much credit. And if you're worried about "all beef, free-range, or corn fed..."... beef then you shouldn't be going to McDonalds in the first place.

Why do you compare a fast food joint to a BBQ joint? BBQ isn't "fast food".