OT: My First Visit to A Kiosk-Only McDonald's

[Wade Gattett]

On the road last week, I stopped into an Atlanta McDonald's only to find that they had done away with the ordering counter staffed by cashiers.

It was kiosks-only, then head to what looked like a small concierge table in front of the kitchen to pick up your order.

The only available kiosk wasn't much bigger than an iPad and it was mounted at a bad angle for a tall person to read the screen. Also, I couldn't find how to enter the BOGO coupon I planned to use- so I ended up just walking out.

Yup, $15 an hour for unskilled work sure is a good thing...

[invalid unparseable]

I recall a comment concerning a guy complaining about making minimum wage for 20 years. It was that "life is trying to tell him something."

[Ed Pawlowski]

The kiosk here is a rather lark touch screen, easy to read and laid out probably the same as the cashier used. Just touch.

If you are eating in, you take a number and put it on the table and your food is delivered to you. I found it awkward to use the first time but easy the second time. It does not take sick days, vacation, or workman's comp.

[trader_4]

Same here. Ran into one in NYC for the first time. Confusing at first, but I guess if you use it a couple times it becomes routine.

[gfretwell]

This is not really a new idea. Arby's tried it in the early 90s but people were not ready.

They have them here and as soon as you figure it out it is as fast as talking to the dweeb behind the counter. You also have a better chance of getting what you want. You can pay credit there or cash at the counter. You can also order on your phone, pay on the phone and pick up at the drive through at most of these places.

[trader_4]

Meanwhile in Philly some stupid lib councilman went to buy a cup of coffee at a coffee shop and they wouldn't take cash. So, he introduced a bill and now all merchants have to accept cash in Philly. He said it's terribly unfair to the poor. Why that is, IDK. They've even been giving out welfare, foodstamp on debit cards for years. A conservative can't pay with cash for a coffee, they just move on to any of the other places that do.

[rbowman]

Does it speak English?

[gfretwell]

They have pictures of the food, just like the registers.

[Idlehands]

Doesn't pay taxes however....

[micky]

Yes, it's probably cheaper than the counter clerks, whether they got 15 or 7.50.

I saw one in Europe but it was in addition to the counter people.

[gfretwell]

You can still order at the counter here but they do try to push you toward the kiosk. For a while they had a worker doing nothing but teaching these old geezers how the machine worked. Now few people bother at the counter but it is certainly not faster for a lot of them because they are just looking at all of the food without someone saying "come on, what do you want"? McD might actually sell more stuff. I see these folks saying "I didn't know they had that" and they punch one up. I never worked on the POS at McD but at Wendy's and BK they have a timer running on each step of the operation. Before smart registers the manager was doing it. The one BK paid the most attention to was the drive through. It was a pretty short window for the whole cycle time and "drive up to the window" to "Gone" was something like 30 seconds as a target. This Kiosk and phone thing will take the order part out of that timer.

[micky]

Yes, but it was like the counter in that respect too. The first time I went to the counter and the person there was a girl, I had trouble talking to her. She was a girl. Got better the second time.

About a year ago I was at a Sheetz gas station/convenience store/snack bar and they also had computer ordering. And there might have been a

7-11 I visited 8 or more years ago.

[Barb]

Were you afraid to talk to her because she had a better job than you?

[rbowman]

When my waifu went to Japan the models saved her from starvation. She didn't speak Japanese but she sure could point.

She became rather fond of okonomiyaki. Nothing wrong with those but I find it interesting that they're made from wheat flour. Wheat has an interesting history in Japan. It certainly isn't one of the traditional crops like rice, barley and millet but is becoming increasingly popular to the point of reducing rice consumption.

Between that and increasing meat consumption Japan's food self-sufficiency is decreasing. Surprisingly soy is one of their least self-sufficient categories with domestic production only covering about

10%.

[rbowman]

I've a feeling that slinging burgers at Mickey D's puts you in Romney's famous 47%.

[rbowman]

Albertson's supermarket here had self serve checkout, removed it, and have now reinstated it. Whether I use it depends on how much produce I have in the basket. Some items have stickers and I know the code for some like bananas but I'll let a human search out the code for jalapenos from among the other 10 types of peppers.

Adoption at Target seems better since everything is bar coded and there's no paging through endless screens.

[rbowman]

Your problem was? Before condoms were shelved between the toothpaste and the bunion pads it was rather daunting if there was a girl behind the pharmacy counter.

[micky]

No. It was because she was a girl. Pshaw.

[gregz]

There is no, just cashier. Most of their time is spent grabbing food or making milkshakes, and walking more than two steps, and saying where is the food. Decades ago was different.

Greg

[CRNG]

On Sun, 27 Oct 2019 09:31:16 -0400, Wade Gattett [e-mail] wrote in <qp4675$524$ [e-mail]>

Good man.