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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 31 2018, @09:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the manna dept.

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Gone are the heady days of cashiers asking if you want your order "supersized."

Not only has the infamous upgrade gone by the wayside, but cashiers at fast-food restaurants are becoming increasingly uncommon. McDonald's started rolling out ordering kiosks at its US locations in 2015, and the chain hasn't looked back since: by 2020, most of its 14,000 locations will have kiosks installed.

Panera Bread has also committed to digital ordering. Admittedly, when I first tried it in 2015, I found it had decidedly dystopian vibes. But it ended up being a fairly pleasant and painless experience.

A recent poll conducted by Business Insider's partner MSN suggests that diners aren't big fans of automated kiosks: 78% of customers said they would be less inclined to go to a restaurant that has automated ordering kiosks.

The popular narrative is that kiosks and mobile ordering are here to take jobs and hours away from underpaid cashiers, ultimately saving companies money in the face of rising labor costs — but the data suggests that isn't true. It may be true for some, but most chains are simply reallocating labor behind the scenes. And with such a tight labor market, many chains are struggling to hire and retain customer-facing employees.

Americans don't seem too threatened by automation in general. Nationally, only 21% of responders to MSN's poll believe their job may one day be done by machines. And restaurants like automated ordering for its increased accuracy and efficiency as more chains look towards cashless options.

But for now, a question remains: are kiosks, in fact, better for customers?

Source: Business Insider


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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday April 01 2018, @02:06AM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday April 01 2018, @02:06AM (#661035) Journal

    So you've made the case for an app.
    But tfs is not about an app. It's about a kiosk for taking orders and accepting payment.

    I prefer the app, nut there's only so much room on my phone for this kind of crap.

    So we are stuck with kiosks.

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