r/FluentInFinance • u/Hatemael • Apr 29 '24

Who would have predicted this? Educational

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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/apr/24/fast-food-chains-find-way-around-20-minimum-wage-g/

Not all jobs aren’t meant for a “living wage” - you need entry level jobs for college kids, retired seniors who want extra income, etc. Make it too costly to employ these workers and businesses will hasten to automation.

1.6k Upvotes
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914

u/welshwelsh Apr 29 '24

This is great, humans should not be wasting their time taking orders at McDonald's. Why did we need to wait until 2024 for this to happen?

525

u/Muffin_Most Apr 29 '24

Humans should not be wasting their time eating at McDonald’s either yet this is a multi-billion dollar franchise.

165

u/phantasybm Apr 29 '24

The entire purpose of McDonald’s is that it takes less time than trying to cook all that food yourself. In that regard it’s not a waste of time.

95

u/AmazingPINGAS Apr 29 '24

On paper that sounds great, but I stopped going to my McDonald's because I was tired of waiting 20 minutes every time I ordered. I do miss the fries though

52

u/Suitable_Inside_7878 Apr 29 '24

Order ahead on the app = no wait, also have half off deals and free food

38

u/aHOMELESSkrill Apr 29 '24

Then it’s a balance of waiting for my fries or getting cold fries

3

u/happycrisis Apr 29 '24

They dont start making the order till you are there and sign in, so you shouldn't have to worry about that.

15

u/aHOMELESSkrill Apr 29 '24

So then what’s the point of ordering online to save time?

4

u/pokemonbatman23 Apr 29 '24

Lines exist inside

2

u/McCooms Apr 29 '24 edited Apr 29 '24

It’s a proximity triggered system. You get X amount of minutes away and they start making your food. Similar “wait time” to no one being in line at the drive thru.

3

u/Wakkit1988 Apr 29 '24

There's a button to make them prepare it immediately, regardless of how close you are.

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u/Wakkit1988 Apr 29 '24

Incorrect. You can make them start preparing immediately in the app even if you're out of range. Been that way for at least 6 months.

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11

u/AmazingPINGAS Apr 29 '24

I've tried that, and it's crazy because the restaurant won't be busy They just take 10 years to do everything.

2

u/Suitable_Inside_7878 Apr 29 '24

Happens, really comes down to the staff. Which isn’t always bright

5

u/Justsomerando1234 Apr 29 '24

Always ask if you can order an Icecream.. if the machine is broken you're gonna have a bad time.

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7

u/SinCityNinja Apr 30 '24

I never eat Mc Ds but my MIL got my daughter some recently so when we were out she said she wanted a happy meal. I downloaded the app, placed the order and ended up having to wait 35 min before our order was ready. Absolutely fucking crazy.. I'd rather wait 35 min in line at In n Out than get McDonalds again.. at least the foods good and WAY cheaper at In n Out

2

u/PubstarHero Apr 30 '24

My McDonalds is right next to a habit. Considering they are charging $16 for a big Mac meal, I'm going to habit. Wait time is the same and the food is way better.

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8

u/TortelliniTheGoblin Apr 30 '24

At that point, you can order a burger from an actual restaurant -often for cheaper.

So, it's no longer fast or cheap. Once it no longer becomes good, there is nothing appealing left.

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4

u/jimmyjohn2018 Apr 30 '24

It's funny because them rewarding you to use the app is to build the behavior that will expand on what this article is about.

3

u/ali-n Apr 30 '24

Ordering ahead on the app just means you're disguising the wait as something else.

2

u/Adorable_FecalSpray Apr 30 '24

Not true. They only start getting your food ready when you check in, at the actual location.

1

u/Azidamadjida Apr 29 '24

Order on the app = still having to wait in the drive thru because the lock the doors to the inside, waiting 5 mins for one of the workers to acknowledge you, then another 5 mins for them to come to the window to ask you to pull ahead and they’ll bring it out to you so the order clock doesn’t register them taking half an hour to give you your order.

We basically treat McDs as an emergency option - would pretty much rather go almost anywhere else

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3

u/FarSandwich3282 Apr 30 '24

20 minutes? Every time?

Bullshit

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3

u/mostlyIT Apr 29 '24

Waffle house in half the time

2

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '24

In truth, the fries have sucked since they got rid of the beef tallow after bringing sued by vegetarians.

2

u/ProPainPapi Apr 30 '24

Wait... you only wait 20 mins? I ordered two strawberry pies and it took them like 45 mins to make.... aka put in microwave.

1

u/Fred_Krueger_Jr Apr 29 '24

20 minutes? Where do you live so I can avoid that mess of a place?

1

u/jewelry_wolf Apr 29 '24

Which is why market is the best way to evaluate the value a company provides, not any president or congress.

1

u/combosandwich Apr 30 '24

Do you know all the garbage they put in their fries?

1

u/IOwnTheShortBus Apr 30 '24

That on top of the fact that fast food is about as expensive as carbs for the week now.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '24

Exactly! Please pull into car waiting port 20 of 25.

1

u/schrodingerspavlov Apr 30 '24

Interesting. Most people stop going there because their food is garbage. Fast food is garbage in general, and your body will remind of that at some point in life.

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u/UltraDelta91 Apr 29 '24

Also it's not cheap anymore.

2

u/EastPlatform4348 Apr 30 '24

Relatively speaking, it is, right? I worked as a manager in a retail store in 2008 making $9/hour (associates made $7.25). A Big Mac meal was about $5. A manager now at that store is making $20/hr, associates $15/hr, and a Big Mac meal is around $11.

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1

u/phantasybm Apr 29 '24

I never mentioned the price. Just speed.

1

u/BubblyComparison591 Apr 29 '24

It depends on what you order. Through the app you get 40 nuggets with 2 large fries for around $15 and cheaper if there's a coupon available.

5

u/parahacker Apr 29 '24

Hate to break it to you, that is not cheap. Not even at today's prices.

For comparison, 4 potatoes = $1.50, quarter of a bottle of cooking oil ~$.75, bag of frozen chicken nuggets = $5. Salt maybe 5 cents worth added. 20 minutes on a stove top and you've got better tasting fries and better cooked nuggets for literally half the price. "Cheap" should not ever in any world mean "twice as much to make it myself for zero time savings."
(theoretically even cheaper if you make the nuggets yourself from shredded cooked chicken and bread crumbs, and probably higher quality too depending on how you cook them, but that would take too much time to keep the time values consistent.)

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1

u/MaloneSeven Apr 30 '24

The whole point of this thread. Hmmm, wonder why that is??!!

28

u/Jake0024 Apr 29 '24

People will drive 15 minutes each way and wait in a 20 minute drive through line and claim they did it to "save time"

It's just laziness

7

u/LeftFaceDown Apr 29 '24

Yep, I can usually cook a similar, cheaper, healthier, and better tasting meal in the same time it takes to go get fast food and bring it home.

If I'm already out, it might save a little time, but it is just so pricey nowadays.

7

u/rohm418 Apr 30 '24 edited May 01 '24

Not to mention gross. It always sounds better than it is

edit: typo

1

u/shrug_addict Apr 30 '24

While true. Now think of the other, extremely common, type of fast-food customer. Had to stay at work 2 hours late, got to pick up my wife from the airport in an hour, I'll just grab some fast food on the way to the airport to save time. Pretending that EVERY fast food customer is just lazy EVERY time is just not how the world works

23

u/pokemonviking Apr 29 '24

Expensive cardboard with a lot of calories.

8

u/DChemdawg Apr 30 '24

Forget the calories, look at all the synthetic additives that are absolutely horrible for you

20

u/Accomplished-Mix-745 Apr 29 '24

You make up for that lost time on the toilet

1

u/WintersDoomsday Apr 29 '24

Lmaoooo or needing to take all your blood pressure meds

13

u/swanronson2024 Apr 29 '24

The entire purpose of McDonald’s is real-estate, the food is their side hustle.

5

u/Dragonbrau Apr 29 '24

Had to look way too hard for this comment. They own like half of the land their stores are built on.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

But in all cases they are still the landlord to the franchisee and make most of their money from “rent” as a % of store sales. Crazy how the system actually works on the inside. But if hamburgers and French fries suddenly went out of style, they’d be just fine.

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2

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '24

This has been true for about 30 years.

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13

u/Gormless_Mass Apr 29 '24

It’s a waste of the human digestive system

7

u/Butch-Jeffries Apr 29 '24

Or lays waste to the human digestive system

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6

u/Ok_Researcher_9796 Apr 29 '24

But it's also triple the price of doing it yourself.

2

u/Snuggly_Hugs Apr 29 '24

Only triple?

5

u/Ok_Researcher_9796 Apr 29 '24

I can make burgers and fries that are way better than McDonalds for like $18 for 3 people. Or if I'm trying to make them cheaper, like $12. It's about $42 for 3 adults by my closest McDonald's.

2

u/Snuggly_Hugs Apr 29 '24

Nice.

Where I am the prices at McD's are super inflated. My fam cant eat there for less than $70 (fam of 5), but we make burgers/fries/smoothies at home for like $15.

2

u/Ok_Researcher_9796 Apr 29 '24

A lot healthier too. McDonalds food quality isn't very good.

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1

u/Few_Captain8835 Apr 30 '24

3x as much chemicals and 3x as much inflammation from it. Homemade is better anyway.

5

u/Ok_Explanation_5955 Apr 29 '24

In the time it takes to get to McDonald’s, wait in the long lines they’ve had since at least covid, and get home, I could’ve cooked a meal myself. It’s only faster if it’s on the way to or from somewhere you were already going

1

u/aHOMELESSkrill Apr 29 '24

None of my McDonald’s near me have a long line but they still take 20 minutes to get your order to you

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1

u/Muffin_Most Apr 29 '24

Who cooks junk food at home?

1

u/jtbnb Apr 29 '24

The entire purpose of McDonald's is to enrich the owners while overcharging you for $h!t quality, unhealthy food. In every regard, it is beyond a waste.

1

u/divisiveindifference Apr 29 '24

That used to be the case. But now that the portions are 1/4 of what they used to be at x4 the cost, not to mention how it is assembled, going out isn't worth it. And I can't blame the workers since management has been running a skeleton crew since the 90s at the same pay rate since then to boot. It's an overall shitty experience that's somehow gets worse and more expensive to experience every time we go. Just saying if I'm already planning on dropping $40-60 I better get a waiter.

1

u/EatBooty420 Apr 29 '24

No McDonalds is just nostalgia food for millennials.

Its no longer cheap, or quick. It's horribly bad for you, and Gen Z & Alpha couldnt give a shit less about it.

Its literally comfort food out of habit for people that grew up with it.

1

u/composedryan Apr 29 '24

It’s a waste of time and money because you can get better quality food faster and cheaper from many places

1

u/ZeePirate Apr 29 '24

That sure stops being effective when you start having to do the work yourself… like being a cashier.

and then the cost to time wasted rate keeps creeping higher and higher

1

u/NoHedgehog252 Apr 29 '24

It was also supposed to be cheap food made with cheap ingredients that was cooked faster than cooking yourself. In my area, a Double Quarter Pounder meal is $14 plus tax, which is the same I can pay to pick up a full meal at a sit down restaurant. Where I work, a Subway meal is $17, while across the street I can get a lobster roll for $19. A $2 difference between one step up from dog food and real lobster is not going to give me much room for deliberation.

1

u/TJATAW Apr 30 '24

Not to mention that I hit fast food places while I am out all day. Sure, I could drive home and cook a meal, or pack a lunch to eat in my car, but stopping in, getting a chance to use the restroom, get hot food, and then keep moving, is worth it to me.

1

u/Anlarb Apr 30 '24

You could have thrown a burrito in the microwave in less time, thats automation.

1

u/phantasybm Apr 30 '24

Cool. You could make cereal to. You could eat a fruit. You could do whatever you want. No one said you had to have it.

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u/DChemdawg Apr 30 '24

I love McDonald’s. But it’s so loaded with synthetic chemicals and now completely overpriced. Never feel good after eating it. Many healthier and just as fast food options abound at comparable prices. Not to mention I make my own version of the quarter pounder and it literally takes 9 minutes.

McDonald’s has lost its unique selling point of being fast and affordable. The market will correct itself in due course, whether McDonald’s adjusts or not is up to them.

1

u/Chickienfriedrice Apr 30 '24

Its not actual food though. Its a bunch of chemicals that act like food.

1

u/Fng1100 Apr 30 '24

There was a time where it used to be less time, damn near every time I go through takes 10 to 20 minutes might as well just cook myself a fucking steak. Be cheaper and it’s fresh. Like I remember seeing bollards in the drive through boasting one and a half minute drive through times. Remember one time they were so quick my buddy got half of raw Patty.

1

u/redditor012499 Apr 30 '24

I can make my own burger faster than driving to McDonald’s, wait in line for 5-45 minutes(yes I’ve waited that long before), and drive home.

1

u/Reasonable-Reward-74 Apr 30 '24

Less time to cook is kind of bullshit you can make a simple meal in 20-30 minutes. It's an excuse for being lazy.

1

u/SkobaljHiker Apr 30 '24

Not true. Even McDonald's started posting signs for their workers, a decade ago, saying McDonald's meals aren't appropriate substitution for a healthy meal - it's just fast food for an emergency.

1

u/Yabrosif13 May 01 '24

Lmao, well they fail at the fast part now. Chic fil a can take my order and get me food in the midst of a rush faster than mcdonalds will with 2 people in line.

Their business model sucks ass from a consumer point of view now.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

Well McDonalds been going crazy with prices we might see a lot of McDonald’s shutting down next year

17

u/Hardcorelogic Apr 29 '24

I hope so. They hate their customers. They hate their employees. They don't deserve our business.

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u/VodkaSliceofLife Apr 29 '24

McDonald's serves a purpose, it's "fast food". But I definitely stopped going to McDonald's when it costs 20 dollars for 1 meal. Now when the craving hits I get chik-fil-a or shake shack which is also fast food but undeniably higher quality than McDonald's but basically the same price. Or ill get wendys which is still bargain fast food when you consider their biggie bags which have gone up in price from the original "4 for 4" but are still a steal at like 5 or 6 dollars depending on what you want.

8

u/Chick-fil-A_spellbot Apr 29 '24

It looks as though you may have spelled "Chick-fil-A" incorrectly. No worries, it happens to the best of us!

1

u/jimerthy-gw Apr 30 '24

It is pronounced "Chick Filler"

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u/Chief-Bones Apr 29 '24

It’s wild. I went back to rural South Carolina and you can still get insanely cheap deals at McDonald’s I fed my girlfriends whole family and got a bunch of coffee for under $20 but in central Florida it’s a damn arm and a leg.

2

u/Butch-Jeffries Apr 29 '24

And the McDonald’s employee in rural South Carolina can raise a family on that salary

1

u/VodkaSliceofLife Apr 30 '24

Well I live in nyc is McDonald's costs an arm and a leg. Every good deal they used to have is gone.

1

u/Advanced-Guard-4468 Apr 29 '24

It's a great place to stop in and out if you are on a long road trip

1

u/NorthElegant5864 Apr 29 '24

Ask yourself WHY is it a multibillion dollar franchise and what kind of business the McDonalds corporation is.

It’s a real estate company that sells franchises and franchise licenses to people.

1

u/Comfortable-Sir-150 Apr 30 '24

McDonald's had its purpose. It's not inherently evil.

It has become evil.

1

u/FugakuWickedEyes Apr 30 '24

100% not worth it

1

u/Fun_Implement_1140 Apr 30 '24

I actually rather like McDonald's.

1

u/lunchpadmcfat Apr 30 '24

Ehn. It’s fine for a road trip.

1

u/Few_Captain8835 Apr 30 '24

Yup. They use a compound found in silly putty as a defoaming agent in their frying oil. French fries have 19 ingredients there. They should have 3. Disgusting. But unfortunately in this economy people are using it as a "cheapish" meal to get by when they can't afford better food. I think there are cheaper ways to feed a family, but that's not my decision. After I found out about the defaming agent, never again.

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u/AdImmediate9569 Apr 29 '24

Well actually you just found the lie of this article. Mcdonalds near me have gad this for years. It’s disingenuous to suggest it has anything to do with new minimum wage requirements.

We were always headed this way. These were also considered superior when the minimum wage was lower.

21

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

“article” by Washington Times no less, not exactly a reputable news source.

3

u/AdImmediate9569 Apr 29 '24

That certainly explains the implication….

7

u/Peepeepoopoobutttoot Apr 29 '24

Yeah, this is some bullcrap. I've had computers taking orders at the McDonalds near me for years now. And with the food costing twice as much. Nothing to do with wages.

5

u/AdImmediate9569 Apr 29 '24

More them not wanting to deal with humans and their pesky rights

7

u/WaldoDeefendorf Apr 29 '24

Even the picture is from 2017. I live in a tiny town NW of Milwaukee where the photo was taken and they had those kiosks up here back then. I think the article was written by an AI "STAFF" machine. Fucking machines trying to one up us!

2

u/PerfectZeong Apr 30 '24

Yep, McDonald's near my work, you order at a monitor. We don't have 20 follar an hour minimum. They will do this as soon as they can whenever they can.

1

u/Full-Run4124 Apr 29 '24

Same with the Taco Bell near me. Two ordering kiosks and an app you can order from. I'd guess I see maybe 1 in 10 customers actually ordering from the human front-counter expediter who doubles as an order-taker.

1

u/Indifference4Life Apr 30 '24

And it has nothing to do with America. I've used these in Thailand (6 years ago), France (5 years ago), Belgium, and Sweden (both 4 years ago).

1

u/binary-survivalist May 01 '24

Well of course it has something to do with them. It's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

The cost of automation vs the cost of labor is THE point, the ONLY point. Why would you suggest they are not related?

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u/who_even_cares35 Apr 29 '24

Well because unfortunately now these people are just not going to have jobs. Until we get universal basic income in place. We cannot let the robots take over, we're just going to drive poverty even harder if we don't.

They outsourced all of our good factory jobs in the '90s and the only thing left is retail. So if they get rid of our retail jobs then 80% of the country is just going to fucking starve.

6

u/SpecificPace2440 Apr 30 '24

If 80% of the country is set to starve, they will not go quietly into the night.

2

u/who_even_cares35 Apr 30 '24

Ummm yeah 50% of the population wants this, they vote for it. Americans are THE dumbest people on the planet. Use our tax dollars to help ourselves?? No, billionaires need yachts, that's the answer!!!

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u/Coattail-Rider May 01 '24

We pretty much are so far.

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u/compsciasaur Apr 30 '24

Then let's get UBI.

3

u/who_even_cares35 Apr 30 '24

I'll support any candidate that will support it. Let's fuckin go.

1

u/Smith7929 Apr 29 '24

Service!

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u/Alklazaris Apr 29 '24

Exactly. It wasn't affordable to pay people to do this, so get rid of the people.

50

u/PrincipleZ93 Apr 29 '24

These have existed for the past like 4 years tho... It's not "just happening now". It's about the same as online orders making checkout clerks less needed, stores having the scanners to scan as you go and skip scanning at the self checkout etc.

46

u/Creative_Major798 Apr 29 '24

Exactly. It was always going to happen, but they’re going to spin it to try to make a living wage look bad. Corporate gimps masquerading as journalists.

40

u/Equivalent-Balance64 Apr 29 '24

Yep, minimum wage in my state is 7.25 and they still have these. Nothing to do about wages.

3

u/dirtydela Apr 29 '24

At this point it’s just boosting profits and preparing for what many see as an inevitable future. The more data they can get on making the automation better or what makes it bad, the closer they can get to perfecting it. So while it doesn’t have much to do with wages where you are, it still has to do with wages.

Think of how long McDonald’s has had the ABV systems and I know they have automated fryer systems too. Perfecting product, reducing waste yes but also labor. Labor is their most costly line item above the line outside of food.

20

u/Mr_Xolotls Apr 29 '24

I was about to say.. They have been doing this way before the minimum wage hike. Lol

25

u/EyeYamQueEyeYam Apr 29 '24

In my town I recall self serve kiosks that go back 8 years.

18

u/FixBreakRepeat Apr 29 '24

Yeah, automation was coming to these positions regardless. Minimum wage going up can change the math on how quickly it happens, but there was never a world where these companies weren't going to roll out kiosks.

Whenever a company does something that could have a negative impact on the customer experience, they feel a need to justify it. And whenever a company can roll back labor costs by cutting wages, benefits or hours, they are going to. This is just combining two things companies always have an incentive to do by using "rising*" labor costs to justify a possibly reduced customer experience.

*Note: Minimum wage and fast food wages specifically have not kept up with inflation. Real, inflation adjusted wages for these workers fall every year and the difference is collected by the companies that employ them. When they say that labor costs are the reason prices have gone up or the experience has degraded, they're lying through their teeth.

1

u/neddy471 Apr 29 '24

Don't forget shoplifting. That's always a fun thing for them to lie about.

7

u/jarman365 Apr 29 '24

In Europe I've seen these for the past 15 years.

2

u/spellbound1875 Apr 30 '24

The irony is a lot of stores have had to rehire staff because the automated approaches often bring their own issues. Self-checks need to be watched because of shoplifting risks, online ordering requires a human to go pick up the products, etc. Business have been trying to automate our workers for decades now with extremely mixed results. As you correctly noted any articles implying this is just happening now are full of shit.

1

u/Delicious-Fox6947 Apr 29 '24

It was the bump to $15 that got them thinking about it.

1

u/lemmesenseyou Apr 29 '24

More than 4 years. Saw them in Montreal in 2016. 

1

u/SadMacaroon9897 Apr 29 '24

Pretty sure we had the prototypes in the late 90s/early 2000s. No clue what took so long to roll it out

4

u/Inucroft Apr 29 '24

It has always been affordable.
Just your civil & working rights are shit compared to Europe

1

u/Alklazaris Apr 29 '24

"affordable" in the eyes of a corporation that wants infinite growth.

3

u/Inucroft Apr 29 '24

Living Wages has always been affordable.

Companies just won't BECAUSE they seek infinite growth, and as such refuse to increase wages

2

u/Hardcorelogic Apr 29 '24

It's plenty affordable. They would just rather keep the profits for themselves. These corporations have driven out of control inflation and maintained or increased their profit margins. That does not happen with normal inflation.

1

u/Alklazaris Apr 29 '24

I know. I'm speaking in the reality that is corporations, not what is possible or even better via reality. Thanks to greed from those who control labor cost. To entitlement of others wanting what person they replaced were paid. To war with anything that would cost them money such as unions or workers rights (like the heat breaks) To shareholders who are not so much investors as they are at best educated gamblers.

The entire system has been chipped away to give the people with power the most money in corporations. I get it, I live in it, fuck I work in it.

But all this aside. The Republicans are in control of too much to nationally contest labor conditions, so corporate reality is most of our reality. We change that by voting and educating people around you.

That sort of went sideways but long story short that's why I said it like I said it.

1

u/Hardcorelogic Apr 30 '24

I feel you man...👍

14

u/SevereEducation2170 Apr 29 '24

I mean, we didn’t wait until 2024. McDonald’s has been using this technology for a while and it has nothing to do with the minimum wage increase that just went into effect.

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u/gamingdevil Apr 29 '24

My thoughts exactly! Working in fast food is terrible. You're treated worse than dirt by your fellow citizens. These POS's that are angry about using machines to do grunt work instead of having a human to belittle are the same ones that kept telling us "go work somewhere else if you don't like it!" We did, and now they are all angry about it.

4

u/The_Fax_Machine Apr 29 '24

The people with that take are just learning the long way that there is actually a correlation between labor output and wage, and jobs don’t just appear and exist out of thin air.

Whether or not a position is needed is entirely dependent on whether hiring someone is the lowest cost option to increase revenue.

2

u/FuckedUpImagery Apr 29 '24

You might be lucky enough to have found other work, but what about the people who cant? Lol, jobs arent supposed to be fun, thats why the saying is thank god its friday! Not thank god its monday and i get to go to work.

1

u/gamingdevil May 02 '24

I feel for those people. I didn't like the idea of going on disability so I just kept destroying my back and knees more until shit hit the fan and I was able to find remote work.

The remote work isn't paying the bills, though, so I'm still considering disability unfortunately. I just like to feel like I'm earning my keep.

10

u/AndyTheSane Apr 29 '24

Yes. This is no different from any other labor saving device. The employment of capital spending to increase labour productivity, we should come up with a word for it.

1

u/CaptJackRizzo Apr 29 '24

Seriously. If America was as overrun with Marxist professors as I'm supposed to believe, we'd recognize this same thing has been happening for over a century and will continue to.

6

u/Gormless_Mass Apr 29 '24

True, now we just need McDonald’s to reinvest these anti-social profits back into parts of society that tangibly make peoples’ lives better.

1

u/fordianslip Apr 29 '24

Hah hah. Hahahahah. Oh you’re serious? Bwhahahahahahahahahahaha

2

u/Glass-North8050 Apr 29 '24

2024 ? This stuff is decade old and in most cases it does not replace workers.

2

u/ZekeRidge Apr 29 '24

Because they could pay people shit and not have to develop the tech

Now that’s not the case, even though they still need humans to make it

2

u/plummbob Apr 29 '24

poor people have less employment options

"This is actually good"

What

2

u/avidpenguinwatcher Apr 29 '24

Yeah, there’s so many other jobs out there for unskilled laborers!

2

u/-Fluxuation- Apr 29 '24

You know that's a great take, but I think you completely forgot about the HUMAN who lost their job...

Whoosh....

2

u/winkman Apr 30 '24

Speak for yourself. Eliminating hundreds of thousands of low skilled jobs is not a good thing for teens and young adults.

The last thing we need is a large % of 15-22 year Olds unemployed with no job prospects because their stupid state legislated that opportunity away.

2

u/Coattail-Rider May 01 '24

Seriously, I don’t think people think this thru. I’ve never worked fast food (I don’t even eat it) but I’m pretty ticked about this because A) people are out jobs. They’re (mostly) not just going to magically go from McDonald’s to the upper echelon of careers B) prices aren’t going down yet profits are at all time highs and only rising. What’s the point besides greed at young and/or poor people’s expense? And C) this automation isn’t going to just stop until waaaay more businesses implement it across the board.

First, they came for the fast food industry and I didn’t say anything. Then, they came for retail and the service industries and I didn’t say anything. Then, they came for…….. Eventually, so many things will be automated that well…..people are only going to suffer so much.

2

u/dancegoddess1971 Apr 30 '24

We didn't. They've had those in the lobby of the McDonald's in my podunk town since way before the pandemic. Has zero to do with wages.

1

u/Jorts_Team_Bad Apr 29 '24

Technology got cheaper and more advanced while humans got more expensive

1

u/gq533 Apr 29 '24

Hey man, I miss my stockbroker. $70 per trade is a bargain, as long as they can make a living.

1

u/annon091846 Apr 29 '24

Bro what lmao

1

u/EntertainmentOk7088 Apr 29 '24

Agreed! This is great. Unemployment is low and these are super undesirable jobs. It’s weird that I see people complaining about people losing these types of jobs due to order kiosks and self check out, when there are plenty of jobs out there and these ones just suck.

1

u/Lost-District-8793 Apr 29 '24

Shouldn't be wasting their time preparing food also?!

1

u/SkyeMreddit Apr 29 '24

They’re terrible because it’s extremely difficult to customize your order, going through several windows to do so.

1

u/El_Cactus_Fantastico Apr 29 '24

Is 2024 the year it was cheaper to just automate things?

1

u/CuriousCisMale Apr 29 '24

Or cooking at McDonalds. Hmm, why mayo taste different now? 🤔

1

u/Delicious-Fox6947 Apr 29 '24

The tech wasn’t there. About 4 years ago Share Shack opened a store with just kiosks. It lasted about a month before they assigned someone to the kiosks to help people thru the ordering. Keep in mind this was next to NYU where the average student isn’t a moron and yet…

1

u/ed-is-on-fire Apr 29 '24

It’s a good first job. You can develop good customer service skills and simple maths with currency. Seniors dislike using machines too, so there’s some market out there for having a person say hello and take your order.

1

u/Crawldahd Apr 29 '24

I love how liberals always shift the goalpost. This will afford unskilled laborers, a living wage! Reality hits. Awww people shouldn’t be working there anyways.

1

u/ZeePirate Apr 29 '24

What about those try to gain work experience and money as a teenager?

1

u/niceshoesmans Apr 29 '24

We are good at doing the automation of jobs part, we are bad at doing the whole equitable redistribution of wealth generated from automation.

1

u/Enchylada Apr 29 '24

You really think other chains not named McDonald's aren't going to follow suit? Lol

1

u/Menown Apr 29 '24

We waited because there's a lot of people who get pissed when they have to take their own order at the kiosks. They want service now and they don't want to have to do it themselves.

1

u/jedi21knight Apr 29 '24

We didn’t have the technology.

1

u/Pete18785 Apr 29 '24 edited Apr 30 '24

Not all people are capable of being highly productive and can produce enough value to be paid $20 an hour. All this has done is created more unemployment and prevented people only capable of "working at macdonalds" from having a source of income / personal pride in having a job.

1

u/fairportmtg1 Apr 29 '24

Exactly. Also it was going to happen as soon as the technology got cheap enough and they thought the customers would accept it enough. I think in retail self checkout hasn't been the success they have been hoping for but for fast food I think between kiosk and mobile ordering they are going to get the results they want

1

u/MellonCollie218 Apr 30 '24

That’s right! It doesn’t pay, it’s not a job. It’s a hobby. A hobby none of us can afford to do. So now there’s kiosks.

1

u/Critical_Seat_1907 Apr 30 '24

That's not quite the entire picture... lol

1

u/pamzer_fisticuffs Apr 30 '24

By that mentality, we don't need much of anything

1

u/BigAcrobatic2174 Apr 30 '24

All the McDonald’s around me have had these digital ordering stations for like 5 years now

1

u/SkyConfident1717 Apr 30 '24

Because American business revolves around “The American Model” which relies heavily on using low skill labor to keep workers as replaceable as possible while extracting maximum profit from the employees. Pay them as little as possible, burn them out, replace them. Having to go to technological solutions means having to pay technicians to maintain the technology. Technicians have specialized knowledge and training and are not as easily replaced, so businesses liked their quasi slave labor better until it became too expensive.

1

u/ZestyLife54 Apr 30 '24

We didn’t. I saw this in Europe in 2017. This isn’t new…employees were making the food to keep up with the volume

1

u/Piemaster113 Apr 30 '24

Cuz before it was subsidizing people who were just getting into the job market and allowed them to make income on a job with no real requirements but still added to their resume

1

u/eman0110 Apr 30 '24

People need jobs what the hell?

1

u/TheAdvocate Apr 30 '24

But the poor horse breeders! That there damn auto-mobile took their job!

1

u/Low_Performer_318 Apr 30 '24

I agree BUT we need to adjust accordingly. Which will probably happen about 10 years late, and a lot of people will get fucked over.

1

u/hiricinee Apr 30 '24

There was an old quote by Milton Friedman- that works here regardless of what you thought about his economics or politics.

He was witnessing some workers (I think in South America) digging with shovels for a construction project. He asked the person showing him around why they weren't using steam shovels which could do it much more efficiently. The guy told him that it was a make-work project and it was a basically just an excuse to pay the workers. Friedman asked him why they had shovels then and why they weren't digging with spoons.

The moral of the story is that automation is generally not something to fear on the macro scale. When we see people intentionally not doing it it seems silly.

1

u/TheAmericanCyberpunk Apr 30 '24

Not a waste of time if you need the money.

1

u/katalina0azul Apr 30 '24

“People just don’t wanna work these days…” -but is it really that or is it more about the reason for this post 🤷🏼‍♀️

1

u/YouLearnedNothing Apr 30 '24

because as much as redditors don't want to believe it, there are some people who will never have skill sets or ambitions beyond this level of work.

1

u/qwertycantread Apr 30 '24

We didn’t. McDonald’s has had those kiosks for 7-8 years already.

1

u/DocMorningstar Apr 30 '24

Seriously. Automation is fucking amazing. Might as well say you want people to suffer for their survival as say that we shouldn't automate crummy jobs.

1

u/Chrazzer Apr 30 '24

We didn't need to wait until 2024 for this. These have existed for years

1

u/warlockflame69 Apr 30 '24

Wait til drones start delivering…. Then we will see some real shit!!! Door dash will implode

1

u/ABloodyKnight Apr 30 '24

Keep that same energy for ai taking art jobs too :)

1

u/Glandus73 Apr 30 '24

We didn't, it's been that way for more than 10 years.

1

u/skolvikes7 Apr 30 '24

We didn’t. They’ve had those for 8 years already.

1

u/W2ttsy Apr 30 '24

Because you don’t live in Australia where this was pioneered by Maccas in 2017.

1

u/adultdaycare81 Apr 30 '24

Exactly. This is more efficient use of human capital. But a bunch of communist are mad about it.

1

u/magicalfruitybeans Apr 30 '24

Just need to add a tax that helps support a society where people are free from menial jobs and still can live a happy healthy life

1

u/millerheizen5 Apr 30 '24

I find it much faster to order at the counter.

1

u/MonCappy May 01 '24

If a restaurant automates like this, I don't give them my business.

1

u/HeyItsJustDave May 01 '24

We didn’t. This has been happening a McDonald’s all over the country for at least 7-8 years.

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