What Is Coming To Your Fast-Food Restaurant
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Topic(s): me,computers
2006-11-13 02:28:34 PST
American fast food just got faster. The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article on menu kiosks present in some restaurants -- Hi, may our machine take your order?"Devices such as touch-screen ordering kiosks — whether in the drive-through lane or inside the restaurant — promise many advances for quick-serve eateries, analysts say.I've got a few thoughts on this.
'It cuts down on labor, ensures accuracy and is often faster and easier for people to use,' said Darren Tristano, a restaurant industry analyst with Technomic Inc. in Chicago."
One, I really like it. I bet order accuracy goes to near 100% with the kiosks. I'm very particular about what's on (or more accurately, what's not on) my hamburgers. One time I ordered a plain hamburger from In-N-Out and what I got was two slices of cheese wrapped in buns. I bet stuff like that doesn't happen if I use a kiosk to order.
Two, it could be better. What I really want is an order kiosk at every seat in the restaurant. So that you come in, sit down, order by touching the pad built into your table, and pay by swiping a credit card through it. It'd be really nice not to have to wait in line behind the family of six as they decide what to order. And it'd be really nice not having to hand your credit card over to a complete stranger.
Going even further on what I want, it'd be ideal cool if there was a bluetooth station inside the restaurant that'd send over an XML table to my bluetooth-enabled phone. Then I could browse the menu on my phone and send my order back over to the bluetooth station. Later I could text message the restaurant when out of bluetooth range. (Something like this definitely will usurp the kiosks. It's cheaper to implement for the restaurants and more convenient for the customer.)
Three, it sucks for the low-wage working class. How many cashiers are these kiosks going to put out of a job? I really hope they can find jobs somewhere else. Perhaps the kiosks will make the restaurant more efficient at taking food orders, which means the restaurant will need more cooks and food preparers, which means perhaps the cashiers can move into tke kitchen.
The flip side (pun intended) of it is that someone has to build the kiosks, program the kiosks, sell the kiosks, and support the kiosks. All four of those are higher paying jobs than cashiering. So that's good for you and I, because we can do one of those four things, but once again sucks for the low-wage working class.
Pulled eFingers: |
Ngan —I guess this would work out better than the self-checkout stattions at the grocery store because of the limited items on the menu. |
steve —Not a problem for Eric, since he doesn't eat fruits or vegetables! :) |
Eric —Hey that's not true! I ate STRAWBERRY flavored gummy worms just last night. |
Ngan —Hah hah ha...If you considered that as fruit, might as well add the Doritos and french fries!!! |
Lori —They already have this in at least one restaurant inside California Adventure.. real simple to use... but I agree with Steve that hey need at least one cashier available as an option for those who don't want the kiosks and/or have questions to ask before ordering. |
Stacey Glaesmann —Unless I misunderstood, ordering from a kiosk would still involve someone MAKING the order. I know many mistakes get made during this phase of your hamburger creation! |
Mom —The working poor and young job seekers will be greatly impacted by the kiosks. Remember your first job at the D.Q.? One of the worst management problems that I have encountered is convincing (or trying to convince) employees that in order to move up in the company (and sometimes even merely to keep their current jobs) that they need to improve their education or learn a new skill; our employees overwhelmingly seem not to want to grow and develop; they only want just enough money to enable themselves to continue to watch endless Toob-A-Vision while wolfing down pizza covered in boneless Buffalo Chicken Wings. It appears that most have no concept whatsoever of Public Service or the meaning of life beyond the Fast Food Drive up. This is not the America that I grew up in, what has happened to us? |
Exercise Your eFinger: |
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