McDonald's is bringing touchscreen ordering to the US

froggyboy604

froggyboy604

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It turns out that people aren't eating as many McHamburgers as they used to, which is a big problem if your business is all about slinging meat. So McDonald's is hoping the novelty of its "Create Your Taste" ordering kiosks will lure some customers back in. The machines will be installed in 2,000 of its US outlets by the end of 2015. Instead of just walking up to the counter and ordering, users will be given the option to McCustomize their McMeal on a touchscreen. That includes everything from choosing chicken over beef, skipping the fatty mayo or picking sweet potato fries. Unfortunately, the privilege of being able to order a Big Mac minus special sauce on a ciabatta without getting the stink eye will cost you a premium, both in terms of prep time and cash.

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I wonder if people can install the ordering app onto their own phone, and tablet  to order food instead of using the Kiosks which many people touched to order food.
 
Yay, which means less jobs.  Again.
 
I agree these touchscreen kiosk will cause less jobs, and less customers who are also employees who work at McDonalds, and also spend their pay check eating at McDonalds since there are few restaurants where they can eat affordably for $5-10 per meal with their low wages which they also use for rent, food, and utilities.

I bet less tech savvy customers may go to other places to eat since they don't want to or know how to use the touchscreen ordering machines.

Some food buyers may not buy food from a computer instead of a human worker which work to feed themselves by buying food with their wages vs a computer which orders food to make the Boss at McDonalds richer because computers don't need a fair wage.
 
froggyboy604 said:
I bet less tech savvy customers may go to other places to eat since they don't want to or know how to use the touchscreen ordering machines.
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It's not as if ordering food from employees won't be an option anymore, so I don't see anyone leaving mcdonalds over this.
 
hissae2 said:
It's not as if ordering food from employees won't be an option anymore, so I don't see anyone leaving mcdonalds over this.
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I agree, there probably still be employees to take orders for users who don't know or want to use a ordering machine, or to teach people how to use them to order food.

I guest, these Kiosks can increase the number of customers from people who don't like waiting in line, don't have a lot of free time to wait in line, have health problems like a bad back or leg which makes standing in line for many minutes very painful and from people who are shy or suffer from anxiety problems when they speak to strangers, and rather order from an App on a touchscreen kiosk like how some people rather pay for gas at the gas pump with a credit card payment available at the pump instead of going into the gas station to talk to the cashier to pay for gas. 
 
There might be a small cutback in jobs depending on how they go about this since they will likely still have the option of ordering from a cashier, especially early on. Machines malfunction, and people put their orders in wrong sometimes so they'll still need people around to man them. Plus they'll still probably have that person to monitor orders since they'll be coming in faster. Which if they're smart they'll have a couple more cooks on board.

Honestly for me, personally, I think they should work more on their food quality, and to stop being cheap with their food processing instead of simply turning to new gizmos. I like that they've added on salads, and apples for kids, those sweet potato fries also seem pretty cool, but they need to push further. Eventually the novelty of ordering using a kiosk machine is going to wear off especially when other fast food places are doing it. 
 
McDonalds probably need to hire a employee who is tech-savvy with computer to occasionally install operating system, and app updates onto these Kiosks, and do regular maintenance like defraging the hard drive, running scan disk, and disk cleanup to maintain these machines. Plus, make and install new apps for these Kiosks.

I agree McDonalds need to improve the quality of their food, and have different types of foods for people with different tastes.

I think McDonalds should also improve the quality of their happy meal toys for kids since the toys don't look very fun. They should possibly start selling stuff like head phones, mini speakers, watches, and wallets which Adults are interested in instead of just selling toys to kids.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
A bad move really, the touch screen will only be a breeding ground for germs and not something to touch before eating. Not to mention the loss of jobs this will lead to.
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Bringing your own Touchscreen Stylus pen, or those silver/metallic threaded touchscreen gloves which can be used on Touchscreens would help not touching germs.

Putting a large bottle of Hand sanitizer at every table would also be a good idea.

Hopefully, some of the cashiers can be re-trained as cooks, cleaning staff, and other jobs at McDonalds, or be offered a job at McDonalds' bread, meat, and vegetable factories where McDonald's get their food from.
 
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froggyboy604 said:
Bringing your own Touchscreen Stylus pen, or those silver/metallic threaded touchscreen gloves which can be used on Touchscreens would help not touching germs.

Putting a large bottle of Hand sanitizer at every table would also be a good idea.

Hopefully, some of the cashiers can be re-trained as cooks, cleaning staff, and other jobs at McDonalds, or be offered a job at McDonalds' bread, meat, and vegetable factories where McDonald's get their food from.
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I highly doubt people will bring their own touchscreen pen though lol.

The grocery store near my university has 4 self serve checkouts, but they are not used much and theres always an employee there to help people work them. If this is the case with mcdonalds then perhaps it won't lead to so much job loss.
 
hissae2 said:
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I highly doubt people will bring their own touchscreen pen though lol.

The grocery store near my university has 4 self serve checkouts, but they are not used much and theres always an employee there to help people work them. If this is the case with mcdonalds then perhaps it won't lead to so much job loss.
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I think people who own smartphones and tablets which comes with a touchscreen pen may use their touchscreen pen at McDonalds. Mc. Donalds can sell touchscreen pens for $1 or less like the Dollar Store which sells Touchscreen pens for $1 or less.

I think working at a self serve checkout helping people use touchscreen is probably a lot less stressful than being a cashier who needs to count money quickly, lift, scan and bag groceries, deal with robbers who rob the cash register, and deal with long lines of frustrated buyers who are waiting in line for many minutes. There maybe fewer jobs with self-checkout cashiers, but the job would be less stressful, so I think fewer employee quit their jobs because of stress, and personal injury from working too long without breaks.
 
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