When you're the only game in town all people can do is complain.
In my fantasy world...
The issue will be when the ordering kiosks start to go down. It will be worse for McD's than when the soft serve machines break. One machine goes down, it takes a hours/days to get a local contractor to start working on fixing it and now zero orders can be processed until replaced/repaired.
The Just In Time mindset will likely mean that there won't be kiosks sitting in a local warehouse, function checked and ready for immediate installation to keep the treats flowing.
No extra staff to switch from the kitchen/drivethru to manual cashiering and no staff trained on how to take orders in person because, why would time be spent training for a thing that a machine is supposed to do, right? And you couldn't even call in other workers who are off shift.
(If this could be done, it would have already been done.)
That... would be interesting to see happen in real time.
customer walks into McD's with all kiosks down. A 1800 number scrolls with instructions to call to place an order. Customer calls the number, gets somebody from a call center on the other side of the planet. Call center takes order and asks customer to say, out loud, their name, credit card number and three digit verification code. Call center issues customer an order number, verbally tells customer and sends a text. Call center then has to figure out which McD's to call to send them a text or, even more awesome, actually have to call a human being working at the McD's location to verbally pass on the order the order number
somebody else desperately trying to download the McD's app to bypass the malfunctioning kiosk but their cell data/internet is acting up
another person with the McD's app is finding that they have forgotten their account information but their phone's OS version is no longer compatible with the McD's app
Also, everyone keeps saying that if automation could be done it would be done, but why spend the capital to do it when you can depress wages for cheaper. If the wages go up a lot and quickly, there’s suddenly a change in the cost benefit ratio because it’s an action plan to resume quarterly growth that was disrupted by labor wage growth.
Because I'm 40 years old and I've been hearing that all the "unskilled jobs" are going to be automated away for the last 30 of them. The threat of automation used against workers is probably more useful than actually automating most of those unskilled jobs away.
Think about the McD's manager who's just standing in a McD's all by themself. The burgers are made by robot, the orders are taken by robot, the orders are delivered by robot. Why, its almost like the "manager" work can be automated away too.
Robotizing away white collar middle management jobs that were there to give hope to the petite bourgeois, just proletarianized them instead.
So, essentially, you're saying that automation won't happen because its not profitable? Because I'm pretty sure I made that point farther up the comment chain.
When you're the only game in town all people can do is complain.
In my fantasy world...
The issue will be when the ordering kiosks start to go down. It will be worse for McD's than when the soft serve machines break. One machine goes down, it takes a hours/days to get a local contractor to start working on fixing it and now zero orders can be processed until replaced/repaired.
The Just In Time mindset will likely mean that there won't be kiosks sitting in a local warehouse, function checked and ready for immediate installation to keep the treats flowing.
No extra staff to switch from the kitchen/drivethru to manual cashiering and no staff trained on how to take orders in person because, why would time be spent training for a thing that a machine is supposed to do, right? And you couldn't even call in other workers who are off shift.
deleted by creator
(If this could be done, it would have already been done.)
That... would be interesting to see happen in real time.
customer walks into McD's with all kiosks down. A 1800 number scrolls with instructions to call to place an order. Customer calls the number, gets somebody from a call center on the other side of the planet. Call center takes order and asks customer to say, out loud, their name, credit card number and three digit verification code. Call center issues customer an order number, verbally tells customer and sends a text. Call center then has to figure out which McD's to call to send them a text or, even more awesome, actually have to call a human being working at the McD's location to verbally pass on the order the order number
somebody else desperately trying to download the McD's app to bypass the malfunctioning kiosk but their cell data/internet is acting up
another person with the McD's app is finding that they have forgotten their account information but their phone's OS version is no longer compatible with the McD's app
deleted by creator
Because I'm 40 years old and I've been hearing that all the "unskilled jobs" are going to be automated away for the last 30 of them. The threat of automation used against workers is probably more useful than actually automating most of those unskilled jobs away.
Think about the McD's manager who's just standing in a McD's all by themself. The burgers are made by robot, the orders are taken by robot, the orders are delivered by robot. Why, its almost like the "manager" work can be automated away too.
Robotizing away white collar middle management jobs that were there to give hope to the petite bourgeois, just proletarianized them instead.
deleted by creator
So, essentially, you're saying that automation won't happen because its not profitable? Because I'm pretty sure I made that point farther up the comment chain.
deleted by creator