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Fast food vendors are already now starting to look for ways to automate as they continue to push the prices down on their products. Prices that needs to keep g

Fast food vendors are already now starting to look for ways to automate as they continue to push the prices down on their products. Prices that needs to keep going down in order for them to 1) survive the competition, 2) deliver affordable food from the majority of their customers who are making less and less money.

notahacker 11y ago
The Automat has been around since before most of the fast food chains, yet half a century of continuous innovation in process optimization has continued to conclude that paying a bunch of people to mostly stand behind counters exchanging cooked food for cash is worth the money. And unlike the average service industry employee the fast food worker isn't even expected to be a particularly good generalist, is mocked for perceived lack of social skill and isn't operating in a role where new tasks can be invented to supplant tasks which have largely been automated away.
- ThomPete 11y ago
  This is changing which is exactly why you have the whole discussion about minimum wage. It basically affect how employers can make money and it will be the very reason why you would se an even bigger move towards automation of the actual service. You keep using history as if it's any indication of the future even though the very underlying premise why have been how they have historically is changing. It's ok you don't want accept this but that doesn't mean it's not happening. Anyone who sits u little further up than the people who work on the floor will tell you that there are in fact plenty of plans to reduce the work force to be able to keep competing by keep making it cheaper. Ignoring that problem won't make it go away.
  - notahacker 11y ago
    Fast food restaurants with no human servers existed decades ago, but the Automats were actually killed off by the more profitable franchise outlets that used people rather than technology. And there's nothing remotely new about the fast food industry's investment in process optimization, or indeed their lobbying against minimum wages "This time it'll be different" is never a good argument, especially not when deployed with condescension in lieu of evidence.
    - ThomPete 11y ago
      You are missing the key point here. The chains have no other way to go than to reduce the cost of their staff. It's not a this time it will be different argument it's this is the only way they can survive in the market argument.
      - notahacker 11y ago
        I don't think they've been keeping on their staff all these years out of charity, or that the repeated failure of vending machine based stores - including experiments by major fast food chains - to survive in the US market is an indication that this will be a good survival strategy.
        ThomPete 11y ago
        No because tech havent been cheap enough now it is while wages are potentially going up. You are basically arguing against the numbers here.
        notahacker 11y ago
        The numbers show that McDonalds beat earnings forecasts three quarters in a row after putting wages up. Fast food is not a struggling industry. Vending machines have always been cheap, but they've never been popular. Which is why the fast food giants, each with large teams of analysts armed with all the relevant numbers, have experimented very little with them, and generally cancelled the experiments after very short periods.
        ThomPete 11y ago
        Fastfood is a competitive industry. I never said it was struggling. You are trying to establish strawmen no one is talking about. That's my signal to get out of a conversation. Believe what you want, reality speaks for itself.
beat 11y ago
"Now starting"? Fast food vendors have been automating since fast food was invented. And now, the industry is bigger than ever.
- ThomPete 11y ago
  I mean to replace the people who actually service you.
  - beat 11y ago
    That's one of the very first things fast food did. It got rid of waiters and other floor staff, and the complex series of customer interactions. Automating away the human in the order process removes a way to speed up the process. Modern registers are complex enough to require training. Untrained, possibly illiterate customers using them while decision-making? That's bad news.
    - dragonwriter 11y ago
      > Automating away the human in the order process removes a way to speed up the process. Modern registers are complex enough to require training. Untrained, possibly illiterate customers using them while decision-making? That's bad news. A number of fast-food and similar outlets have order-ahead mobile apps, which include payment through the app. These take humans out of the order process, but do not require customers to use the kind of "modern register" that the existing counter staff use.
      - beat 11y ago
        I use them sometimes. They're a pain in the ass, way more work for me than simply ordering at a counter while a human types my order in. The only advantage is not having to wait for my food when I get there. The real win on that front isn't fast food, it's the ability to order from local restaurants for pickup. We do that a lot.
        11y ago

notahacker 11y ago

The Automat has been around since before most of the fast food chains, yet half a century of continuous innovation in process optimization has continued to conclude that paying a bunch of people to mostly stand behind counters exchanging cooked food for cash is worth the money. And unlike the average service industry employee the fast food worker isn't even expected to be a particularly good generalist, is mocked for perceived lack of social skill and isn't operating in a role where new tasks can be invented to supplant tasks which have largely been automated away.

ThomPete 11y ago
This is changing which is exactly why you have the whole discussion about minimum wage. It basically affect how employers can make money and it will be the very reason why you would se an even bigger move towards automation of the actual service. You keep using history as if it's any indication of the future even though the very underlying premise why have been how they have historically is changing. It's ok you don't want accept this but that doesn't mean it's not happening. Anyone who sits u little further up than the people who work on the floor will tell you that there are in fact plenty of plans to reduce the work force to be able to keep competing by keep making it cheaper. Ignoring that problem won't make it go away.
- notahacker 11y ago
  Fast food restaurants with no human servers existed decades ago, but the Automats were actually killed off by the more profitable franchise outlets that used people rather than technology. And there's nothing remotely new about the fast food industry's investment in process optimization, or indeed their lobbying against minimum wages "This time it'll be different" is never a good argument, especially not when deployed with condescension in lieu of evidence.
  - ThomPete 11y ago
    You are missing the key point here. The chains have no other way to go than to reduce the cost of their staff. It's not a this time it will be different argument it's this is the only way they can survive in the market argument.
    - notahacker 11y ago
      I don't think they've been keeping on their staff all these years out of charity, or that the repeated failure of vending machine based stores - including experiments by major fast food chains - to survive in the US market is an indication that this will be a good survival strategy.
      - ThomPete 11y ago
        No because tech havent been cheap enough now it is while wages are potentially going up. You are basically arguing against the numbers here.
        notahacker 11y ago
        The numbers show that McDonalds beat earnings forecasts three quarters in a row after putting wages up. Fast food is not a struggling industry. Vending machines have always been cheap, but they've never been popular. Which is why the fast food giants, each with large teams of analysts armed with all the relevant numbers, have experimented very little with them, and generally cancelled the experiments after very short periods.
        ThomPete 11y ago
        Fastfood is a competitive industry. I never said it was struggling. You are trying to establish strawmen no one is talking about. That's my signal to get out of a conversation. Believe what you want, reality speaks for itself.

beat 11y ago

"Now starting"? Fast food vendors have been automating since fast food was invented. And now, the industry is bigger than ever.

ThomPete 11y ago
I mean to replace the people who actually service you.
- beat 11y ago
  That's one of the very first things fast food did. It got rid of waiters and other floor staff, and the complex series of customer interactions. Automating away the human in the order process removes a way to speed up the process. Modern registers are complex enough to require training. Untrained, possibly illiterate customers using them while decision-making? That's bad news.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > Automating away the human in the order process removes a way to speed up the process. Modern registers are complex enough to require training. Untrained, possibly illiterate customers using them while decision-making? That's bad news. A number of fast-food and similar outlets have order-ahead mobile apps, which include payment through the app. These take humans out of the order process, but do not require customers to use the kind of "modern register" that the existing counter staff use.
    - beat 11y ago
      I use them sometimes. They're a pain in the ass, way more work for me than simply ordering at a counter while a human types my order in. The only advantage is not having to wait for my food when I get there. The real win on that front isn't fast food, it's the ability to order from local restaurants for pickup. We do that a lot.
      - 11y ago