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Wendy's Plans To Automate 6,000 Restaurants With Self-Service Ordering Kiosks (investors.com)
An anonymous reader writes: In response to the rising minimum wage, the fast-food chain Wendy's plans to start automating all of its restaurants. The company said it will have self-service ordering kiosks available to its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year. Wendy's President Todd Penegor said it will be up to franchisees to decide whether or not to adopt the kiosks in their stores, noting that many franchise locations have had to raise prices to offset wage increases. California's decision to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2022 will impact Wendy's 258 restaurants, all of which are franchise-operated. About 75% of 200-plus Wendy's restaurants are run by franchisees in New York, a state that is also on its way to $15. Penegor said, wage pressures have been manageable both because of falling commodity prices and better operating leverage due to an increase in customer counts. The company is still "working so hard to find efficiencies" so it can deliver "a new QSR experience but at traditional QSR prices." The CEO of Carl's Jr., Andy Puzder, is also looking into replacing many of its workers with machines to save money.
That would get the biggest savings of them all.
From what I have understood they are only removing the person that will mishear what I say and pushes the wrong button in the register and instead lets me do the pushing. That almost as much automation as the pizzeria that allows me to select topping online and have it delivered to door.
The thing with junk-food burgers is that every burger and every bread already have industrial-grade quality.
Making the entire "cooking" process automated shouldn't be harder than any other automated manufacturing process.
They could build fully automated kiosks where I enter what I want and out comes a packaged burger in the same way I go to an ATM and enter how much money I want.
America is shedding jobs at an epic rate so that the rich can get slightly richer. The only reason these corps "can't afford" a higher minimum wage is because they need to protect their obscene profits. We're all in this together and we're all headed to the same grave. Let's try helping each other out instead of seeing who can amass the biggest pile of cash at the expense of other people. A revolution is brewing.
To tell us how much a raise in minimum wage will impact the actual cost of doing business - and the cost of the product - they need to open up about two things in particular that they skilfully danced around in this article:
Sure, the wage increase has a cost. What we don't know - and I would argue the people interviewed in this story don't know either - is how large is that cost. Will it actually be offset by replacing more workers with kiosks and robots, or is this just a ploy from the top?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
You're an idiot.
"Ideology I don't like will advocate something dumb because of course they will because I'm on the other team". Then "it's a race issue cause I want it to be"
The only loophole here is that the "idiot branch" of conservatism gives you a loophole to feel insightful.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
If you were in a mega corporation at C level wouldn't you complain about how anything negative to your business would ruin it?
Wouldn't you try your best to stall any change that ends up causing you to have less profits (even a minuscule reduction) until you implement a process that circumvents the more expensive method?
Minimum wage will drive your business to the ground...like when uhm minimum wage was first introduced?
Otherwise wasn't the future of burger flippers always to be replaced by automation? -we'll only need minimal supervision of a human that can also greet customers should they care for a smiley service person.
Those C-level folk are disconnected from the reality of everyday people. It's all about profit margins, quarterly statements, shareholder meetings, bonuses and so on. It's not about how their business will crash and burn supposedly affecting their poor employees, it's about earning a single cent than they did before and fuck everyone else.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
McDonalds Australia has had this for a year or more. It creates more orders on the back end, but for people who want anything customised, they still go to the counter. In my experience as a client, people only check out the kiosk as a novelty, or if there are long lines.
Sheets gas stations have always had kiosks for ordering food for as long as I can remember. However I find the interface really frustrating to navigate. I only keep coming back because this one Sheetz place is in a convenient location.
I also saw a kiosk in a McDonalds last year. Not sure if it was just a trial or a part of a store revamp.
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It is doubtful that the march of automation would have gone much slower, even without the increase in minimum wages.
I mean come on, we love (well, some love) nostalgia, but not the Automats [1] please :) Might have the old-is-new-again feeling that is in fashion again these days, but I don't think this is the way to go. Although, I don't eat at Wendy's more than once or maybe twice a year, so yeah, who cares :))))
[1] http://www.wired.com/2008/07/g...
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
When I saw your comment about flirting, it immediately reminded me of my experience patronizing a particular pretzel chain last weekend. My wife and I placed our order, and we were told, "We make those fresh, so it's going to take about 7-8 minutes." We said alright, sat down, and waited. With four workers behind the counter, all female, I didn't expect it to take too long. But as soon as we sit down, Mr. "I dropped out of high school because I look this good" walked up and leaned against the counter. And all that estrogen ran to him like rats to limburger. Except for the one girl in the back... She did all the pretzel rolling...all the baking...all the packaging...and 15 minutes later, we had our order.
But don't misunderstand me. I'm not at all a fan of Mr. Moneybags replacing all his workers with computers & robots, keeping all the profits, and putting them in offshore accounts until he can repatriate the money at a meager 7.5% tax. I'm also not a fan of Mr. Moneybags not paying American workers anymore who are unemployed and unable to buy pretzels at Mr. Moneybags's pretzel shop, drying up the American economy. What that establishment, and every establishment, needs is good management.
Firstly, deduct expenses (health insurance, housing etc.) and that $31k will melt away like a snowball in an oven.
Secondly, the fact that we pay many professions insultingly low wages is not an argument against paying burger-flippers $15 an hour. It is an argument for paying other undervalued professions more.
Thirdly, whether someone spends 40 hours a week transplanting hearts, laying bricks, nursing the elderly or flipping burgers, none of those is a leisurely stroll in the park. Anyone working a full-time job deserves to be able to afford a modest standard of living in my book. Otherwise, what is the point?
Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
has been doing this for years.
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In the movie it was Carl's Junior, but Wendys seems to want to get there first.
Right now, large number of ppl on Food stamps and other forms of gov subsistence are actually working 40 or more hours / week. Problem is, that America's minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation. So now, we already pay out to ppl who work at Target, McDonald's, burger King, Walmart Sam's club, and yes Wendy's. With this, many ppl will be laid off, but if they buy American made equipment, they can point to providing better jobs. And if America will deal with the illegal alien issue, and send home those that have no families here, or whose families are nothing but drains on society, then we open many lower end jobs.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Good question. First, good management would have three workers who don't have any customers to serve clean up the establishment and organize the kitchen. Second, good management would be able to determine that, on a Sunday afternoon in May at 3pm, you maybe don't need four workers behind the counter. Third, good management would quickly apologize to a customer who was kept waiting by flirtatious, irresponsible workers. And fourth, a good manager would make sure the customer experience is of a high enough quality to ensure the customer will want to come back.
When you're talking about return-on-investment, I think a good manager is worth paying for. Though, in a fast food establishment, a good manager can replace at least one general worker. A great manager can replace at least two.
You know? As clever as people can be, we're still amazingly bad at "thinking outside the box" at times.
There's this entire universe out there, yet we're all assuming we have no way to ever go anyplace but this one planet we're on.
Its not an assumption. This is exactly what physics tells us.
It presumably also reduced order errors. Everybody hates when their meal is wrong. Of course Disney has a good system even for the attended registers where you get a printed receipt to confirm. But with kiosks, you see the order before paying and they seem to have a lower error rate.
Wait until you have the financial stability to be able to devote time and resources to raising a child..
If by "financial stability" you mean the ability to provide for a spouse and children despite an extended period of being laid off, then very few people have the resources to retire while still of childbearing age.
I won't argue the merits of the prose or storytelling, but I always recall this post from 2003: http://marshallbrain.com/manna...
At my age I find coming up with a witty signature too exhausting.