McDonald's Hits All-Time High As Wall Street Cheers Replacement of Cashiers With Kiosks (cnbc.com)

McDonald's is expected to increase its sales via new digital ordering kiosks that will replace cashiers in 2,500 restaurants. As a result, the company's shares hit an all-time high, rallying 26 percent this year through Monday. CNBC reports: Andrew Charles from Cowen cited plans for the restaurant chain to roll out mobile ordering across 14,000 U.S. locations by the end of 2017. The technology upgrades, part of what McDonald's calls "Experience of the Future," includes digital ordering kiosks that will be offered in 2,500 restaurants by the end of the year and table delivery. "MCD is cultivating a digital platform through mobile ordering and Experience of the Future (EOTF), an in-store technological overhaul most conspicuous through kiosk ordering and table delivery," Charles wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. "Our analysis suggests efforts should bear fruit in 2018 with a combined 130 bps [basis points] contribution to U.S. comps [comparable sales]." He raised his 2018 U.S. same store sales growth estimate for the fast-food chain to 3 percent from 2 percent.

Comments

Ontario has healthcare for all so even at $0 hr I

[Joe_Dragon]

Ontario has healthcare for all so even at $0 hr I still get a doctor and can walk into the ER and not face 100K bill.

Re:been there, done that . . .

[Kjella]

Isn't the personal service a large part of why we go out to eat and drink?

What personal service?
"I'll have a <size> <menu> with <soda>"
"Anything else?"
"No, that's it"
"That'll be <price>"
*pay*
*wait*
*eat*
*leave*

If you go to a fast food joint it's probably because:
a) You're socializing with somebody not on the payroll
b) You're hungry and want a cheap, quick bite
c) You can't be arsed to cook, serve and clean
d) You're far from home and need to eat out

None of those particularly need a human element, sure it's practical... but if you added even a tiny service fee for a human to do it, I think you'd see 95% self-service orders.