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

Posted by BeauHD on from the experience-of-the-future dept.

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.

18 of 632 comments (clear)

  1. Let me guess.. by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Funny

    Running Windows XP Embedded, and connected to the internet for convenient maintenance. What could possibly go wrong?

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    1. Re:Let me guess.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Seriously, this^

      Wall street is the only part of the country that would cheer the loss of jobs.

    2. Re:Let me guess.. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Wall street is the only part of the country that would cheer the loss of jobs.

      Everybody should cheer. The purpose of economic activity is to create goods and services, not "keeping people busy". If the same number of burgers can be delivered with less labor, that is a GOOD THING.

      As the cost of production is reduced, some combination of the customers, franchisees, and shareholders will have more money to spend on other things, generating jobs elsewhere in the economy. For more insight on why pointless make-work jobs are NOT "good for the economy", you can read The Parable of the Broken Window.

    3. Re:Let me guess.. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your argument hinges on those jobs being 'pointless,'

      If you can be replaced with a kiosk, your job is pointless.

    4. Re: Let me guess.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or put another way, I should have to put up with a sullen attitude and incorrect orders because some entitled college student hates working the register to pay for her Gender Studies "degree."

    5. Re:Let me guess.. by skam240 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Increased productivity is generally a good thing but I take issue with this point

      "As the cost of production is reduced, some combination of the customers, franchisees, and shareholders will have more money to spend on other things, generating jobs elsewhere in the economy. "

      Currently we have an unprecedented amount of capital accumulated at the top (within major corporations and the wealthiest few) that is most certainly not generating more jobs. Much of it is just sitting around accumulating interest. This is why we have a stock market so out of wack with our country's current level of prosperity. I fail to see how these interests having even more money will help generate jobs.

      If you actually want to generate jobs in a scenario like we are currently in you want the people at the bottom to have more money because they are going to go right out there and spend that money (being poor means you have a shortage of capital to spend which makes it is virtually assured they will be spending the money rather then saving it which generates far less economic activity) thus generating a greater demand for goods and services. The affluent and our major corporations generally all have enough capital to generate an epic amount of jobs, they don't do so because there's no demand for the goods and service these jobs would be providing.

      Now before people get crazy on me I'll just add on here that this does not make the super rich or major corporations "bad guys" by any stretch, I'm just explaining our current reality and how capitalism works.

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    6. Re: Let me guess.. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He isn't trolling, the question is valid. We are eliminating low qualification jobs. Which is by itself a good thing, we don't need 100 farm hands to do what a single machine can do better, faster and more efficiently. But what are we going to do with the 100 farm hands. Putting a shovel into someone's hands and telling him to dig from here to next Wednesday is something you can do to everyone (some handicapped people excluded). If you replace them with a machine, retraining those 100 people to write computer programs is not going to work.

      Jobs that require an IQ of 80 can be done by nearly everyone. Require an IQ of 100 and half the population is excluded. Require 120 and you'll have a quite hard time finding work for a sizable amount of your people.

      And jobs get more "brainy". The low qualification, low intelligence jobs have been eliminated from production. We're now, as you can see in this example, doing the same with services. Where should these people work now? We cannot retrain them all to be programmers, analysts and consultants, they don't have the mental capacity, and we simply don't need so many middle managers, which are equally being eliminated. For the same reason.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    7. Re: Let me guess.. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This works as long as they're few. It works as long as the majority of your population is not in that group and can actually be simultaneously kept in fear of becoming part of it and being happy that they have something to look down onto as "those lazy bums". That way you keep them busy working for you.

      We're nearing critical mass, though. At some point you'll have to resort to violence to keep them from going at your throat. You can of course do what we do now and pit them against each other, but that bears the threat that at some point someone might emerge that is charismatic enough to unite them when he says "follow me!"

      And then we have Paris 1789, Moscow 1917 or Berlin 1933, depending on how it's going to pan out.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re: Let me guess.. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The reason that wasn't a problem back then (and up until now, it didn't happen only once) was that new industries emerged that hoovered up the available workforce.

      When farms needed fewer hands, it was actually a beneficial situation because there was actually a shortage of workers for the at the same time emerging industries. The former farmers flocked to the booming industry towns (with all the ensuing problems), but at least these people did have a job again.

      When industries automated away the conveyor belt workplaces with industry robots, the service industry was quite happy to take the former industry workers and use them as restaurant waiters, supermarket cashiers and fast food restaurant burger flippers.

      The thing is that these jobs were all quite menial jobs, requiring low skill, little training and could be done by pretty much anyone. The skill requirements for raking hay, putting a sheet of metal under a press and pushing a button or carrying a tray of glasses is quite negligible. The problem now is that all those jobs have been automated, and there isn't anywhere to go for those people that isn't either already automated as well or won't be in a few years. Technology is at the point where it can do what someone with a low IQ can do, and since computers can work 24/7 and don't form unions, they are simply more attractive as "employees".

      Up until now, you could argue (and rightfully so) that a new kind of market would emerge that needs those low qualified, low intelligence workers as cheap labor. Today, this simply isn't the case anymore. We have arrived in a time where it is indeed possible to replace some people with a very small script.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. I could use... by toonces33 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I could use some EXTRA BIG ASS FRIES right now.

  3. And in other news by sheramil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everyone else on Earth cheers as Wall Street replaced with algorithms capable of morality, compassion and empathy.

  4. Not sure I'm sold on them. by sunking2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Spent a month in Madrid and they have them there. Unless you eat at McDonalds way too much per person they are definitely a lot slower. However you can easily have 3 times as many as cashiers. The problem I see is similar to if you've ever seen a 65 year old try to use those touch screen Coke fountain drink machines that give you every combination on Earth. Old people won't like them. I also don't know that it eliminates all that many jobs. It seemed to me that they had just as many people, they were just expediting orders. Not saying they won't work, but questioning them being worthy of a stock boost.

    1. Re:Not sure I'm sold on them. by SeriousTube · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's the ones that get out at 4 PM in the morning you have to watch out for.

  5. been there, done that . . . by swell · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Several fast food chains had those kiosks many years ago. They were ignored by customers who went to the counter anyway. This excites investors because they have never been in a fast food joint. They didn't see the failed system of the past. They have no clue how efficient current employees are. They think that laying off employees is the road to big profit.

    Does anybody here see a future where food and drinks served by robots will be more attractive than what we have now? Isn't the personal service a large part of why we go out to eat and drink?

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
    1. Re:been there, done that . . . by Kjella · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  6. If only we had machines to dispense money by zerofoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Then we could get rid of all the tellers at banks!

    Someone should make this.

  7. Re:Time for a $20 minimum wage. by fluffernutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd rather live on welfare than have a minimum wage job.

    That's primarily the reason why so many people are stuck on welfare. The only thing available to you to come off welfare is a minimum wage job, and it's getting worse and worse each year. As automation increases, even these jobs are gone and the welfare pit gets even deeper.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  8. Canada is on another planet, in the future by mykepredko · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We've had the kiosks in Canadian McDonald's for at least a year now and:
    - It's a much nicer way to order, no lines and no shouting to be heard
    - No worries that the clerk screws up your order
    - There doesn't seem to be less staff behind the counter, just more of them filling orders rather than taking them
    Overall, it works well enough that we prefer going to McDonald's.

    When it comes to dining payment technology, it seems like Canada is light years away (as well as well into the future) than the US. Payment is made at the table with chip reading cards that take debit or credit and we have had the McDonald's kiosks and Canada's economy hasn't collapsed.

    Yet when these things are talked about in the US, it seems like they are job killing ideas coming from the devil himself.

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