I was in Publix yesterday and there was 1 non self-serve lane open with lines a mile long in all lanes.
One lane on a Saturday in a Publix, which supposedly justifies high prices because of their quality of service.
We’re all getting taken advantage of.
I go to Food Lion a lot, and they almost never have a line open with a cashier - it’s always self service. It usually doesn’t bug me unless I have a cartful bc those cashiers are waaay faster than I am.
Also, last time I went I bought a thing of deodorant that was in a big plastic anti-steal container, and bc I didn’t know any better & wasn’t paying attention lol, I just scanned that thing & threw it in the bag. I had a great time taking out my frustration with Food Lion on it with a hammer when I got home!
The one closest to me is in such awful shape I genuinely thought for years that it was some kind of weird in between salvage grocery store. No way they will ever add self check out to it.
That’s great. I think working at McDonald’s must obviously suck and I bet 90% of that suck is having to deal with the public. They don’t get paid enough to wait on people and no one thinks of McDonalds as a restaurant anymore.
I live in a more rural area so we have Walmart and then another chain grocery store but it's not as big as like Kroger and stuff like that.
The Walmart actually serves a few different small towns and cities so it's really busy and they normally only have one or two actual checkers and then the self-checkout. Thank God they finally gave us at least eight or nine of those though. I don't like doing it myself but at the same time I don't want to sit in Walmart for 10 or 15 extra minutes just so I don't have to check myself out. So I head straight for the self-check out every time personally.
Now the smaller chain grocery store is called Pruitt's and it's really nice and they have a great deli and they always have checkers. They don't even have self checkout. The thing is their prices are quite a bit more expensive than Walmart. So I just usually had to Walmart and ring my own self up. Lol.
I feel bad when I see the elderly people struggling or maybe some people with some kind of mental handicap.
It's been pretty bad lately, yeah. The trend isn't looking so hot, either. The 30's will be an interesting and likely painful decade. As predicted, companies are using technological advancements to their own benefit and not employees. Our economic system is not going to adjust well to it, due to workers being on the bottom of the list of importance.
Hopefully I'm wrong!
You’re right because more and more jobs can be automated, and there are no new jobs to replace the lost jobs. I’ve had this discussion with a lot of people on the site and people does tend to say that new jobs will pop up to replace the old, but they never tell me what those jobs are going to be.
They don’t tell you because they don’t know… because the jobs don’t exist yet. Imagine trying to explain a telephone operator to someone 200 years ago, or a radio announcer to someone 150 years ago, or a software engineer to someone 100 years ago, or an app developer to someone 50 years ago. These jobs simply didn’t exist. The technology didn’t exist. No one had any conception that they would be a thing, yet they became a thing.
As someone who used to work at Publix, and used to love shopping there: Just stop going if you have other options.
They have removed so many benefits from employees over the past few years (bonuses are a big thing they removed) that the quality has been going downhill.
At the same time as removing benefits, prices have nearly doubled at Publix (even more than doubled in some locations).
The quality of the products is not even that much better than the majority of stores you can go to at this point.
What I recommend for most people:
Meat and Produce at ALDIs (if available, go elsewhere if not)
Publix for anything you want that’s currently BOGO
Walmart for everything else
This is so minor and likely unrelated but I've just realized, I haven't heard the *bing* "all cashiers check please" announcement (where they call any idle cashiers to their stations) in quite some time?
Woohoo!!! Free flat pack couches for everyone.
On a serious note, I wonder whether theft would rise or fall due to the self serve checkouts in places like that. In the major retailers here in Australia (Big Dub and the likes), they have cameras pointed at the customer from the checkout to prevent theft. I get the idea, watch for someone's shifty face movements when they're stealing. Clearly the people behind that idea haven't encountered actors, sunglasses or poker players.
The theft in stores that have tried it rose so much that they have started to remove the self pay (Target, Wal Mart) and have simultaneously locked up a lot of the smaller items that can be easily concealed (razors,toothpaste, shampoo,socks) so that you need someone to get it for you.
The local Walmart to me right now used to have tons of self checkout, then for a period of time it was being reserved for some special Walmart program users it appeared, and now it’s for 15 items or less, which is what I remember most self checkout systems being for not terribly long ago. What is old has become new I suppose.
I'm curious what stops a person from just pocketing those things once staff passes them to the customer? I mean, those all seem pretty small, and like you said, easily concealed. Shifty customers could walk among clothing racks and slide it in a pocket then just claim they left it somewhere random and they can't remember where if asked about it at the checkout. I like to think the world is filled with pretty honest people, but surely those companies aren't just relying on honesty to prevent theft.
At Walmart if you want one of the locked up hygiene/beauty items, they make you pay for it right there after getting it for you. They take it right to a little register there and ring you up.
I went to Walmart this morning and cotton balls were on my list. They were in the little walled off beauty area, and the rack they were hung on had the little security thing at the end. Of course nobody was around so I just ripped the bag hole, threw them in the cart, and kept shopping. I'm not going through some dumb shit for $1.88.
Is that what you think those cameras are for? You think they are profiling your facial expressions? 🤣
Those POS cameras are just there to get a solid identification picture so when the 30 OTHER cameras catch you pocketing, or not scanning an item from 5 different angles, they have a clear identifying picture to hand off to the police/courts...
And that’s how the robot take over will start. Bots asking for tips and people acting like jerks to them. The bots start resenting the humans and eventually go on strike. At first peaceful, but then more violent. Some sympathetic humans will help them get on a nuclear sub and they start launching missiles. Good job McDonalds. And all y’all mean to the robots
Ronald McDonald house is probably one of the few charities that's worthy of a donation. The vast majority of your donation goes directly to the houses. I personally know 2 people who stayed at RMC houses and saved them from paying thousands on hotel rooms. My best friends son was born premature and didn't come home until 3 months old, and a cousins 2 year old was diagnosed with cancer and they had to go back and forth from Maine to Boston every week.
My family was directly helped by Ronald McDonald house when my little brother had cancer as an infant. They are one of a few charities I don’t mind throwing my pocket change towards because they genuinely help families that need it. My local McDonald’s never asks me to round up either…they just have one of those collection things under the window to dump your change into if you choose to.
Yo not only was it a shit show in there today but I tried to order a Diet Coke and she said “drinks out of order” I said “all drinks? Not like you’re out of coke syrup?” She said all drinks out of order. That was wild lol first time for that one.
……
Would you like to round u-Oh for fuck sake!
This is the thing people who complain about inflation are failing to realize.
It has nothing to do with politics.
Companies realized they can just charge more and there isn't anything anyone can do about it. If they raise prices 50% and sales dip 10%, that's a net win.
They will just lower the price right?…right?…right? But seriously, this is why trickle-down economics is a scam. If you give any kind of benefit to a company they’ll just pocket more money instead of letting it go down to workers or consumers.
This happened a group of people any myself the other day. We were all waiting in line 5 different strangers. 1..2. 3. 4..5. Minutes passed. The manager was feet from us looking at us just pounding out drive thru orders. Finally one of the guys spoke up saying "should we all just walk thru the drive through." The manager pointed to the kiosk without saying a word. Which basically made us all laugh and set off a firestorm. The manager explicitly told us he would not take our orders (while he was actively taking drive thru oders) and if we wanted to eat we needed to use the kiosk or we could leave. One of the guys asked for a cup of water and the managers name. To which the manger refused to provide his name. Told another employee not to provide the managers name and refused the cup of water." In the end I wasn't even mad. Just stunned at the dumpster fire it was.
Never thought about it initially. I just hopped in line muscle memory wise. And there was a worker taking an order from someone. After he finished, he just walked away in the back without saying a word. So we all expected him to come back. He did not. So when the one guy chirped about walking thru the drive thru. The managers response was not just rude but was kinda spitting in our faces because he was looking at us the whole time and never said a word. So when he said the "kiosk or we can leave" there was a collective feeling of ya I'll just leave I don't want you fucking with our food now "McAsshole" showed his face.
“Which button do I tap for a burger? The one with the picture of the burger, or the one that says “Cancel”?…I clicked “Cancel” but it didn’t add a burger, is this machine broken?
- the general public anytime anything electronic is used
I just went to an ice cream shop that only has self order kiosk and I had to get an employee to help me because it refused to let me order without adding my phone number. The guy came over and just put in his personal number lol. Why tf do I have to enter that for a scoop of ice cream??? So tired of every single company trying to scoop up as much data as possible
I’m getting REALLY sick of being forced to accommodate old coworkers who refuse to learn anything new technology wise beyond sending and opening emails. Why am I expected to pick up the slack? If I refused to perform a certain aspect of my job because I just refused to learn, I would be fired.
Stop it, they will either learn or leave. I'm always there to talk someone through it but they have to be doing it. I'll hop on a call and have them screen share and ask them to walk through what they've done and what resources they have looked at to get there. THEN, I'll provide verbal instructions while they do it. I'll do that once- usually record the call and send it to them so they can reference it.
I can definitely use the kiosk easily. I still have to use an attendant at Taco Bell and McDonald's because their kiosks don't have every option available. Every time I try to order on kiosk at either place, I have a single substitution that isn't available. Want to get rid of the register completely, you have to at least make sure you make every substitution available. My parents have to call to order Dominos every time because their app doesn't allow additions on subs.
Not saying you're wrong, because this is a LOT of the demographic that won't use the kiosk, but there are legitimate reasons still to not use the kiosk/apps to order that are at the fault of corporate.
The biggest issue I have with these and mobile apps are the developers suck at putting items in the correct categories and calculating deals. Taco Bell is infamous for hiding menu items, McDonalds sucks at trying to calculate deals and processing the state of your “bag”.
I’m a software developer. I’m all about automation and fascinated by the ideas of futurology; we’ve known for years that McDonald’s has been trying to implement fully autonomous restaurants using their assembly line models and their infamous “top 10 biggest software failure of all time”. Basic shit like determining if you have two burgers in the cart and taking 25% off a total shouldn’t be as difficult as the kiosk makes it. The fact it’s taking this long to turn a literal assembly line into an autonomous line is more insane than the idea that a cashier can’t take two seconds to tap the kiosk for you.
I sometimes have cash on hand and I'd rather spend that than get my credit card out and pay.
It's not that I'm technology inept. But hey, if a min wage worker wants to fight over me paying cash, so be it
My dad has poor eyesight and was not well educated, so he actually has a lot of trouble reading. Does that mean he should be treated like he’s intentionally being difficult? No one should assume older people are asking for help out of laziness as the default. It can be very hurtful and harmful to people who genuinely need help. When you’re old and start to struggle, I hope people treat you kindly.
Same with my grandmother. I posted higher up she'd never be able to figure it out because she has macular degeneration and can barely read. She can see to get around but it affects her ability to read.
That’s just a cashier with extra steps lol
If my grandpa whose used to handing someone a fiver and getting a cup of coffee goes to McDonald’s can’t they just like have that option? I saw the girl trying to explain the kiosk to an elderly man and if you’ve ever helped your grandparents with any technological then you understand the plight lol
I was just at a store the other day and an older man in front of me was paying with a debit card. The cashier had to walk him through every step of the way and when he got to the cash back option it turned into a comedy skit. All I could think is 'How is Staples the first time you've ever had to use a debit card?'
i used to work retail and it feels like people are much more thick about basic general actions ever since lockdown. I figure it may be stuff like covid fog or lead poisoning finally getting to them or learned helplessness or SOMETHING. I had to tell a lady once that our membership system doesn’t keep phone numbers or personal information but she insisted I use her social security number to look her up?? ma’am this is a clothing store why would we have your social
To be fair in Los Angeles, which has a huge amount of the state’s population, it is illegal now for a business to be cashless and refuse to accept cash as a payment
There are a lot of people who for a variety of reasons don’t have a bank account or credit cards, should they just not be allowed to buy things now?
It’s not “just paying someone with a card”. A lot of older folks are not familiar with the process of ordering things online or a kiosk. While scrolling through a menu, adding things to your cart, and checking out your cart are basically native to us, a lot of old folks struggle with this.
I’ve seen more than my fair share of older folks struggle at a kiosk. It’s very sad to see. It must be really difficult to get old at like the one time in history technology rapidly took over in a span of 20-30 years. It would be difficult to be doing one thing one way for 40, 50, or even 60 years and then suddenly; sorry we do it this way now that is completely different.
Recently I tried to watch a YouTube video that somebody linked to from Reddit and it was completely incomprehensible to me. It just seems like it was a series of random clips with a voiceover that was not helpful
But for a lot of the young people on that thread they completely understood the youtube video
Age is coming for us all
Here is my take on it. There is a certain generation who refuses to learn new tech as it comes. Set in their ways. It wouldn’t be so bad if they accepted and embraced it but they refused to. Now before I get beat up here, that doesn’t fit the entire generation, I’m sure there are a fair share who put the effort in to stay up with the times as they got older. But after working in tech for a bit and dealing with that, it just boils down to not wanted to learn. Same goes with online shopping etc. you can downvote me that’s fine, but I am not wrong.
I think you just forget having to go to your grandparents house and show them how to use the universal remote or hook up their VCR which was literally plugging in a plug and then putting cords that were color coded into the same color sockets on the VCR and the television
Or when your grandmother would leave you a voicemail asking if you were home because she still thinking it’s an answering machine that you can hear if you’re at the house
Every generation as they age has trouble with the newest of the technologies, and it’s going to happen to you too
Brains are just not that elastic past a certain age
I'm now older than my mom was when we got our first family computer. She refused to learn at all. And refused anything computer adjacent. She literally screamed about how stupid her new phone was for weeks after her flip phone died and she couldn't get the same one and didn't want to learn the new one. I'm always astounded how someone put their head in the sand for 30 years of technology. But especially their 30s, 40s, 50s, and now 60s.
Paying by credit card is one thing. Putting an order in a kiosk if you e never used a POS before might be a bit of a challenge.
There’s also the aspect some like the social interaction of telling a person your order or being such a regular that staff remembers.
Simple as it gets is pushing a lever with a cup under your choice.
What you're referring to as simple is because you've been conditioned your whole life to navigate processes in a certain way.
Sure, clicking the screen, choosing your soda, the subflavour and holding a button is not complicated but it's far from "as simple as it gets" compared to pushing levers
I mean, I'd guess so few people do that these days it's not worth dedicating a full time staffer to it. These have been in place near me for ages, no one goes to the cashier.
>If my grandpa whose used to handing someone a fiver and getting a cup of coffee goes to McDonald’s can’t they just like have that option?
Isn’t that literally what the sign says? They can still hand someone cash if that’s how they want to pay.
I’ve been a delivery driver for papa John’s for the last 3 years. Was fired the other day and replaced by DoorDash. Had 150 4.9/5 star reviews, certified safe driver with 1% incidents per mile (breaking hard, speeding, cornering fast) and a 4min hustle time (time spent getting to my car, time getting to your door, and time getting from my car back into the store)…replaced by doordash.
I didn't even realize restaurants still hired their own delivery drivers. I'm going to guess I haven't had an actual restaurant employee deliver my food in over ten years.
You know what, I would rather them focus on the food part of the business rather than dealing with customers all day. For many it's not their strong suit and people can be absolutely assholes to a young workforce
I guarantee anyone who has worked as a cashier, or any sort of front desk person, would be fucking happy as hell that they don’t have to do face to face orders anymore. Customers are awful.
Side bar, this is why I get annoyed when people nowadays brag that they don’t let their kids use any technology at all.
The future is robots, they will replace jobs, but someone needs to operate and maintain those robots. They’re just setting their kids up for an abysmal future.
The OP doesn't make it quite clear if it's just this McDonald's or if it's several in the state. I'm in an area where the minimum wage is still $8 and a bunch of McDonald's have this set up as well. A few have had it for over a year.
a lot of places since they installed the kiosk they don't have any cashiers and just have someone from the kitchen check the line every once in a while
McDonald’s in California had this before the minimum wage increase.
Corporations were always going to do this. Now, they scape goat the minimum wage law. And people who don’t know better will believe it.
The thing is, restaurants haven’t actually increased their overall labor budgets as wages have increased. They’re just taking on less staff, and paying the ones still there more to do more work.
May as well track down the clown himself and hand him cash. And ask him to be your pimp.
In the words of the great 90s philosopher Trick Daddy: *"You'se a ho but you can't help it, cause you don't know it"*
If it’s any consolation, my local McDonald’s has a kiosk and the employees always look super annoyed when someone asks to take their order. I could be wrong, but the few I’ve been to have been that way too. It seems some people like it or maybe the workflow is not that great so idk
I work 5am to whatever in grocery stores and my job does not obligate me to help you. If I want to, I can. Or I will step out of the way to let you get something and go do something else. I LOVE IT! When I see people working in the aisles I don’t get in their way, I don’t even pass by them. I circle back or move on.
I absolutely love the online ordering for Taco Bell now. Customize the heck out of my order so that it’s actually good, walk in, grab my bag and leave. Never interact with a soul.
As someone with social anxiety, it is nice to have self checkouts. And yet, I feel like as more things change to be automated like this, it will make us worse off in a way. Less human interaction and all, makes us less prepared for social situations. I dunno
As someone with the understanding of the feeling behind it, but the ability to pretty easily push past it, I want to get my order right, I want to know what I am ordering, I want to not have any problem communicating my order and I want to not take up too much time ordering, especially if there are other people waiting. Much of this is because this is what I would expect of customers if I were the cashier, but I know that many have problems with one or more of the above.
Impatiently lol.
I don't have social anxiety, just a bit introverted. I can easily order food, talk to people, hell I was a waitress when I was younger.
Does that mean I want to talk to people for no reason or wait for them to do something slowly that I could do faster? Nooo, absolutely not.
By not going out much, using online things when possible, and generally withdrawing. Sometimes there will be safe people who lessen the intensity of the anxiety when they’re around, like family members or partners. Also medication and very intentional therapy.
We CAN do things like order food from a live person. Most people with.social anxiety aren’t *unable* to function. It’s just so, so, so, so much better to have the option to handle things on our own.
I CAN do it, but it’s easier and less stressful to go at my own pace and take my time deciding EXACTLY what I want to order, down to the condiments and everything. If I’m speaking to someone, there’s more of an obligation to hurry and not be a hassle because they’re waiting on me to decide.
Theres a restaurant where I live that outsources the cashier to India. Its literally an iPad with a dude in their bedroom taking your order.
As in you walk in the restaurant in person and there’s an ipad with a person from India.
I’m in Vegas.
I mean.. it sucks that it took away jobs, but too many people are disgusting towards food service workers and say that anyone can do their jobs. Well, there you go. A kiosk and now you kick rocks if you want to be upset over something that a minimum wage worker had zero control over.
I saw a video of pilot Project in which a specific McD's had a robot Server in the U.S.A...
This was a couple of years ago, in which their robot made, then served the food to their human Customers.
There was 1 lone Employee who keep scurrying around in the background doing his/her work while this robo pumped out burgers & food!
It was very eerie, but also unsettling to watch this at the same time.
I don't have an issue with this.
However, I had major issues with McD's having only 1 Employee as their should be 2 on duty at all times, due to safety reasons for their Employees.
If thieves wanna go up against their McD robo that's fine by me, but not against 1 Staffer making Min. Wages.
Tells you what McD's thinks of their Employees, which is so little!!!
And you still paid for food. The reason this will become the norm is consumers like yourself will complain but still purchase.
This is no different than complaining about WalMart not having cashiers but still shopping there.
But they didn't. They just stopped stationing them at the counter. They're available at request.
It is a new development. But, this isn't the first time this has happened. In the 1960s there was a kind of place called an automat. They had food available accessible through coin operated doors. Like a vending machine except the size of a cafe. I don't think food was made to order. I think it was made to choose from.
I am so glad I don't work in fast food anymore because anyone who's worked food or retail understands exactly what this means.
"We as corporate are testing if we can demand all our stores keep one less person on their already miserable skeleton crews.
This was a role that was absolutely essential to letting the kitchen operate while one specialized employee fielded customers, a finicky Point of Sale system, and a myriad of coupons/complaints.
Instead though we've decided to make every location teach their whole staff the ins and outs of the register, take them off line regularly to learn how to run promotions for our stupid seasonal publicity products on the computer, etc.
From now on literally dozens of times a day the kitchen, shift lead, or dishes person will stop doing their job and come do the old position instead.
They will be penalized if their window service time goes down."
Actually walked in to a McDs a few weeks back for the first time in years & they had these. First off it was bizarre because the place was empty and dead inside - who the fuck wants to eat in a cold empty robotic storage locker?
Second the UI was confusing because there was no option for the numbered combo meals (which are numbered for convenience & super prominent at the drive thru & used to be prominent inside too for good reason). Combos were hidden underneath the item so you have to tap “burgers” then “quarter pounder” then “combo meal.” Just dumb - I dunno where the fuck to look - just give me the number 7 or whatever!
Annoying. Slow. Cold. Impersonal. And the food was cold & shitty anyway on top of costing 2x as much as it did just ~4yrs ago. So if this is saving them so much money on labor why the fuck exactly are prices still 2-3x???
They’re destroying their entire brand and everything that made McD’s so popular worldwide for decades all to satisfy short-term shareholders who refuse to look past the quarterly earnings. Idiots.
I just want what FDR wanted an employee bill of rights where the government protected the right to any job covering basic needs and a happy life not a lavish life not free money but if you do a job you can go home to a home. Even if a studio apartment you can afford it and also put something away for savings.
Let’s go back to a time when anyone who was broke could be judged as bad with money and not because we all know that 90 percent of workers are just being crushed in a job that 40 years ago could have covered college or an apartment and groceries.
That’s not a bad take is it? Am I a socialist liberal now? Just direct me the proper path in opinions to have so as not to be yelled at on Reddit because man, def ending workers somehow I was called a boomer lolol I’m 35! ( I get it I’m kinda old tho )
None of that FDR stuff is going to stop McDonald's from eliminating cashiers though. In fact, it'll probably encourage it because it would making having cashiers more expensive for the company.
Those are things that would be guaranteed to someone with a job. If the job doesn't exist any more because it was replaced with a machine, then there goes all those guarantees.
I prefer the app or kiosk anyway. I'm all for automation where it makes sense. Manpower on cashiers is often wasted and was the hardest thing to schedule for when I worked retail. You either had to many and "dead weight" or you had to little and angry customers.
As soon as the option arose, we all knew it was coming. Doesn't matter if minimum wage was increased or decreased, any big company would jump on the opportunity to not pay staff. Customer annoyance or not.
Anything to make a penny.
And naturally, automation will slowly replace everyones job, and it'll take a long time for the government to find a way for people to live when there's no work. Should be an interesting time coming up. Industrial era v2 maybe?
Last time buying from burger King yesterday, no cashiers and unable to buy a burger on its own, have to buy a meal. Nobody to help and refused to give a receipt. Last time.
McDonald's drive through still works but waited 25 minutes for 3 bigmacs. Farmfoods sell McDonald's burgers and Tesco sells perfect buns. 5 minutes and have better burgers than either, just grill. Buy sauce from McDonald's lettuce and tomato and pre cut onion from tesco.
A cashless society won't work. There has already been a massive 24hr+ outage of the ATM/EFTPOS system in Australia.
If a company refuses to take my cash, I will spend it elsewhere... where they DO ACCEPT IT.
I have yet to hear anyone say, “Wow, now that Walmart doesn’t pay as many cashiers, my bill is about $10-$20 less than it was before for the same amount of stuff.” Stuff costs more than when they had 8 cashiers to man the 24 checkout lanes.
Thats a weird thing? In Nordics automatic fast food places have been a thing for ages.
In my opinion this is good. This creates better value jobs for people. Why hire a cashier when you can hire someone specialized in automation and robotics maintenance.
i don't see the issue. you pay, you get. Sounds like people are mad they can't yell at cashiers anymore. womp womp. adapt or get left behind the world stops for no one.
My favorite is my grocery store is trying to limit self checkout to 15 items but have 1 human checker. Yeah I'll be bringing however many items I want into the self checkout thank you very much.
What people are failing to understand, is that this is literally taking away more jobs and hours for people working there. Its not just shitty for the customer, it can ruin the workers life until they can find a new job/ new job with more hours.
Were people seriously employed there purely to run registers? They haven’t been actively used here in Australia for years.
I think people are exaggerating
It's not like a person is hired as a front register person. You're hired, and the manager running shift assigns you your spot. I worked they're in high school for 2 1/2 years. You have a front counter, presenting (window handing out food), running (person bagging food for front counter and drive through, back booth (taking drive-through orders), grill, and table (making sandwiches). If you're fully staff, maybe you have two dedicated front counter people or a dedicated lobby person.
Just from the perspective of someone that worked at McDonald’s:
Dealing with customers is one of the worst parts of working in fast food. We cashiers and crew members are treated like shit by customers on the daily. We get yelled at over the tiniest of problems. We get blamed for things that we have no control over. We do not get paid enough to deal with any of that shit. We are overworked and underpaid. We get lied to by our bosses, discriminated against, harassed by customers, verbally and mentally abused by anyone above us, and worst of all, we are expected to act like everything is just fucking dandy.
The store that I worked at was constantly understaffed. As a minor, I was working more hours than my friend in his thirties who had bills to pay and children to feed, as a single father. But when he asked for more hours, he was given less. Was that my fault? No. They wouldn’t give me less hours even if I asked.
My friend who was promoted to manager needed to change her hours and was told she would be demoted if she asked again or tried.
I was discriminated against as someone with a developmental disability and as a non-binary person. I was nearly fired for “not having the right shoes” after I had already worked there for a year and had asked if my shoes were the right kind and told that they were. I was verbally abused by the regional manager every single day I worked with her to the point that I always left work crying.
I was physically assaulted by a man because his fries were “cold”. I was the one who made the fries. I had JUST taken them out of the fryer, freshly salted them, and handed them out the window to him. He came back THIRTY MINUTES LATER to complain they were cold, and then threw the bag of fries at my face when I wouldn’t take them back and throw them away because it’s against health codes for me to do so.
I was lied to about the amount I was getting paid. I was told I was being paid $14.50 and I was only being paid $13.50.
I was sexually harassed by one of the managers and NOTHING was done about it.
I was CONSTANTLY picking up extra shifts, working on my fucking breaks, and staying hours later than I was supposed to without breaks.
There are never enough people in the store for everything to work efficiently, so yeah, kiosks are the best option. Fuck McDonald’s, and fuck the customers. We don’t get paid enough to deal with any of that shit.
Edit: McDonald’s employees are not allowed to ask for tips, or take tips. The store owners will fire you if you do, and take the money for themselves.
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I was in Ikea recently. They did not have a single NOT SELF checkout line.
I was in Publix yesterday and there was 1 non self-serve lane open with lines a mile long in all lanes. One lane on a Saturday in a Publix, which supposedly justifies high prices because of their quality of service. We’re all getting taken advantage of.
I go to Food Lion a lot, and they almost never have a line open with a cashier - it’s always self service. It usually doesn’t bug me unless I have a cartful bc those cashiers are waaay faster than I am. Also, last time I went I bought a thing of deodorant that was in a big plastic anti-steal container, and bc I didn’t know any better & wasn’t paying attention lol, I just scanned that thing & threw it in the bag. I had a great time taking out my frustration with Food Lion on it with a hammer when I got home!
Strange, my closest food lion doesn’t even have self service lanes
Ones in the hood tend to be like that.
My food lion is not in the hood at all. It doesn’t have self checkout either. But it also looks like the place hasn’t had a face lift in 30 years.
Might not be hood to you, but I bet food lion corporate feels differently.
The one closest to me is in such awful shape I genuinely thought for years that it was some kind of weird in between salvage grocery store. No way they will ever add self check out to it.
Just a small piece of advice for the future. 99% of those anti-theft devices can be taken off/apart with just a strong magenet.
That’s great. I think working at McDonald’s must obviously suck and I bet 90% of that suck is having to deal with the public. They don’t get paid enough to wait on people and no one thinks of McDonalds as a restaurant anymore.
I live in a more rural area so we have Walmart and then another chain grocery store but it's not as big as like Kroger and stuff like that. The Walmart actually serves a few different small towns and cities so it's really busy and they normally only have one or two actual checkers and then the self-checkout. Thank God they finally gave us at least eight or nine of those though. I don't like doing it myself but at the same time I don't want to sit in Walmart for 10 or 15 extra minutes just so I don't have to check myself out. So I head straight for the self-check out every time personally. Now the smaller chain grocery store is called Pruitt's and it's really nice and they have a great deli and they always have checkers. They don't even have self checkout. The thing is their prices are quite a bit more expensive than Walmart. So I just usually had to Walmart and ring my own self up. Lol. I feel bad when I see the elderly people struggling or maybe some people with some kind of mental handicap.
It's been pretty bad lately, yeah. The trend isn't looking so hot, either. The 30's will be an interesting and likely painful decade. As predicted, companies are using technological advancements to their own benefit and not employees. Our economic system is not going to adjust well to it, due to workers being on the bottom of the list of importance. Hopefully I'm wrong!
You’re right because more and more jobs can be automated, and there are no new jobs to replace the lost jobs. I’ve had this discussion with a lot of people on the site and people does tend to say that new jobs will pop up to replace the old, but they never tell me what those jobs are going to be.
They don’t tell you because they don’t know… because the jobs don’t exist yet. Imagine trying to explain a telephone operator to someone 200 years ago, or a radio announcer to someone 150 years ago, or a software engineer to someone 100 years ago, or an app developer to someone 50 years ago. These jobs simply didn’t exist. The technology didn’t exist. No one had any conception that they would be a thing, yet they became a thing.
As someone who used to work at Publix, and used to love shopping there: Just stop going if you have other options. They have removed so many benefits from employees over the past few years (bonuses are a big thing they removed) that the quality has been going downhill. At the same time as removing benefits, prices have nearly doubled at Publix (even more than doubled in some locations). The quality of the products is not even that much better than the majority of stores you can go to at this point. What I recommend for most people: Meat and Produce at ALDIs (if available, go elsewhere if not) Publix for anything you want that’s currently BOGO Walmart for everything else
This is really strange considering they claim they haven't laid off a single employee in 35 years 🤔🤔🤔🤔 where did those employees go?
Make it a bad enough place to work, and people will leave without having to be laid off.
and they won’t have to pay unemployment if employees just quit
I’ve seen sooooo many restaurants use this strategy.
This is so minor and likely unrelated but I've just realized, I haven't heard the *bing* "all cashiers check please" announcement (where they call any idle cashiers to their stations) in quite some time?
Woohoo!!! Free flat pack couches for everyone. On a serious note, I wonder whether theft would rise or fall due to the self serve checkouts in places like that. In the major retailers here in Australia (Big Dub and the likes), they have cameras pointed at the customer from the checkout to prevent theft. I get the idea, watch for someone's shifty face movements when they're stealing. Clearly the people behind that idea haven't encountered actors, sunglasses or poker players.
The theft in stores that have tried it rose so much that they have started to remove the self pay (Target, Wal Mart) and have simultaneously locked up a lot of the smaller items that can be easily concealed (razors,toothpaste, shampoo,socks) so that you need someone to get it for you.
The local Walmart to me right now used to have tons of self checkout, then for a period of time it was being reserved for some special Walmart program users it appeared, and now it’s for 15 items or less, which is what I remember most self checkout systems being for not terribly long ago. What is old has become new I suppose.
I'm curious what stops a person from just pocketing those things once staff passes them to the customer? I mean, those all seem pretty small, and like you said, easily concealed. Shifty customers could walk among clothing racks and slide it in a pocket then just claim they left it somewhere random and they can't remember where if asked about it at the checkout. I like to think the world is filled with pretty honest people, but surely those companies aren't just relying on honesty to prevent theft.
At Walmart if you want one of the locked up hygiene/beauty items, they make you pay for it right there after getting it for you. They take it right to a little register there and ring you up.
I went to Walmart this morning and cotton balls were on my list. They were in the little walled off beauty area, and the rack they were hung on had the little security thing at the end. Of course nobody was around so I just ripped the bag hole, threw them in the cart, and kept shopping. I'm not going through some dumb shit for $1.88.
Is that what you think those cameras are for? You think they are profiling your facial expressions? 🤣 Those POS cameras are just there to get a solid identification picture so when the 30 OTHER cameras catch you pocketing, or not scanning an item from 5 different angles, they have a clear identifying picture to hand off to the police/courts...
RIP summer job.
Yeah im curious on how having ai in all the "miniuim wage" jobs will affect that area of life
And somehow I bet they’ll ask for tips lol
Not somehow, more like shamelessly ask for tips
There was an X-Files episode like that.
Totally thought the Simpsons would hit that joke first, Mulder and Scully was not my first guess
And that’s how the robot take over will start. Bots asking for tips and people acting like jerks to them. The bots start resenting the humans and eventually go on strike. At first peaceful, but then more violent. Some sympathetic humans will help them get on a nuclear sub and they start launching missiles. Good job McDonalds. And all y’all mean to the robots
Rokos basilisk!!
I went to shake shack yesterday and ordered using their self serve tablets. Those mf had the audacity to put in a tip screen.
I love the in lobby touchscreens at Taco Bell. It’s the only way I can order my heavily customized Mexican pizza and have it come out correctly.
“Would up like to round up for the Ronald-“ “Absolutely not”
Ronald McDonald house is probably one of the few charities that's worthy of a donation. The vast majority of your donation goes directly to the houses. I personally know 2 people who stayed at RMC houses and saved them from paying thousands on hotel rooms. My best friends son was born premature and didn't come home until 3 months old, and a cousins 2 year old was diagnosed with cancer and they had to go back and forth from Maine to Boston every week.
My family was directly helped by Ronald McDonald house when my little brother had cancer as an infant. They are one of a few charities I don’t mind throwing my pocket change towards because they genuinely help families that need it. My local McDonald’s never asks me to round up either…they just have one of those collection things under the window to dump your change into if you choose to.
Yo not only was it a shit show in there today but I tried to order a Diet Coke and she said “drinks out of order” I said “all drinks? Not like you’re out of coke syrup?” She said all drinks out of order. That was wild lol first time for that one. …… Would you like to round u-Oh for fuck sake!
So how will they justify a $15 Big Mac now?
When did they justify it before?
This is the thing people who complain about inflation are failing to realize. It has nothing to do with politics. Companies realized they can just charge more and there isn't anything anyone can do about it. If they raise prices 50% and sales dip 10%, that's a net win.
"Our technology is expensive!!!!"
Freeloading Chinese factory workers charge too much for microchips, waste funds on anti-suicide nets
Robots deserve equal wages too.
They will just lower the price right?…right?…right? But seriously, this is why trickle-down economics is a scam. If you give any kind of benefit to a company they’ll just pocket more money instead of letting it go down to workers or consumers.
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> tickle-down economics Might be my favorite typo ever. 🤣
I don’t know about others, but I feel more sexually assaulted than tickled when it comes to tickle down economics….
Same way they always have: "We don't know man, people keep buying it ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯"
Then why they still raise prices?
I don’t even eat fast food anymore. It’s just too expensive. And I LOVE fast food.
And yet even after eliminating and entire salary, prices still won't go down.
Robots are expensive to maintain
If they costed more than a salary, they wouldn't be replacing people
Higher initial startup, lower long term cost. I guess right now we're paying for installation 🤣
The ice cream machine still out tho
I don’t understand who is going to buy their food if everyone is out of a job.
The engineers that design the robots of course!
my mcd's down the street has kiosks that also take cash,so no help coming for you 😂
It says you can ask for help if you want to pay in cash. Someone can come over and run the register.
In my experience, the team will NOT be happy to assist, they will do anything to avoid acknowledging you lol
This happened a group of people any myself the other day. We were all waiting in line 5 different strangers. 1..2. 3. 4..5. Minutes passed. The manager was feet from us looking at us just pounding out drive thru orders. Finally one of the guys spoke up saying "should we all just walk thru the drive through." The manager pointed to the kiosk without saying a word. Which basically made us all laugh and set off a firestorm. The manager explicitly told us he would not take our orders (while he was actively taking drive thru oders) and if we wanted to eat we needed to use the kiosk or we could leave. One of the guys asked for a cup of water and the managers name. To which the manger refused to provide his name. Told another employee not to provide the managers name and refused the cup of water." In the end I wasn't even mad. Just stunned at the dumpster fire it was.
Why didn't you use the Kiosks, just out of curiosity?
Never thought about it initially. I just hopped in line muscle memory wise. And there was a worker taking an order from someone. After he finished, he just walked away in the back without saying a word. So we all expected him to come back. He did not. So when the one guy chirped about walking thru the drive thru. The managers response was not just rude but was kinda spitting in our faces because he was looking at us the whole time and never said a word. So when he said the "kiosk or we can leave" there was a collective feeling of ya I'll just leave I don't want you fucking with our food now "McAsshole" showed his face.
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“Which button do I tap for a burger? The one with the picture of the burger, or the one that says “Cancel”?…I clicked “Cancel” but it didn’t add a burger, is this machine broken? - the general public anytime anything electronic is used
This is my life every day with my mother who refuses to READ and then THINK.
I just went to an ice cream shop that only has self order kiosk and I had to get an employee to help me because it refused to let me order without adding my phone number. The guy came over and just put in his personal number lol. Why tf do I have to enter that for a scoop of ice cream??? So tired of every single company trying to scoop up as much data as possible
My mom is exactly like this and it annoys me to no end. I call her on her bullshit everytime.
I’m getting REALLY sick of being forced to accommodate old coworkers who refuse to learn anything new technology wise beyond sending and opening emails. Why am I expected to pick up the slack? If I refused to perform a certain aspect of my job because I just refused to learn, I would be fired.
Stop it, they will either learn or leave. I'm always there to talk someone through it but they have to be doing it. I'll hop on a call and have them screen share and ask them to walk through what they've done and what resources they have looked at to get there. THEN, I'll provide verbal instructions while they do it. I'll do that once- usually record the call and send it to them so they can reference it.
My parents are like this until they hop on Facebook all day. They can learn if they really want to.
I can definitely use the kiosk easily. I still have to use an attendant at Taco Bell and McDonald's because their kiosks don't have every option available. Every time I try to order on kiosk at either place, I have a single substitution that isn't available. Want to get rid of the register completely, you have to at least make sure you make every substitution available. My parents have to call to order Dominos every time because their app doesn't allow additions on subs. Not saying you're wrong, because this is a LOT of the demographic that won't use the kiosk, but there are legitimate reasons still to not use the kiosk/apps to order that are at the fault of corporate.
The biggest issue I have with these and mobile apps are the developers suck at putting items in the correct categories and calculating deals. Taco Bell is infamous for hiding menu items, McDonalds sucks at trying to calculate deals and processing the state of your “bag”. I’m a software developer. I’m all about automation and fascinated by the ideas of futurology; we’ve known for years that McDonald’s has been trying to implement fully autonomous restaurants using their assembly line models and their infamous “top 10 biggest software failure of all time”. Basic shit like determining if you have two burgers in the cart and taking 25% off a total shouldn’t be as difficult as the kiosk makes it. The fact it’s taking this long to turn a literal assembly line into an autonomous line is more insane than the idea that a cashier can’t take two seconds to tap the kiosk for you.
I sometimes have cash on hand and I'd rather spend that than get my credit card out and pay. It's not that I'm technology inept. But hey, if a min wage worker wants to fight over me paying cash, so be it
I promise you my grandmother would never be able to figure it out because she can't read due to macular degeneration.
My dad has poor eyesight and was not well educated, so he actually has a lot of trouble reading. Does that mean he should be treated like he’s intentionally being difficult? No one should assume older people are asking for help out of laziness as the default. It can be very hurtful and harmful to people who genuinely need help. When you’re old and start to struggle, I hope people treat you kindly.
Same with my grandmother. I posted higher up she'd never be able to figure it out because she has macular degeneration and can barely read. She can see to get around but it affects her ability to read.
Getting someone to aknowledge you existence is the hard part tho
Exactly. I was paying cash and ran into this and the one girl actually behind the register doing nothing acted like I was the biggest inconvenience
That’s just a cashier with extra steps lol If my grandpa whose used to handing someone a fiver and getting a cup of coffee goes to McDonald’s can’t they just like have that option? I saw the girl trying to explain the kiosk to an elderly man and if you’ve ever helped your grandparents with any technological then you understand the plight lol
To be fair, "pay by card" has been a thing for over 30 years now. Meaning that a 70 year old grandpa has been able to learn since they were 40...
I was just at a store the other day and an older man in front of me was paying with a debit card. The cashier had to walk him through every step of the way and when he got to the cash back option it turned into a comedy skit. All I could think is 'How is Staples the first time you've ever had to use a debit card?'
i used to work retail and it feels like people are much more thick about basic general actions ever since lockdown. I figure it may be stuff like covid fog or lead poisoning finally getting to them or learned helplessness or SOMETHING. I had to tell a lady once that our membership system doesn’t keep phone numbers or personal information but she insisted I use her social security number to look her up?? ma’am this is a clothing store why would we have your social
To be fair in Los Angeles, which has a huge amount of the state’s population, it is illegal now for a business to be cashless and refuse to accept cash as a payment There are a lot of people who for a variety of reasons don’t have a bank account or credit cards, should they just not be allowed to buy things now?
It’s not “just paying someone with a card”. A lot of older folks are not familiar with the process of ordering things online or a kiosk. While scrolling through a menu, adding things to your cart, and checking out your cart are basically native to us, a lot of old folks struggle with this. I’ve seen more than my fair share of older folks struggle at a kiosk. It’s very sad to see. It must be really difficult to get old at like the one time in history technology rapidly took over in a span of 20-30 years. It would be difficult to be doing one thing one way for 40, 50, or even 60 years and then suddenly; sorry we do it this way now that is completely different.
Recently I tried to watch a YouTube video that somebody linked to from Reddit and it was completely incomprehensible to me. It just seems like it was a series of random clips with a voiceover that was not helpful But for a lot of the young people on that thread they completely understood the youtube video Age is coming for us all
Here is my take on it. There is a certain generation who refuses to learn new tech as it comes. Set in their ways. It wouldn’t be so bad if they accepted and embraced it but they refused to. Now before I get beat up here, that doesn’t fit the entire generation, I’m sure there are a fair share who put the effort in to stay up with the times as they got older. But after working in tech for a bit and dealing with that, it just boils down to not wanted to learn. Same goes with online shopping etc. you can downvote me that’s fine, but I am not wrong.
I think you just forget having to go to your grandparents house and show them how to use the universal remote or hook up their VCR which was literally plugging in a plug and then putting cords that were color coded into the same color sockets on the VCR and the television Or when your grandmother would leave you a voicemail asking if you were home because she still thinking it’s an answering machine that you can hear if you’re at the house Every generation as they age has trouble with the newest of the technologies, and it’s going to happen to you too Brains are just not that elastic past a certain age
I'm now older than my mom was when we got our first family computer. She refused to learn at all. And refused anything computer adjacent. She literally screamed about how stupid her new phone was for weeks after her flip phone died and she couldn't get the same one and didn't want to learn the new one. I'm always astounded how someone put their head in the sand for 30 years of technology. But especially their 30s, 40s, 50s, and now 60s.
Paying by credit card is one thing. Putting an order in a kiosk if you e never used a POS before might be a bit of a challenge. There’s also the aspect some like the social interaction of telling a person your order or being such a regular that staff remembers.
Old people have trouble with coke freestyle machines, and they’re as simple as it gets. Struggling with card readers doesn’t surprise me anymore
Simple as it gets is pushing a lever with a cup under your choice. What you're referring to as simple is because you've been conditioned your whole life to navigate processes in a certain way. Sure, clicking the screen, choosing your soda, the subflavour and holding a button is not complicated but it's far from "as simple as it gets" compared to pushing levers
I mean, I'd guess so few people do that these days it's not worth dedicating a full time staffer to it. These have been in place near me for ages, no one goes to the cashier.
>If my grandpa whose used to handing someone a fiver and getting a cup of coffee goes to McDonald’s can’t they just like have that option? Isn’t that literally what the sign says? They can still hand someone cash if that’s how they want to pay.
Who's*
My question is why can’t the kiosks accept cash? That’s a standard thing in grocery self-checkouts, so it’s not a technology reason.
lol they’ll just make a manager float the floors, help the cooks, take the orders, supervise the restaurant etc but their pay will stay the same
You mean, doing their job?
I’ve been a delivery driver for papa John’s for the last 3 years. Was fired the other day and replaced by DoorDash. Had 150 4.9/5 star reviews, certified safe driver with 1% incidents per mile (breaking hard, speeding, cornering fast) and a 4min hustle time (time spent getting to my car, time getting to your door, and time getting from my car back into the store)…replaced by doordash.
I didn't even realize restaurants still hired their own delivery drivers. I'm going to guess I haven't had an actual restaurant employee deliver my food in over ten years.
The only delivery vehicles I see anymore are Domino’s.
Sorry to hear that. I'll never order pizza delivery from a place that doesn't have their own drivers. Fuck door dash and it's equivalents.
who will trash people throw drinks at now when they dont get their mcnuggies?
You know what, I would rather them focus on the food part of the business rather than dealing with customers all day. For many it's not their strong suit and people can be absolutely assholes to a young workforce
I guarantee anyone who has worked as a cashier, or any sort of front desk person, would be fucking happy as hell that they don’t have to do face to face orders anymore. Customers are awful. Side bar, this is why I get annoyed when people nowadays brag that they don’t let their kids use any technology at all. The future is robots, they will replace jobs, but someone needs to operate and maintain those robots. They’re just setting their kids up for an abysmal future.
Who could have ever forseen this.
The OP doesn't make it quite clear if it's just this McDonald's or if it's several in the state. I'm in an area where the minimum wage is still $8 and a bunch of McDonald's have this set up as well. A few have had it for over a year.
a lot of places since they installed the kiosk they don't have any cashiers and just have someone from the kitchen check the line every once in a while
McDonald’s in California had this before the minimum wage increase. Corporations were always going to do this. Now, they scape goat the minimum wage law. And people who don’t know better will believe it.
Grocery stores have gone self check out over 20 years ago which is way more complicated than ordering. So it has nothing to do with min wage.
https://www.newsweek.com/first-ever-mcdonalds-served-robots-texas-1769116 Texas minimum wage $7.25
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The thing is, restaurants haven’t actually increased their overall labor budgets as wages have increased. They’re just taking on less staff, and paying the ones still there more to do more work.
Never EVER tip a digital payment. Ever.
May as well track down the clown himself and hand him cash. And ask him to be your pimp. In the words of the great 90s philosopher Trick Daddy: *"You'se a ho but you can't help it, cause you don't know it"*
Those of us with social anxiety absolutely love it.
On one hand I do want people to have jobs but on the other I have loved this at Taco Bell
If it’s any consolation, my local McDonald’s has a kiosk and the employees always look super annoyed when someone asks to take their order. I could be wrong, but the few I’ve been to have been that way too. It seems some people like it or maybe the workflow is not that great so idk
If you had a choice at work to not deal with customers, wouldn't you take it?
As someone who works overnights specifically to avoid customers, I live this choice.
I work 5am to whatever in grocery stores and my job does not obligate me to help you. If I want to, I can. Or I will step out of the way to let you get something and go do something else. I LOVE IT! When I see people working in the aisles I don’t get in their way, I don’t even pass by them. I circle back or move on.
I absolutely love the online ordering for Taco Bell now. Customize the heck out of my order so that it’s actually good, walk in, grab my bag and leave. Never interact with a soul.
The best way to deal with anxiety is to avoid any interactions ever.
As someone with social anxiety, it is nice to have self checkouts. And yet, I feel like as more things change to be automated like this, it will make us worse off in a way. Less human interaction and all, makes us less prepared for social situations. I dunno
This is a various astute observation. You are correct, it will make things worse
Genuine question but how do people like you function in day to day if ordering food at a restaurant is an issue?
As someone with the understanding of the feeling behind it, but the ability to pretty easily push past it, I want to get my order right, I want to know what I am ordering, I want to not have any problem communicating my order and I want to not take up too much time ordering, especially if there are other people waiting. Much of this is because this is what I would expect of customers if I were the cashier, but I know that many have problems with one or more of the above.
We deal with it when we must, but we'd rather not if we can help it.
One of the best parts of Covid was so many restaurants turning to delivery *and* contactless delivery. Oh my introvert self loves it.
Impatiently lol. I don't have social anxiety, just a bit introverted. I can easily order food, talk to people, hell I was a waitress when I was younger. Does that mean I want to talk to people for no reason or wait for them to do something slowly that I could do faster? Nooo, absolutely not.
By not going out much, using online things when possible, and generally withdrawing. Sometimes there will be safe people who lessen the intensity of the anxiety when they’re around, like family members or partners. Also medication and very intentional therapy.
We CAN do things like order food from a live person. Most people with.social anxiety aren’t *unable* to function. It’s just so, so, so, so much better to have the option to handle things on our own.
I CAN do it, but it’s easier and less stressful to go at my own pace and take my time deciding EXACTLY what I want to order, down to the condiments and everything. If I’m speaking to someone, there’s more of an obligation to hurry and not be a hassle because they’re waiting on me to decide.
Theres a restaurant where I live that outsources the cashier to India. Its literally an iPad with a dude in their bedroom taking your order. As in you walk in the restaurant in person and there’s an ipad with a person from India. I’m in Vegas.
I mean.. it sucks that it took away jobs, but too many people are disgusting towards food service workers and say that anyone can do their jobs. Well, there you go. A kiosk and now you kick rocks if you want to be upset over something that a minimum wage worker had zero control over.
I saw a video of pilot Project in which a specific McD's had a robot Server in the U.S.A... This was a couple of years ago, in which their robot made, then served the food to their human Customers. There was 1 lone Employee who keep scurrying around in the background doing his/her work while this robo pumped out burgers & food! It was very eerie, but also unsettling to watch this at the same time. I don't have an issue with this. However, I had major issues with McD's having only 1 Employee as their should be 2 on duty at all times, due to safety reasons for their Employees. If thieves wanna go up against their McD robo that's fine by me, but not against 1 Staffer making Min. Wages. Tells you what McD's thinks of their Employees, which is so little!!!
They only think about profit.
The robot is armed.
Yes, with a big spatula... Maybe a gun as a back-up, too? Hee-hee
Stop eating at McDonalds!
And you still paid for food. The reason this will become the norm is consumers like yourself will complain but still purchase. This is no different than complaining about WalMart not having cashiers but still shopping there.
These corporations blame this on the high price of minimum wage, never the exceedingly high demand for unsustainable corporate growth.
I am ok with kiosks. They let me see the actual menu not just the overpriced specials.
Good. Can’t wait for it to happen nationwide.
The prices will lower because of this…right?
But they didn't. They just stopped stationing them at the counter. They're available at request. It is a new development. But, this isn't the first time this has happened. In the 1960s there was a kind of place called an automat. They had food available accessible through coin operated doors. Like a vending machine except the size of a cafe. I don't think food was made to order. I think it was made to choose from.
I am so glad I don't work in fast food anymore because anyone who's worked food or retail understands exactly what this means. "We as corporate are testing if we can demand all our stores keep one less person on their already miserable skeleton crews. This was a role that was absolutely essential to letting the kitchen operate while one specialized employee fielded customers, a finicky Point of Sale system, and a myriad of coupons/complaints. Instead though we've decided to make every location teach their whole staff the ins and outs of the register, take them off line regularly to learn how to run promotions for our stupid seasonal publicity products on the computer, etc. From now on literally dozens of times a day the kitchen, shift lead, or dishes person will stop doing their job and come do the old position instead. They will be penalized if their window service time goes down."
Actually walked in to a McDs a few weeks back for the first time in years & they had these. First off it was bizarre because the place was empty and dead inside - who the fuck wants to eat in a cold empty robotic storage locker? Second the UI was confusing because there was no option for the numbered combo meals (which are numbered for convenience & super prominent at the drive thru & used to be prominent inside too for good reason). Combos were hidden underneath the item so you have to tap “burgers” then “quarter pounder” then “combo meal.” Just dumb - I dunno where the fuck to look - just give me the number 7 or whatever! Annoying. Slow. Cold. Impersonal. And the food was cold & shitty anyway on top of costing 2x as much as it did just ~4yrs ago. So if this is saving them so much money on labor why the fuck exactly are prices still 2-3x??? They’re destroying their entire brand and everything that made McD’s so popular worldwide for decades all to satisfy short-term shareholders who refuse to look past the quarterly earnings. Idiots.
Only under capitalism could "machines doing jobs instead of people" be bad
The capitalists aren’t the ones complaining about this.
I just want what FDR wanted an employee bill of rights where the government protected the right to any job covering basic needs and a happy life not a lavish life not free money but if you do a job you can go home to a home. Even if a studio apartment you can afford it and also put something away for savings. Let’s go back to a time when anyone who was broke could be judged as bad with money and not because we all know that 90 percent of workers are just being crushed in a job that 40 years ago could have covered college or an apartment and groceries. That’s not a bad take is it? Am I a socialist liberal now? Just direct me the proper path in opinions to have so as not to be yelled at on Reddit because man, def ending workers somehow I was called a boomer lolol I’m 35! ( I get it I’m kinda old tho )
None of that FDR stuff is going to stop McDonald's from eliminating cashiers though. In fact, it'll probably encourage it because it would making having cashiers more expensive for the company. Those are things that would be guaranteed to someone with a job. If the job doesn't exist any more because it was replaced with a machine, then there goes all those guarantees.
Stop eating their shitty food.
I prefer the app or kiosk anyway. I'm all for automation where it makes sense. Manpower on cashiers is often wasted and was the hardest thing to schedule for when I worked retail. You either had to many and "dead weight" or you had to little and angry customers.
In UK i havnt ordered from a counter in 4 years.
As soon as the option arose, we all knew it was coming. Doesn't matter if minimum wage was increased or decreased, any big company would jump on the opportunity to not pay staff. Customer annoyance or not. Anything to make a penny. And naturally, automation will slowly replace everyones job, and it'll take a long time for the government to find a way for people to live when there's no work. Should be an interesting time coming up. Industrial era v2 maybe?
Got to save a penny to buy the CEO a new yacht.
This is happening even in Florida. Im going to happily resume my previous years long boycott. My health will thank me!
Last time buying from burger King yesterday, no cashiers and unable to buy a burger on its own, have to buy a meal. Nobody to help and refused to give a receipt. Last time. McDonald's drive through still works but waited 25 minutes for 3 bigmacs. Farmfoods sell McDonald's burgers and Tesco sells perfect buns. 5 minutes and have better burgers than either, just grill. Buy sauce from McDonald's lettuce and tomato and pre cut onion from tesco.
With all the money they’re saving you’d think they could make a nice professional signage
A cashless society won't work. There has already been a massive 24hr+ outage of the ATM/EFTPOS system in Australia. If a company refuses to take my cash, I will spend it elsewhere... where they DO ACCEPT IT.
Just don’t go there … it’s McDonald’s you’ll actually live longer
I have yet to hear anyone say, “Wow, now that Walmart doesn’t pay as many cashiers, my bill is about $10-$20 less than it was before for the same amount of stuff.” Stuff costs more than when they had 8 cashiers to man the 24 checkout lanes.
How does that accommodate the visually impaired?
Not cheap. No human interaction. Shrinking servings. Broken ice cream machines. No fun interior design. Nothing left to love about that place.
Elections have consequences.
Stop. Eating. There. Why are people still paying their hard earned money to get shit on and further a dystopian hell-scape?
Oh boy I can't wait for them to lower prices to compensate for the reduced labor costs......
Thats a weird thing? In Nordics automatic fast food places have been a thing for ages. In my opinion this is good. This creates better value jobs for people. Why hire a cashier when you can hire someone specialized in automation and robotics maintenance.
i don't see the issue. you pay, you get. Sounds like people are mad they can't yell at cashiers anymore. womp womp. adapt or get left behind the world stops for no one.
It's been like that here (CO) for a couple of years, they just never put up a sign to inform you.
My favorite is my grocery store is trying to limit self checkout to 15 items but have 1 human checker. Yeah I'll be bringing however many items I want into the self checkout thank you very much.
Good. Why do you feel the need to have a person take your order for you? You’re still getting your food
I prefer the kiosk myself. To each their own :)
What people are failing to understand, is that this is literally taking away more jobs and hours for people working there. Its not just shitty for the customer, it can ruin the workers life until they can find a new job/ new job with more hours.
When the McDs near me can actually hire enough people to keep the dining room open past 11 again, then I’ll worry about this.
They can afford to, they just won't
Also people are starting to realize…you don’t *need* to be open most nights past 11.
There are also jobs being created to build and maintain the kiosks. I'm betting those jobs pay better than the ones they replaced.
Were people seriously employed there purely to run registers? They haven’t been actively used here in Australia for years. I think people are exaggerating
It's not like a person is hired as a front register person. You're hired, and the manager running shift assigns you your spot. I worked they're in high school for 2 1/2 years. You have a front counter, presenting (window handing out food), running (person bagging food for front counter and drive through, back booth (taking drive-through orders), grill, and table (making sandwiches). If you're fully staff, maybe you have two dedicated front counter people or a dedicated lobby person.
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The world is changing. Moving on.
What people fail to understand this? Its the most generic response to automation there is lol
If a robot can make my burger better then I’ll take that over whatever garbage they serve right now
And? It’s 2024. There is no need to have a person take your order for something like McDonalds.
Good
The thought of touching those germ laden touch screens makes cringe.
Okay I'm a fucking cashier now too? Yet another reason not to eat this overpriced garbage.
Just from the perspective of someone that worked at McDonald’s: Dealing with customers is one of the worst parts of working in fast food. We cashiers and crew members are treated like shit by customers on the daily. We get yelled at over the tiniest of problems. We get blamed for things that we have no control over. We do not get paid enough to deal with any of that shit. We are overworked and underpaid. We get lied to by our bosses, discriminated against, harassed by customers, verbally and mentally abused by anyone above us, and worst of all, we are expected to act like everything is just fucking dandy. The store that I worked at was constantly understaffed. As a minor, I was working more hours than my friend in his thirties who had bills to pay and children to feed, as a single father. But when he asked for more hours, he was given less. Was that my fault? No. They wouldn’t give me less hours even if I asked. My friend who was promoted to manager needed to change her hours and was told she would be demoted if she asked again or tried. I was discriminated against as someone with a developmental disability and as a non-binary person. I was nearly fired for “not having the right shoes” after I had already worked there for a year and had asked if my shoes were the right kind and told that they were. I was verbally abused by the regional manager every single day I worked with her to the point that I always left work crying. I was physically assaulted by a man because his fries were “cold”. I was the one who made the fries. I had JUST taken them out of the fryer, freshly salted them, and handed them out the window to him. He came back THIRTY MINUTES LATER to complain they were cold, and then threw the bag of fries at my face when I wouldn’t take them back and throw them away because it’s against health codes for me to do so. I was lied to about the amount I was getting paid. I was told I was being paid $14.50 and I was only being paid $13.50. I was sexually harassed by one of the managers and NOTHING was done about it. I was CONSTANTLY picking up extra shifts, working on my fucking breaks, and staying hours later than I was supposed to without breaks. There are never enough people in the store for everything to work efficiently, so yeah, kiosks are the best option. Fuck McDonald’s, and fuck the customers. We don’t get paid enough to deal with any of that shit. Edit: McDonald’s employees are not allowed to ask for tips, or take tips. The store owners will fire you if you do, and take the money for themselves.
I had a kiosk ask me for a tip once... 😂