A continuation of a long trend

Reader comment on: Restaurant Self-Order Kiosks

Submitted by Lyle (United States), May 6, 2014 16:28

Way back in the early 1970s orders at fast food places were tallied on order sheets of actual paper and the order taker had to generate a total which may or may not have had much relationship to reality. Then they replaced the pad with what amounts to a touch pad, where the cashier punches the buttons. Of course this generates a line if someone has to spend time making up their mind. It is not much of a stretch to replace the 1 manned station with a set of kiosks and eliminate the waiting, as well as make a smart phone app as well.

But then I recall going back to the mid 1960s stopping at a midwest food chain that took orders over a local only phone (essentially an inside store pbx, sort of like driveins used back then) , They dropped the check off with the food. No waiter needed until the food was delivered. If you add that to the move for self service drinks which has been around for a good while in fast food, (since soda became so cheap relative to people). the trends to reduce the human contact needed for an order have been around for a long time. The reall point is no matter what the minimum wage, it costs money to have a person taking orders, so why not do away with that person. (Or put as I like to put it Silicon based employees are much better than Carbon based employees, you just provide them electricty and they do the job.)


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Other reader comments on this item

Title By Date
⇒ A continuation of a long trend [261 words]LyleMay 6, 2014 16:28
Minimum Wage is great for IT... [103 words]Rich HandMay 6, 2014 17:21
The True Minimum Wage [6 words]L NettlesMay 10, 2014 16:03

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