All the McD*nalds in my area have been upgraded with order kiosks. Regardless of all the controversy around self-checkout, and minimum wage, and automation taking our jobs, I personally love them. I can take my sweet time composing my order, I can see the full selection (such as it is), I can see pictures and prices clearly without having to strain my eyes to read 12pt font on the tableau, and I don’t have to shout at the cashier to be understood or struggle to hear back. I really believe this is the right way forward.
My only complaint so far has been that the order kiosks only accept card. There is actually a way to pay by cash that the machine never lets you know about - you have to press “cancel” on the keypad when it asks to insert card, and then the screen gives you an order number to give to the human cashier (each store still has one register open) so you can pay in cash. So I still have to wait on line, but at least my order selection is locked in, I can have exact change ready, and there isn’t usually a line anyway anymore.
I know all yall Europeans are proud about your nearly total transition to cashless economy or whatever, and you like to boast how not a single euro banknote has graced the inside of your wallet in months. However I personally like cash, and I genuinely believe that a cash payment system is a necessary element of a liberal democracy and secure society. So at least understand my pleasant surprise when I saw these reverse-ATM cashboxes at this restaurant. They work and were being actively used too! (It spat out my dollar coins though, those bastards!) I hope they find their way into more places.
In a just society these would be allowed to relieve all cashiers from their positions to pursue their passions.
But we must slave away to justify our existence because a few rich fucks don’t want to share and established that mindset as the cornerstone of society.
I just wanted to wail into the void about automation and how our loves could be so much better if people would just lose the chains already.
Yup yup! In a just world, if you have 100,000 workers at a factory, and then they get replaced by robots maintained by 1000 robot technicians, you should have ended up with a Star Trek utopia where 99,000 people now don’t have to work and can pursue culture and passions. In the real world, the factory product price gets halved, the technicians get paid 10x what a worker used to get (20% of total revenue), and the factory owner gets 80% of total. The former workers are now jobless, homeless, and penniless and can’t afford the product they used to make.
They tell us “Replacing jobs is OK! We’ll invent more new kinds of jobs, as old obsolete jobs free up labor. Everyone will be better off!” but the new jobs are mostly “telemarketer”, and “tech support scammer”, and “ornamental hermit” at factory owner’s mansion.
But all that still doesn’t convince me we should be smashing the robots as a job protection scheme. I wish there was a way to keep the automation and have the Star Trek utopia instead!
I miss the early days of the internet when I was dreaming of gay luxury space communism.
I’m thinking of printing some calling cards with the title of Ornamental Hermit.
Or does one just put up a sign?
Out of all the positions at fast food restaurants, cashier seems to most appealing to me.
Enjoy!
https://www.delish.com/food-news/a25337533/mcdonalds-touchscreen-fecal-bacteria/
Test Finds McDonald’s Touchscreens Are Covered in Fecal Bacteria
https://www.fatherly.com/news/study-fecal-bacteria-mcdonalds-touchscreen
https://www.newsweek.com/mcdonalds-touchscreen-machines-tested-have-fecal-matter-investigation-finds-1234954
Etc
Welcome to pretty much every public surface.
Now let me tell you how many of the guys at your business meeting today washed their hands between their last toilet use and shaking your hand.
So underpaid and overworked entry level laborers aren’t cleaning them to sterile perfection. Oh no. Shocker
Counter point: if the screen is covered, what makes you think the door handle those same hands are touching is sanitary? What about the table and chair you’re sitting at? Other people sit there too, do you really think those tables are getting wiped down after every single patron leaves?
This is why we wash our hands before we eat.
Your mom is covered in fecal bacteria.
I occasionally deliberately put a capsule filled with fecal bacteria in my mouth and swallow it and it makes my pooping better.
You’re going to eat McDonalds food.