Fast food workers strike for more money.
They also want to unionize.
For an industry that has already been taking hits due to more competition, and a bigger desire for healthy food options, this is exactly what it needs...
The Fast Food Strike
Especially when you consider that over half the jobs could easily be replaced by turning around the touch screen to face the customers and adding an automated money-taking routine to the process. Any small across-the-board increase would make this option cost effective.
The kitchens could be automated, too, but the expense would be higher. Double the minimum wage, though, and kitchen automation starts to look equally attractive.
Edited By TPRJones on 1377876498
The kitchens could be automated, too, but the expense would be higher. Double the minimum wage, though, and kitchen automation starts to look equally attractive.
Edited By TPRJones on 1377876498
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
Especially when you consider that over half the jobs could easily be replaced by turning around the touch screen to face the customers and adding an automated money-taking routine to the process.
No, we've got that kind of shit at the supermarket. Unless you receive certification to use those things properly, fuck that noise. Most people are simply too dumb.
"You're trying to go up and you're just going down," said protester Shantel Walker, 31, of Brooklyn who makes $7.25 working at a Papa John's in Manhattan. "All of us are in the same financial crunch. We're trying to take care of our families and our livelihood."
You really thought a lifetime job at a pizza joint was going to allow you to support yourself, let alone others?
Workers are demanding that the $200 billion fast food industry more than double starting salaries to $15 an hour from the current $7.25 an hour minimum wage and the $8.94 median wage for front-end workers.
Not. A. Fucking. Prayer.
Other defenders of the industry note that increased wage costs will be passed onto consumers.
Yep.
"The South has always been the model for low wage employment, from slavery to the Jim Crow laws, to the present," said Dorian Warren, an assistant professor of political science at Columbia University who has published work on labor organizing and inequality. "It's also the most anti-union part of the country, so the fact that workers feel empowered enough to take collective action is enormous."
Yeah, those railroads in the north were planted and just grew up from the soil one day.
"The workers are responding to total failure on behalf of the federal government to raise the minimum wage to keep up with inflation and the cost of living," Gebreselassie said.
Whoa, that's their job?
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm wrote:Especially when you consider that over half the jobs could easily be replaced by turning around the touch screen to face the customers and adding an automated money-taking routine to the process.
No, we've got that kind of shit at the supermarket. Unless you receive certification to use those things properly, fuck that noise. Most people are simply too dumb.
There is a chain of gas stations around here called "Sheetz" that has a grill inside, with a completely automated order entry system. I got food there once just because I wanted to use the order entry interface.... I don't remember it being TOO terrible. Apparently it is good enough that it can be used successfully in a chain of gas stations.
And personally, I love ordering pizza online so I KNOW the order is put in correctly, and not screwed up by a person over a phone. I would also love fast food places with the same option. If the order gets screwed up, it is by the person stuffing the bag, and not the added layer of stupid person at order entry time. Unless that stupid person is me. Which it wouldn't be.
Edited By GORDON on 1377882467
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
The problem is people don't understand how the machine verifies their items (by weight). Understanding what "taring" a scale means is pretty useful, too. They scan something, don't set it on the scale, put it back in their carts, then wonder why the machine won't let them scan another item. Fucking idiocy. If the store would set aside more than one clerk to handle the real time tech support required, then maybe. Hell, most of the time, those fuckers aren't even around. UPC codes not entered in databases, handling products that have to be keyed in by code as opposed to scanning, it's beyond the technical ability of many patrons. Maybe in another twenty years when all the old and middle-aged finally give up trying to use them, they'll be faster.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Well, now you're talking about grocery stores. I hate those automated checkout thingies, because I am lazy and I want a fucking cashier to scan my fucking items and put them in a fucking bag. I sure don't get reduced costs when I do all that my damned self.
But automated order entry at a restaurant... I told my restaurant-owning mother 6 years ago when she opened up that she should do that. Of course, the amount of money she makes per week could never justify the cost of that system, but whatever.
But automated order entry at a restaurant... I told my restaurant-owning mother 6 years ago when she opened up that she should do that. Of course, the amount of money she makes per week could never justify the cost of that system, but whatever.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
I can handle the grocery store machines without trouble, and could write a pamphlet about how to get around the stupid weight verifier.
As for restaurants, that's another matter. Imagine sitting at a table at a pub and just swiping your CC into a machine installed there. Five minutes later, someone comes by with your drinks.
As for restaurants, that's another matter. Imagine sitting at a table at a pub and just swiping your CC into a machine installed there. Five minutes later, someone comes by with your drinks.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Yeah, exactly, that was how I was selling it. Peeps sitting around drinking, someone gets a desire for some wings.... waitress is busy... so fuck it, I'll just finish this beer and go. But no! Order entry on the table means the order is placed and paid for and getting cooked all within 45 seconds.
I love that idea.
Then the guy spills his beer on the system or is a bad drunk and smashes the screen with his mug, so year, not a perfect idea, yet.
I love that idea.
Then the guy spills his beer on the system or is a bad drunk and smashes the screen with his mug, so year, not a perfect idea, yet.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Then the guy spills his beer on the system or is a bad drunk and smashes the screen with his mug, so year, not a perfect idea, yet.
You can cover up everything except the CC input slot. Even that's negotiable if you drop your card at the bar on the way in. The interface can be an easily replaceable and cleanable keypad. Display output with a durable, transparent plastic screen. It doesn't have to be crystal clear; bar menus don't need HD, so you can sacrifice a bit of detail for a sturdier, break resistant screen.
Edited By Malcolm on 1377887010
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
But, who would get my order wrong and then look at me like I'm interrupting their life when I complain?TPRJones wrote:Especially when you consider that over half the jobs could easily be replaced by turning around the touch screen to face the customers and adding an automated money-taking routine to the process. Any small across-the-board increase would make this option cost effective.
The kitchens could be automated, too, but the expense would be higher. Double the minimum wage, though, and kitchen automation starts to look equally attractive.
It's not me, it's someone else.
GORDON wrote:Then the guy spills his beer on the system or is a bad drunk and smashes the screen with his mug, so year, not a perfect idea, yet.
Skip the in-table technology, just put together a small and simple web page that will take a CC order for food, design the site for viewing on a smartphone and make it so they click their table location as part of the process so you knew where to take the food.
Easy! And if anything gets busted up or soaked in beer, it's their own smartphone.
Edited By TPRJones on 1377886584
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
If you wanted to keep it intranet, set up an open wifi router with a custom gateway page for the food ordering. As added bonus you can offer free wifi to your patrons and also advertise the food on their way to the ineternet while you are at it. That would also keep random internet people from placing spurious orders, although with pre-payment by CC required that wouldn't be too much of a problem anyway.Malcolm wrote:I hate dragging the web in for things I could easily use an intranet for, although that mitigates a lot of the equipment overhead.
Sure not all smart phones have wifi capability, but the majority do.
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"