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.
I’ve known these for about… 4 or 5 years? I guess. Not much of a fast food client.
But these work. These really work. Less hands on the front, less confusion to deal with, the order goes from the customer hands to the kitchen: if something goes wrong with it, you fumbled it. And with less hands on the front, more hands can be in the back, preparing the cholesterol bombs.
You’re making the bold (and wrong) assumption that the people making the order are completely infallible…i still have to go back and get them to make my actual order quite often. As soon as you deviate from default, there’s a huge risk they mess up.
I’ve been ordering deviations of the standard menu since I was introduced to McD in my teens and ever since I started paying for my own food I don’t really order basic menus but instead mix and match to my wims for the moment. I’m weird.
Can not remember ever getting a wrong order but I’m also aware my local McD has less items on the menu than, per comparison, the one from the US market.
So, perhaps a combination of luck and good service on my part?
It really depends what you’re regularly ordering, how busy it is, what modifications you made, and location.
Like say, you wanted a quarter pounder but you wanted the dehydrated onions instead of slivered. Good chance that gets messed up. Ketchup no mustard (or vice versa), also a good chance it gets messed up (due to muscle memory).
What?!
We don’t get that here. Ketchup comes on packets on the side and your sandwhich either comes with or without sauce. No mustard.
Dehydrated onions sound nice but not in a McD.
Less choice, better service, I’ll risk.
What country? The more you say the less it sounds like you’re talking about an American McDonald’s.
Portugal, my good friend
If you’ve regularly had great experience… never ever have McD’s in the USA.
Dehydrated onions are the onions they use (at least in the US) for like cheeseburgers, hamburgers, and Big Macs.
Come over and taste ours.
Fresh onions, tomato and iceberg salad on almost every burger. Too much pickles, unfortunately.
But I would be a very poor host if I was to receive you in my country and treat you with McD. That is food you get to break the norm, not something you have daily, unless you are planning for a premature demise of your tasting buds.
And high cholesterol.
They’re next. Soon enough you’ll walk into a fast food restaurant and the only employees will be a maintenance man and a janitor. Everything else will be automated.