I' m eating the last meal I will ever eat at McDonald's. Just walked

[sinkingfeeling]

into my local Micky D's to find they no longer have people at the counter to take your order! It's bad enough that they have muted Faux News on the one TV and that a couple of years ago they went from being a great place to have coffee and read the paper to a McCafe. The remodel put in the most uncomfortable seating they could find.
So now you have to use a touch screen to order and find a person to take your money unless you use a credit card.
I'm done.

[GentryDixon]

1. That's how it is at our closest McDonalds.

We stopped for coffee & pancakes for Mr Gentry, & it was all automated until it was served up. Very disturbing. The drive through is still people taking your orders. Not sure how long that will last. This is a McDonalds right off an interstate, so much of their traffic is most likely transient.

[pangaia]

2. Good for you. You will live longer.

How could you eat that stuff, anyway??

It is not meant for human consumption...

[Ohiogal]

26. Agree

I never eat that shit.

My son was a cook there for 3 years in high school and even he wouldn't eat that shitty food.

[tazkcmo]

28. That's "cook"

Nothing really gets cooked at McD's. It gets " cooked". No offense to your son.

[DFW]

3. Never heard of anything like it

Shows how long it's been since I was in the inside of a McD.

They have them over here, of course, but if there's the possibility of having a Döner or a Big Mac, no one in their right mind chooses the latter.

[Tipperary]

4. Yuck. I would not eat at one no matter how you pay.

If it is that important to you, maybe go to the drive-thru.

[lame54]

5. So, it wasn't the food?

[Coventina]

6. Wasn't this an episode of the X-Files?

[PoliticAverse]

8. Yes. That was a great episode (and the place had 0 employees).

[Aristus]

7. The one in my neighborhood has a sign posted that limits your time to 30 minutes.

"Shut up, eat up 'n' git out!" Our drill sergeants in Basic Training would shout that at us in the chow hall while we were eating. I guess McD's has the same policy.

Not that I'm interested in lingering or anything. I never go if I don't have to (read: when Mrs. Aristus wants a shake or a McFlurry).

I remember in the 80's, McDonald's made more of an effort to be like the neighborhood diner. At least at breakfast time. They had hostesses who would circulate through the dining area with coffee pots, refilling cups for customers; things like that. The mother of one of my schoolmates worked as a hostess.

I guess they don't do that anymore.

Some shit-for-brains, wet-behind-the-ears fuckhead with an MBA got hired at McDonald's and gave a Power Point about how much money the company could save by eliminating all the reasons people went there in the first place. "Basically turn the place into a vending machine with a street address, and watch the profits roll in!" he no doubt squealed to the board of directors.

[oberliner]

17. Do they enforce that?

We have the same sign and people still linger for hours (myself included). Never seen anyone asked to leave.

[Aristus]

18. I never wait around long enough to find out.

But once, a long time ago back in the 80's, I worked at McDonald's, and my manager once asked a homeless guy to leave. There was no one waiting for a table, the guy wasn't causing a fuss, and it was bitterly cold outside.

But 'get out' was the policy...

[oberliner]

19. That's pretty awful

[pangaia]

30. Jeeze, Oberliner, you eat at macdonalds?

I never would have thought that...

[oberliner]

37. Free AC, cheap coffee, interesting characters, free wifi

It's a great place to relax and shoot the breeze (or post at DU).

[pangaia]

39. Okay, "uncle."

[ailsagirl]

47. But...

their hamburgers are awful

[tazkcmo]

32. There's nobody to do it

And they haven't built a robot to do it. Yet.

[MicaelS]

22. Same thing with mine. n/t

[dembotoz]

24. couple local mc ds had a sort of senior breakfast club...like they took over the place

wonder if they still do....

wow that was a couple years back...used to hit the place for wifi....
until i got internet at home...yes that long ago......

[First Speaker]

9. Hear, hear! I've quit going to the one in New Haven...

...on Whalley Avenue. They started doing this shit, and I hated it so much I've quit going there. Thank God, the one down by the Post mall in Milford still has human beings taking the order...

[Generic Brad]

10. I can't even read their menu anymore

The moment I find something I may want on the menu, the screen changes to another set of menu options and pictures of food. I don't get the opportunity to look at prices, calories, ingredients. It is too frenetic.

I feel they are trying to make the drive through window more attractive and get us out of the restaurant.

The environment there is becoming less welcoming all the time.

[Kilgore]

11. Our Olive Garden is touch screen order and pay

The only person you see is the one who brings the food and refills drinks.

Everything is done through an ipad like device at the table.

[tazkcmo]

34. Do you still tip?

And if so, what percentage is your usual tip? Just curious. Thanks!

[Kilgore]

43. Yes

The person who brings out the food and fills the water glass get a tip based on the level of service. Always between 10 and 25 percent.

Once they go to robots performing those tasks, I'm done tipping. Probably eating out also.

[tazkcmo]

44. Thanks again

Do you tip less due to a reduction in service? I'm not referring to the level of quality but the level of quantity.

What I am envisioning is restaurant owners paying people $2.13 an hour to deliver food to the tables while customers tip less not because the service is bad but because they're just simply less of it. The result is another business model where they employer relies on the government providing assistance to its employees to make up the shortfall in their wages ala Walmart.

[Kilgore]

45. No

No reduction since the number of poeple is the same. Only the order taking and payment processing is automated.

Once robby the robot performs their tasks, there will be no tipping......maybe just a squirt of WD40

[tazkcmo]

48. Lol

WD40, ty for the laugh.

[kwassa]

12. You deserve a break today, so get up and get away, from McDonald's.

[lpbk2713]

13. What a sad commentary.

It's getting pretty bad when they make it where fewer people can even get McJobs any more.

[oberliner]

16. People still make the food

People still clean and maintain the restaurant.

[pangaia]

31. food? What food? Where?

[oberliner]

38. McDonald's is a fast food restaurant

[pangaia]

40. Now look here, Obie... I gotta warn ya. that ain't food.

Trust me. There is no food in the place.. But I do know people who like the coffee.... YOU !


THIS is food.

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x89c259031cfa96d1%3A0xb48caafcb427629c!2m22!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m16!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!2m2!1m1!1e6!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNh2mKGcRlXirX67ECjTevScaYQ-FeMgvJczNb2%3Dw132-h176-k-no!5ssushi%20yasuda%20-%20Google%20Search&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipObp2JDvpkAjxXHtZ0xTuMqryry7phf7IhEo2Ns&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwwMLS16HbAhUE8YMKHZheBI0QoioIyAEwCg

[Boomerproud]

20. You just nailed it.

Not even menial jobs will be available. I keep hearing about all of the millions of job openings available and no one to fill them (except people with 100,000.00 in student debt).

[malthaussen]

14. Well, that sucks.

So I guess if you want a burger without all the crap they pile on it, you're out of luck.

Horn and Hardart's used to have automats (Which is such an old term, the spell checker is telling me it doesn't exist). I guess this is the "new" trend for fast food?

-- Mal

[oberliner]

15. I love the touch screens!

Never have to wait in line or worry about them misunderstanding your order.

[Tipperary]

21. Honestly, this thread is a hoot. Fuddy-daddies who hate progress.

What do they do when they have to get gas? No gas attendants anymore. You have to use a touch screen. How about at the airport using a touch screen to get a boarding pass? ATM machines instead of going into the bank?

[MicaelS]

23. Oooh, good points. n/t

[dembotoz]

25. some touch screens do not like me

local bakers square have a business networking breakfast there.
at check out there is a touch screen with the credit card thing.
the tip screen...i push 20 percent it comes out 10 percent.
doesn't happen to other customers.....
been doing this breakfast for years with same waitress. No WAY IN HELL am i gonna give her only 10 percent.

the cashier (also there for years) now we have a system...i insert the card, she punches the numbers....looks odd but it works

i go quite often to the ball park....cellular company has a booth...answer some questions on a touch pad and get a free trinket.
The friend i go with (her season tickets) always has the get the free trinket....so she has her trinket and i am still only about a third way in pounding on the stupid touchpad like a toddler.......maybe i am really dead and only my hands have figured it out

[pangaia]

33. What I find interesting is all the folks here who actually EAT at that place,

and other fast food places and chains....

What do they do when they need 'food?'

After all, this is DU.. where, arguably, the best educated, intelligent people hang out.

[sinkingfeeling]

36. You mistake gizmos and technology for progress. Progress

is the betterment of humanity. Eliminating human interface isn't progress to me. Eliminating human employment isn't progress to me.

[crazycatlady]

46. Get gas in NJ

[LisaM]

27. All commentaries about the food aside, I hate this trend.

I first saw the touch screens at JFK a few years ago when I was getting breakfast. Now, I admit to being a little bit fussy about my food, but when I order over easy eggs, for example, I want to be sure they are cooked just the way I like them (really runny). At McDonald's, I don't want their pre-set meals because it's too much food. I don't like pouring my own soft drink, either.

I worked at McDonald's as a teenager, and I really liked it. It was fun, there were other young people I was friends with, it was an energetic workplace, and the pay was fine for a part time startup job (which is how I think they envisioned their work staff, not single mothers raising four kids). I'm sorry to see that this experience has vanished for young people.

I'm really sorry to see this trend and I hope you at least dropped them a line about it.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

29. Yup, how it is where I live... done with 'em.

[MarcA]

35. Recent incident at a service station where touch screen malfunctioned

for some customers. Guy inside could only push buttons on his screen
to try and get it to work; it didn't. Woman came out and Actually Manually
adjusted the pump payment mechanism and It Worked. When the push-button
world doesn't function, its good to have a person who does.

[Wolf Frankula]

41. I call it McDump

They don't serve hamburgers there, they serve bamhurgs. I don't call what they make food. It's cardboard.

Wolf

[hay rick]

42. LOL.

I get an afternoon cup of coffee at one of two McDonald's in my area. They each had kiosks installed after being remodeled. In both cases they had people come out to help customers order from the kiosks for the first couple days. They had at least two obvious problems. First, the kiosk menu and input system sucks. It took about 10 separate touchscreen touches for me to order a cup of coffee. Most customers weren't interested in learning to navigate for themselves so the kiosks were increasing labor costs, not reducing them. Second, I always pay in cash, so even if I ordered at the kiosk, they still had to take my money at the register. Bottom line: both stores reverted to letting customers order at the register.