KIosks are NOT taking jobs It turns out

McDonald’s touchscreen kiosks were feared as job killers. Instead, something surprising happened

McDonald’s touchscreen kiosks are explained as having surprising and unintended results such as “labor redistribution”. This is probably the first article for this fellow on kiosks and we are surprised he didn’t touch on robotics. All in all, it is a nice article, though. For reference, McDonald’s first trialed kiosks in Denver in 2001 (see kiosk history). Also thanks to Aaron Kurland (Consulting Specialist) for reminding me. It’s been a long time since the Kanji website for Northwest Airlines Japan….

Worth noting: recent news has McDonald’s “to experiment with cash”. We showed pictures of the new Mcdonald’s here in Colorado in February 2024 of the new cash iteration. See McDonalds Counterless with only Self Order Kiosks (with Cash too). Note that the kiosks/etc are provided and supported by Diebold Nixdorf, often highlighted as a major kiosk manufacturer. Fact is they buy and resell kiosks from Pyramid Computer and it says so right on the serial numbers on the backside.

Couple of points:

Nice of them to use photos of McDonald’s kiosks made by Pyramid Computer (to be fully accurate Diebold white labels and sells to McDonalds)
Mentions unintended consequences of NOT replacing workers?
- Yes, more orders require a more efficient kitchen.
- Typically, during remodel improvements are made to the drive-thru as well for increased thruput
- Delivery is a new channel that has been added, and yes, that complicates things but not due to kiosks
- Obviously, mobile channels and marketing have been expanded usually at the same time for a concerted campaign
- In the McDonalds we have seen the counter personnel are no longer stuck behind the counter but instead take on concierge mode.
Panera was a leader in revamping their kitchens prior to expanding channels and fact is McDonald’s does the same. In 2015 Panera introduced Panera 2.0. McDonalds copied their Delivery To The Table later. Increased capacity must be in place as more ordering options are deployed and as employees are redistributed. We noted in 2024 at California Fish and Grill that over 70% of instore sales are via the touchscreen kiosks. And generally the orders are 10% larger at minimum (Kiosk Solutions – Future Proofing Kiosks with Frank Olea)
Yes, McDonalds is experimenting with cash. McDonald’s experiments with everything by the way (Voice order e.g.)…
McDonald’s is still struggling with its McFlurry.
Standing in line causes street. Generally, it’s poor placement, yet typically, it just takes one person to exit the line and order from a kiosk to have those counter lines reform behind the kiosks. See Real Life – Some People Still Stand in Line rather than Order From A Kiosk
People like their habits — kiosks give them a chance to personally explore other options. I always indicate NO SALT and how many pickles I want.

Our Take — Overall, self-service is designed for burst capacity and more and more as the primary order channel. What it allows retailers like McDonalds to do is to granularize their labor/operational buckets into fewer segments. For example, getting rid of the typical order counter with its multimillion-dollar menu board system and software.

Workers at restaurants and supermarkets have a lot more to fear from automation and robotics in the drive thru, the kitchen and in the back warehouse of Krogers. Last week Chipotle debuted new robotic avocado peeling automation. Nice writeup in LA Mag.

And as cameras and lidar go in to monitor customers, guess what, they will monitor employees too.

Blaming kiosks for mobile orders is stretching it albeit many pay at the kiosk using their mobile.

Credit — Original article by Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Published 9:27 AM EDT, Fri September 20, 2024

Here are the key points:

Impact on Jobs: Contrary to initial fears, kiosks have not replaced workers but shifted their roles to other tasks like maintaining the dining area and assisting customers.
Increased Sales: Kiosks help upsell items like milkshakes and fries, which employees might overlook during busy times.
Mixed Results: While kiosks can speed up orders and increase accuracy, they can also cause stress for customers and sometimes malfunction.
Labor Reallocation: The labor saved from kiosks is often reallocated to handle mobile orders and deliveries, adding complexity to restaurant operations.

McDonalds Kiosks From LinkedIn & Meyesohn

Self-service kiosks at McDonald’s and other fast-food chains have loomed as job killers since they were first rolled out 25 years ago. But nobody predicted what actually happened.

In one of the earliest mentions of kiosks in fast-food settings in 1999, now-defunct trade industry publication Business Information said that McDonald’s was working to “develop an electronic order-taking system that may eventually replace some of its human equivalents.”

Instead, touchscreen kiosks have added extra work for kitchen staff and pushed customers to order more food than they do at the cash register. The kiosks show the unintended consequences of technology in fast-food and retail settings, including self-checkout. Chains are now experimenting with artificial intelligence at drive-thru lanes, and the experience with kiosks holds lessons for them.

Today, instead of replacing workers, companies deploy kiosks to transfer labor to other tasks like handing off pickup orders, help increase sales, easily adjust prices and speed up service. (Many chains, including Subway, Chick-fil-A and Starbucks, don’t use them much or at all.)

“In theory, kiosks should help save on labor, but in reality, restaurants have added complexity due to mobile ordering and delivery, and the labor saved from kiosks is often reallocated for these efforts,” said RJ Hottovy, an analyst who covers the restaurant and retail industries at data analytics firm Placer.ai. Kiosks “have created a restaurant within a restaurant.”

More McDonald’s Kiosk Articles

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