This fast food order kiosk accepts cash

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.

teamevil,

The McDonald’s kiosks are hands down the absolute fucking worst I’ve ever seen. With all the self checkout systems that work perfectly easily McDonald’s chose utter shite. I quit going just because of how shitty they are.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

All these people saying they don’t use cash… do you never buy weed? Jeez.

dlok,

This is going to sound like corporate shilling but the mcdonalds app is even better, it’s like your own personal ordering tablet that doesn’t have other people’s germs on it and you can even pre order and check in so they start preparing your food before you enter the building.

The rewards points are really generous too…

This is from a UK pov

TauZero,

Oh yeah, the app is probably even more convenient, especially with the pre-checkin, and the hygiene too, but there is no way I’m using that tracking bundle 😂. When I was born, nobody was counting how many burgers I was eating, and I’m not going to allow that to change. It’s a shame too because they hide all the actually good deals in the app, the ones that make eating there actually affordable, so I find myself not even going to eat there anymore. I feel like a rube paying the full price. Probably better for me in the long run anyway.

dlok,

Is that because you’re worried about costs of health insurance if they figure out what you’re eating? 😂

Luckily we free health care

Castelllan,

These reverse-ATM cashboxes Work really Well. I have Seen those in some grocery stores. At least in Germany you can actually choose to pay by card or by cash. If you choose to pay by cash you get your receipt and then pay by a cashier.

orbitz,

Last time I went to McDonald’s there was a mess up and I was given the cash difference, I really dunno when I’ll use it offhand. I’m also in Canada, never had a use for cash after recreational weed happened. Weird they make someone go through unknown keypressss to do cash, vending machines do cash why not just be convenient for customers? Oh right, paying people to deal with the cash, cause that’d hurt McDonald’s bottom line heh.

bob_wiley,
@bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Pika,

    I actually am on the opposite end of the spectrum, I think cash is pointless, it’s less secure, less authentic and prone to issues. Just make the swap to digital or cards, most checking or savings accounts are 100% free, there’s better protections involved, you don’t need to worry about breaking large bills, don’t need to worry about the shop not having change, easy to track as it’s super easy to just look at your transaction history. Balance is super simple, instead of needing to count the cash I can just pull up the account.

    It’s just easier. I think cash should be optional for establishments, it’s better for everyone involved both consumer and business.

    volvoxvsmarla,

    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.

    Tell me you’ve never been to Germany without telling me you’ve never been to Germany

    Thisfox,

    Yeah, very odd assumption that one.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    I’ve seen that on Lemmy many times. “I’m in Europe and we only have tap to pay and contactless pay and psychic powers to pay and it’s been that way for the last 700 years.”

    Krauerking,

    We really are just catering to a society of antisocial nerds that hate interacting with people and will destroy the jobs of all those they seem lesser than them huh?

    But don’t worry those people can go finger paint or something. See it’s kind and a utopia. Says the people that want this because they don’t have to pay or deal with others. Utopia. For sure.

    Honytawk,

    Well, better than forcing everyone to be social and have service people break down over yet an other arrogant karen who thinks they should get special treatment and doesn’t see service people as actual people but more like peons they are allowed to order around.

    Krauerking,

    Uhh no social contracts are how we keep society moving. People need to interact with other people to be reminded other humans and perspectives exist.

    This is exactly how we get all this NPC bullshit. Antisocial garbage like this seen as the better option by secluding everyone in their own micro reality. It only serves capitalism and the insane.

    JokeDeity,

    People get so fucking mad at me when I go up to the counter to order. I’m still going to do it. 🖕

    Anticorp,

    I’ll bet this is why McDonald’s was fine with the $20 minimum wage increase in California. They’ll just use kiosks that smaller places can’t afford, to offset the new labor charges. But then smaller places won’t be able to appeal to employees, since they will be paying less than half of what the chains pay. The result will be fewer actual jobs available, more pressure on small burger joints to shut down, and few people actually benefitting from the new wages.

    TauZero,

    They’ve been the most vocal opponent to $15 minimum wage increase in New York, which I’ve always found odd, since they’d be the ones to most benefit from it via competitive advantage, as you said, due to economies of scale. They’ve been making threats the entire time “We’ll replace cashier with computers! If you raise the wage, we’ll totally do it, you’ll see!” and I’m like “Dude, if you had the capability to do it, you gonna do it either way anyway, why you extorting us?”

    I guess the smaller competitor restaurants will need to get kiosks as well. They can’t develop their own in-house technology like the big chains do, but they can still purchase 3rd-party ready solutions, like all of them have already done with online ordering. Slightly more expensive to use 3rd party, but that’s economies of scale for ya.

    Anticorp,

    I wouldn’t call doing someone else’s job for free and upgrade.

    Drummyralf,

    Iceman as a job is now extinct thanks to freezer technology.

    Lamplighters are obsolete thanks to electricity and lightbulb technology.

    These are examples of forgotten jobs that used to exist, and noone bats an eye about them.

    Jobs come, jobs go.

    JokeDeity,

    That… That’s a terrible comparison. Go home.

    Drummyralf,

    Sitting home comfortably, thank you!

    Anticorp,

    Those are both examples of improvements. Self-checkout is not an improvement, it’s outsourcing of work to customers.

    Drummyralf,

    That’s a good point. My examples are pretty bad in that regard, I admit. I would still argue that jobs do come and go though. We have many jobs today that didn’t exist 40 years ago.

    About outsourcing work to costumers, I kindly disagree: I personally love self-checkout in my grocery store though. I see it as an improvement over standing in line, having to think which order to put stuff on the conveyor for optimal packaging (gotta put the heavy stuff first), still clogging up the conveyor after the cashier because you happen to have just enough bagspace, but only when you pack optimally, while 2 people look at you angrily because they now have to wait 5 seconds longer because your brain freezes over this stressful situation.

    No, this didn’t happen everytime I went grocery shopping at a cashier. But enough to see self scanning as a way more relaxing time.

    So for me, it’s not soing someones work, but rather that I, as the costumer, am in full control of the tempo and way I want to so things. But I understand not everyone feela the same way, and that’s ok.

    Anticorp,

    There’s always a line for self-checkout now too though, and you still need to consider what to package first. Ultimately it’s down to personal preference. There are a lot of people on this platform with social anxiety who prefer self-checkout. Personally I hate it, and everything it represents, but I understand why some people prefer it. As an express lane it’s pretty okay, but self checkout for an entire cart of products is bullshit.

    TauZero,

    This is a different situation than self-checkout at supermarkets. There yes you could argue a cashier who is experienced with scanning items all day and has access to a fully-featured POS can scan all your items faster and more efficiently than you could ever do on that locked-down self-checkout pos, and owners who take away cashiers are purely saving money at the expense of your time. But here you yourself have to communicate your order either way. I much prefer to browse at my leisure and tap at pictures rather than shouting my order 3 times while there is an impatient line behind me.

    Anticorp,

    To each their own I suppose. You’ll get your way on this one, since every checkout that can be automated eventually will be.

    TauZero,

    We can keep the supermarket cashiers, we just have to demand it. Always choose the full-service line, and complain loudly if there are not enough cashiers to keep the line short, scoff at any suggestion to use the self-checkout and demand to speak to a manager and corporate. As I said elsewhere, one person can only do so much, but when a million people keep doing it the mountain will have to move. I feel personally responsible for the installation of these cashboxes by insisting to pay in cash every single time for the past several years.

    Kolanaki,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    They haven’t had dedicated cashiers for years. These allow them to spend more time making food and less time dealing with taking orders and handling cash. That’s it. If anything, it makes the employees’ jobs easier without eliminating positions. Speaking as someone who worked at a McDonald’s before that has had these kiosks for years now.

    TauZero,

    How can you be sure it doesn’t eliminate positions? Is there some rule that states “every franchise must be staffed by exactly 8 people at all times”? Seems more likely to me the schedules will be adjusted until every worker is still occupied 100% of the time.

    I’d personally prefer to focus on making food too, but there could be others who actually prefer manning the register.

    Kolanaki,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    How can you be sure it doesn’t eliminate positions?

    Did you miss the very first sentence of my comment? They haven’t had a dedicated cashier position for a long time. Until that kiosk can also make the food, nobody is losing their job to it.

    TauZero,

    You really don’t see the difference between 5 people working, spending 80% of time making food and 20% floating at register, versus 4 people working 100% making food serving the same total number of customers now that registers have been nearly entirely replaced by kiosks and apps?

    Kolanaki,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    No. Because not only do they hire the bare minimum for the restaurant already (which yes, actually there are rules for; they’re set by corporate), the kiosks aren’t the only way to order. You can still go up to the counter and get a real person to come off the line and take your order. Nobody is floating around the register at all until a customer comes up to it to make an order. Again, these simply stop the need for anyone to stop cooking or doing literally any other more time sensitive tasks and take an order.

    TauZero,

    I don’t see why you are being so stubborn about this. If you don’t like the numbers I gave you because “you can still go up to the counter and get a real person” it’s an easy adjustment to make that tells the same story: before kiosks = 5 people working 75% at food and 25% at register, after kiosks = 4 people working 95% at food 5% at register. The conclusion is the same - your claim that automation does not eliminate positions is simply incorrect. I thought maybe you had some insider knowledge on mandatory staffing levels, but it seems you are just bad at math. Everyone else in these comments was arguing about jobs disappearing (not me! I only wanted to show off the cool cashbox) - it must have been really confusing to see all those people upset about something which you can’t even comprehend as a problem.

    Kolanaki,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    I don’t see why you are being so stubborn about this.

    Because it doesn’t fucking happen and your figures are entirely made up? You and everyone else claiming these have taken jobs clearly have never actually worked at a McDonald’s and are talking straight out of your asses.

    MonkRome,

    When I was traveling in South Korea they had these at some counter service and fast food restaurants. Since often people didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Korean they were immensely helpful. They had several languages and settings that made ordering so much easier. From an accessibility standpoint they are awesome.

    qyron,

    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.

    Grippler,

    if something goes wrong with it, you fumbled it

    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.

    Salamendacious,
    @Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

    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.

    qyron,

    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?

    CaptPretentious,

    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).

    qyron,

    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.

    JokeDeity,

    What country? The more you say the less it sounds like you’re talking about an American McDonald’s.

    qyron,

    Portugal, my good friend

    CaptPretentious,

    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.

    qyron,

    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.

    CaptPretentious,

    Too much pickles, unfortunately.

    Over here, you’d think there’s a damn pickle shortage. You get 2 or 3 of the saddest pickles you ever saw.

    qyron,

    Last time I had one, at some point I stopped to check where the pickle ended and the patty began. It was really hidden in there.

    The_v,

    I personally hate them for most of the same reasons that you like them.

    First off they are slow to use. Part of that is because things are buried in menus, and part is from the annoying up-selling screens. Using them take 4-5 times longer in my experience. I don’t go there often enough to justify it.

    Second, if you are paying cash, you still have to wait in line and see an actual human. Might as well just order with them.

    Third, I am nearsighted but I have good glasses. The small font on the menu boards don’t bother me. I would rather see the entire thing while in line. Make my decision and order to a person.

    TauZero,

    All good points! When these kiosks started out, they were ridiculously laggy, way more than a simple GUI had any right to be, as if every tap and swipe had to be proxied through New Zealand. Thankfully the lag has been solved in one of the interface updates since.

    The upsell spam is still annoying, but having used the interface a couple times I have become the Neo of offer dodging. Tap tap tap (No I don’t want to log in. Yes I am sure I don’t want to log in. No, I don’t want to make it a meal. No I don’t want to add a soda or side of nuggets. Checkout. Cancel payment. Done!) Would be better without, but currently manageable. As others have mentioned, they already managed to fuck up the tableau screens above the counter by having the images move around, so that if you want to know how much a medium fry would cost you have to wait through 30 seconds of slideshow first, and then not miss the 2 seconds that the price is actually on screen. The kiosk is actually the winner for me here.

    The waiting in line to pay cash was my last problem, which is why I got excited to see these automatic cashboxes installed. Money goes in, food comes out.

    war,
    @war@kbin.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    Deceptichum,
    @Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

    Oh fuck off with that Luddite shit.

    Automation is great, the issue is capitalism. Demanding the world not progress because Capitalists will fuck people over is idiotic.

    war,
    @war@kbin.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    TauZero,

    Instead of “smashing the robots”, may I interest you in “eating the rich” option? It looks like you have been thinking a lot of smashing, but not enough about eating. Remember your priorities!

    Deceptichum,
    @Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

    Fuck jobs.

    I welcome a future where everyone is unemployed from meaningless labour.

    TauZero,

    Being out of a job is good, it’s the not-being-able-to-eat afterwards that’s the bad part.

    XTL,

    And if you live in an even remotely functioning society that’s a bad part that’ll never happen unless you deliberately refuse help.

    TauZero,

    Literally starving to death is more difficult nowadays than in the past, but every society is still structured around the idea that you must be doing something wrong if you are not employed. Food, housing, healthcare, all tied to employment, and the substitutes they maybe give you are designed to only barely keep you alive until you find more employment.

    Yes, every job that has become obsolete in the past due to automation has been replaced with a new kind of job, many of which could not have even been imagined before. We don’t have buggy whip manufacturers, but we do have programmers. But that doesn’t mean that will continue always. Jobs that disappear now or in the near future may never get replaced. And many jobs that exist now, I’d argue, are totally bullshit already, and we don’t need more of them. We as a society need to reassess our expectations for 100% employment and better reallocate resources according to the new norms.

    Pyr_Pressure,

    You’re using a smartphone, you are directly responsible for the typewriter business going under and thousands out of a job.

    magnetosphere,
    @magnetosphere@kbin.social avatar

    OP isn’t personally responsible for the installation of these kiosks. They would still exist regardless of OPs opinion.

    TauZero,

    To be fair, it is literally true that I am at least partially responsible, even if only by one part in a million. If there were a million people like me, and we each individually and separately decided to refuse to use the kiosk and demanded to be served by a human cashier and left the store if one was not immediately available, the owners would have no choice but to keep the humans. I just happen to like the kiosks because I am not a luddite.

    Honytawk,

    As a society we should strive to having no one perform any jobs, so they can focus on life instead.

    But that won’t work until people like you get rid of their “work or die” mentality.

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