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So Much For The McDonalds Jobs Renaissance: Burger Maker To "Hire" Computers Going Forward
If nothing else, last month's 62,000 minimum wage, part time-job expansion program by McDonalds generated lots of commentary on whether it should or should not be counted in the April NFP number. While paying a bunch of janitors (sub) minimum wage will have precisely 0.00% impact on GDP, the possibility that America could convert even more full-time into part-time jobs, generating a few more press opportunities for the teleprompter was certainly bullish, sure generated a lot of contradictory blog posts. Alas, even paying minimum wage appears to be too much of a chore for the world's largest burger chain. Enter computers. From Fox Biz: "McDonald's is jumping on the technology bandwagon with a new system that will soon change the way European customers order food -- picture computers instead of humans asking whether customers prefer fries and supersizes. The fast-food restaurant, known for its golden arches, Big Mac burgers and Happy Meals, will replace cashiers with touch-screen terminals and swipe cards at its 7,000 chain restaurants in Europe, according to the Financial Times. That would mean, in part, the end of cash payments." Also picture no more millions of job applicants for something, anything at the Golden Arches. And like that another several million of America's lower class are about to become outsourced to robots.
From Fox:
In addition to the digital screens, McDonald's will stay open longer, modernize its stores and introduce new menus in an effort to attract tech-dependent, spend-wary and health-conscious consumers. McDonalds will be able to better track customer order trends and hone in on the most popular foods while cutting back on millions in staff costs.
The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company has been growing in Europe despite many of its rivals’ sluggishness, posting a 6% improvement in year-over-year sales at its more established stores in April and booking stronger growth in the region than it did in the U.S.
McDonalds has been implementing several global initiatives in an effort to keep sales high, introducing oatmeal, fruit and coffee options on U.S. menus in an effort to attract health-conscious customers and those looking for an affordable breakfast, while modernizing its facilities around the world and adding free Wi-Fi services for the modern laptop and tablet user.
In an interview with the London-based publication, McDonald’s president of Europe, Steve Easterbrook, said the new process would change a traditional system that has been in place for 30 to 40 years.
The changes, he said, would improve efficiency and smooth the ordering process for customers by making average transactions three to four seconds shorter than traditional methods.
And just like reprofiling is now a pretty word (even if it means very ugly things), so "efficiency" is and continues to be the good ole' "synergies" also known as mass layoffs.
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Banker's dream: People take loans from computers for depicting food on the monitor, be it MacDonalds or subway or whatever. We are getting closer...
This just after the BLS made MacD's workers into manufacturing jobs.
Just another case of high labor costs driving out manufacturing to automation and offshoring.
Want to bet that the programming for the automated cash registers is in India or a post USSR republic?
I pick India
Why say this is the end of cash payments? Automatic checkers at grocery stores take cash and dispense cash just fine.
Because US law only mandates the acceptance of cash as payment for a debt. Retail transactions have always been held to specifically NOT be a debt. Therefore, merchants are within the law by refusing to accept cash.
It's easier to install a touch-screen machine which has endless different language options then to find staff who can speak as many languages and are willing to work for slave McWages.
When did McDonalds open 7,000 branches in Europe and where are they hiding them (in case I feel the need to start some Greek sympathy riots)? Seriously, the last time I walked by the McDonalds in ZRH it looked like they were charging CHF 10/ USD 12 for a burger. Europe still has small restaurants where you can get REAL FOOD for that price. The McDonalds value proposition isn't cost, it's convenience for the TRULY MINDLESS.
Good move by MCD, will greatly increase per store productivity.
I've tried it - no special orders like at Subway, just the regular menu. No waiting, no (would you like extra sauce with that, no mambo jambo change. Just fast(er) food, plain and simple. Because service is set to be extended from current midnight to perhaps two AM, customers are happier, higher rate of returns, more opportunities to get fatter. Bottom line is more effectiveness - and more people doing hamburgers, better paid I suppose than cashier.
To be frank, I like just my hamburger, no menu, no salad - just my hamburger. And it's annoying to insist 'I don't want fries and coke on the side with that'.
Also, the machine screen grants greater visibility to the whole offer instead of just the week's promos or bringing a mag glass to read that fine print up on the wall.
For nutrition lobbyists, eager to sell more salad, it becomes easier to demand proper exposition of nutritional information, perhaps even colour coding nutritional values.
Finally, it promotes proper jobs in that more ICT techs and less cashiers are needed, hence more money - ya'know, I think it's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that holds the pun: man is replaced by machine, man repairs machine.
You can't order at the drive through now without having to here a pre-recorded advert. for some diabetes inducing crap.
If the robots can remember the straws and napkins and not be covered in tattoos it'll be an improvement over what I see now.
What's wrong with tattoos? The way another person chooses to look offends you?
I'm pretty sure I'd be offended by your face--but you had no choice in that matter.
Add to the fact that you're admitting to buying McDonalds, and why should anyone care about your preferences? You're already proving that you have bad taste.
Don't be pissed at me because you chose poorly regarding your body art.
I don't like my food being attached to some arm that's covered in snakes a scorpions and shit, so sue me asshole.
I've tried it - no special orders like at Subway, just the regular menu. No waiting, no (would you like extra sauce with that, no mambo jambo change. Just fast(er) food, plain and simple. Because service is set to be extended from current midnight to perhaps two AM, customers are happier, higher rate of returns, more opportunities to get fatter. Bottom line is more effectiveness - and more people doing hamburgers, better paid I suppose than cashier.
To be frank, I like just my hamburger, no menu, no salad - just my hamburger. And it's annoying to insist 'I don't want fries and coke on the side with that'.
Also, the machine screen grants greater visibility to the whole offer instead of just the week's promos or bringing a mag glass to read that fine print up on the wall.
For nutrition lobbyists, eager to sell more salad, it becomes easier to demand proper exposition of nutritional information, perhaps even colour coding nutritional values.
Finally, it promotes proper jobs in that more ICT techs and less cashiers are needed, hence more money - ya'know, I think it's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that holds the pun: man is replaced by machine, man repairs machine.
Growing in Michigan in the 80's & 90's, I experienced the failed 'buy American' movement first-hand. Looks like my kids may get to experience the 'checkout human' movement.
I've tried it - no special orders like at Subway, just the regular menu. No waiting, no (would you like extra sauce with that, no mambo jambo change. Just fast(er) food, plain and simple. Because service is set to be extended from current midnight to perhaps two AM, customers are happier, higher rate of returns, more opportunities to get fatter. Bottom line is more effectiveness - and more people doing hamburgers, better paid I suppose than cashier.
To be frank, I like just my hamburger, no menu, no salad - just my hamburger. And it's annoying to insist 'I don't want fries and coke on the side with that'.
Also, the machine screen grants greater visibility to the whole offer instead of just the week's promos or bringing a mag glass to read that fine print up on the wall.
For nutrition lobbyists, eager to sell more salad, it becomes easier to demand proper exposition of nutritional information, perhaps even colour coding nutritional values.
Finally, it promotes proper jobs in that more ICT techs and less cashiers are needed, hence more money - ya'know, I think it's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that holds the pun: man is replaced by machine, man repairs machine.
They might as well have customers key in their own orders, the yelling into the squawk box thing sure doesn't work very well.
I've tried it - no special orders like at Subway, just the regular menu. No waiting, no (would you like extra sauce with that, no mambo jambo change. Just fast(er) food, plain and simple. Because service is set to be extended from current midnight to perhaps two AM, customers are happier, higher rate of returns, more opportunities to get fatter. Bottom line is more effectiveness - and more people doing hamburgers, better paid I suppose than cashier.
To be frank, I like just my hamburger, no menu, no salad - just my hamburger. And it's annoying to insist 'I don't want fries and coke on the side with that'.
Also, the machine screen grants greater visibility to the whole offer instead of just the week's promos or bringing a mag glass to read that fine print up on the wall.
For nutrition lobbyists, eager to sell more salad, it becomes easier to demand proper exposition of nutritional information, perhaps even colour coding nutritional values.
Finally, it promotes proper jobs in that more ICT techs and less cashiers are needed, hence more money - ya'know, I think it's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that holds the pun: man is replaced by machine, man repairs machine.
Did you hit the "order meal" four times and get four meals like you did here without a human with higher order thinking skills to save you from yourself?
ROMald McDonald
Jules: You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France?
Brett: No.
Jules: Tell 'em, Vincent.
Vincent: A Royale with cheese.
Jules: A Royale with cheese! You know why they call it that?
Brett: Because of the metric system?
IF I ate their Coronary Candy, I would refuse to do business w/ anyone that refused cash.
Technology could be used to enrich our time spend living on this little damn rock that's floating in space--but that'd make too much sense.
Better to use it in a selective way, huh? Let's use technology to screw over people that we don't know, or we don't care about--we'll deal with the blowback later on. Killing people is easier & more profitable than making their lives better.
At some point, a sane person would understand that no one wants to be left out, marginalized, looked down upon--but being humane is not something we're capable of as a whole.
Moo.
This is the road to hell and many don't see it.
Before this utopian bullshit goes much longer it will collapse around our heads.
We are building the biggest house of cards humanity has ever built and when it falls it will be the most spectacular failure of all time.
No cash? Wow, your every move can be tracked.
Sure, they'll be happy to let you swipe your debit card and talk to a robot; and thirty years later deny you medicine or surgery because McD's will share with them exactly how many Big Macs and French Fries you have had.
Hell, the road to hell, but it will be with the human cattle Moo'ing all the way thinking they are headed to a tit washing and a trough of fresh water rather than the slaughterhouse.
Moo.
Sure does make a FAT (Food Allocation Tax) that much easier. Make the parents of these "little" fat fuckers pay for the extra healthcare they will inevitably demand?
It is interesting that we don't have pictures of skinny people at the organic produce section who will later die from disorders of the nervous system or outright anorexia from not eating enough protein, fat, or carbohydrates.
Where are the pictures of non-monogamous sexual partners not using condoms and the shame and blame for spreading cancer causing HPV and other STD's including AIDS?
Where are the pictures and condemnation for the narcissistic thrill-seeking idiots who rock climb and get lost on mountain peaks and ride Harley's without helmets drunk?
Wait, we need better dispatch for emergency crews and tagging of plasma and blood bags and condom tracking, that will make society better, is there an app for that?
Except fat people use less health care over their lifetime than skinny people.
Because they die earlier.
Socialized medicine==>kill everyone at 30.
We've got Logan's Run over here.
>long Spandex
You're being wayyy too rational. People just hate fatties, and want an excuse for it.
Ask yourself, are you the kind of person that would take away the free transportation, healthcare, living assistance, foodstamps, 99 months of unemployment benefits, and good parking spaces this American voter is entitled to?
nevermind
I like it! The last time fast food crossed my lips was about a year ago and that was an experiment to see if it was as bad as I thought it would be: it was worse, virtually inedible to anyone who is (most often) cooking with scratch ingredients. Anyone had canned spaghetti sauce? What did the Matrix say that stuff tastes like? oh yeah, you do not know what it tastes like cause it all tastes like corn syrup. But apparently 7-UP (love them!) on the Donald's Apprentice show this last weekend began their campaign for their soda made with Real Sugar. Whoohooo! Thank you, 7-UP! Won't drink you every day but do enjoy one once in a while. By the way, when all those plastic implants that pretend they are breasts start blowing up, who will pay the medical costs? Might be an idea for those women to get those things out while they can. Just saying. And don't forget, demand that the food producers put on their food where the ingredients came from and where they were processed. I don't want to use ANY tomato paste processed with China's water in China.
Can't wait to get McPop-up McAdvertising on my McTerminal while I wait for my McFries and the rest of my McCrappy McOrder ...
You Luddites who think efficiency and productivity harms a civilization need to go back to manufacturing your own personal clothing.
That will sure solve things.
I don't think efficiency & productivity is harmful to civilization. I think we're misusing the tools we have.
Technology—like the masses—is led along by the myopic goal of profit. I'm sure we'd have some pretty damn impressive technologies to enrich society besides HDTV and iphones if the goal of making money wasn't steering & holding back that advancement.
Like religion, those ideologies serve a role in building up less developed societies: it's time to cast them aside and move on.
While we're at it: has our moral base eroded enough to allow suicide machines, yet?
They could charge a hefty fee for wanting to off yourself: like it'd be equal to how much they could've gotten out of you from taxes & lost labor, based on an estimate of how long you'd live.
Or you could just take a loan to off yourself, and leave it up to your loved ones to repay it. Who cares, anyway. They'll off themselves and we'll have more and more people taking out loans to off themselves & to cover their loved ones' suicide-loans. We'll have a suicide bubble, bitchez.
Yeah we all saw the great technological advances that enriched society in the USSR and the Soviet Bloc countries where there was no goal of making money. Why does a farmer wake up at 4AM and work until 6PM? Is it to enrich society? If there were no money to be made, who would choose to be a farmer, miner, or fisherman? The majority of people would choose to be poets and artists of some sort with an easy laid back life. The ideology you espouse has been tried many times and has failed each and every time. We are humans, not bees or ants.
Sigh. You just don't get it, do you?
Why would anyone have to "farm"—in the traditional sense—if a more technological route were applied? You think we couldn't further push to automate the agriculture business? I'm sure there'd be peoples who'd "volunteer" to take up a task of maintaining the machines, anyway.
And I'd assume that your understanding of it is that all "farmers" would have to be "farmers" for life? Where's the potential for individual development and the subsequent enrichment of society from that?
And remove the "fiat cost" of doing things, and we're all better off for it. Your problem is that you're thinking on a small scale: and this has nothing to do with past communistic attempts. I don't care about visions of the world by old & dead peoples: it's about bettering the lives we all have to live through, and how do you do that by ignoring the individual as a necessary part of the group?
In fact, being pigeon-holed into one role in life is no-good for anyone.
Here we are, standing at the base of what will be the ruins of the capitalistic model, and you think doing something similar will be the best choice? Yes, we're not bees or robots--and people shouldn't be programmed in life with the singular goal of acquiring money, either.
I think what you need to do is force yourself to disassociate the concept of a money-less system as being some failed soviet attempt at it. And fuck adhering to any Marxist standard of it, either.
Don't you think it's about time for a bit of ideological evolution?
.
The ruins of the capitalist system?
We are facing the end of currency and debt manipulation. That is hardly the end of capitalism.
It takes the carrot and the stick to motivate most people, otherwise they would be happy to sponge off others if they could.
Whatever brand of communism you are selling wont work.
Free markets work. Maybe we will try them someday.
"I'm sure there'd be peoples who'd "volunteer" to take up a task of maintaining the machines, anyway."
by that logic there should be no dearth of volunteers even with a capitalist system and everything should be fine. the argument that is being made that there will be no volunteers.
The logic isn't necessarily wrong.
I personally would volunteer to do plenty of things, but my options are limited in that regard because I don't get to keep my home and food if I don't spend a third of my life doing meaningless bullshit that helps enrich someone I don't care about.
Granted: if we can't imagine another way to structure society, for certain we can't achieve it.
This must be as well as we can do.
How convenient that you have come up with a label to apply to anyone who does not agree with you to discredit them; has a nice ring to it too "Luddite". Hmmm...
A little too easy though, try to debate without it.
So you want to debate that increased productivity and efficiency is harmful to society in general?
Lets have five people produce each macdonalds burger instead of three.
Lets have six construction workers directing traffic instead of two.
That will sure solve our problems. Lets do like bastiat suggested and have our workers tie one hand behind the back so they are less efficient so we have to hire more workers.
There is nothing to debate.
also use spoons instead of shovels.
Two words you might wish to become familiar with: carrying capacity. We are a small planet; we have a limited capacity to feed and water humans. China and India have exceeded their carrying capacity and would be seeing die offs from disease (plague anyone?) and natural "remedies" (no water, no live) if the United States was not allowing our country to be innundated with the third worlders. Along with the joy of leprosy, tuberculosis, bed bugs, and a "mind set" that is "red in tooth and claw." You are just a sitting duck, a carnie's mark, an unarmed kumquat to them. You are fools who will be skinned, skewered, and spitted over a very hot fire for their din din. Recently a story was related to me of Somali's making fun of the American stupidity in letting them in; they were collecting four thousand a month while working, and that's how it was related to me. Course we don't want to be "discriminatory" in having this country be there for our children and grandchildren, do we?
Population growth and carrying capacity are a serious issue.
I have limited my concerns in this article to the issue of productivity and efficiency.
Great idea. For healthcare, too.
I agree ebworthen. Talk about 1984 level tracking -- as much as I like the convenience of a credit card, cash is so much more "free". Can't be tracked or traced. No questions, no answers. Just two parties completing a transaction.
They already report you if you use more than $10000. (SAR --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicious_activity_report_%28banking%29
In some countries it is even less than that. I think France forbids cash transactions of more than 3000 euros.
No we are already starting to talk about eliminating cash. Desensitize the public so they accept the idea in 5, 10, or 20 years.
I hate watching this trainwreck in slow motion and being able to do nothing.
Just another reason for owning PMs to add to the growing list. Of course some will claim they'll be confiscated too but by then what won't be?
Yes, agree too. It is a slow motion train wreck and the kids on the train seem happy, giddy even, about their technological wonders taking them straight to the maws of perdition.
If you try to express the danger - you are labeled a relic, a cynic, a "non-initiate".
Techno-religion, accolytes praying at the church of the plastic, the transitory, the shallow; that which is disconnected from the Earth - but if they send some money with a credit card to a cause their conscience can be assuaged.
Our culture, our society, is going off the rails and losing it's fucking mind.
Our culture, our society, is going off the rails and losing it's fucking mind.
_______________
Outstanding. There are only two ways a society can be glued together. 1. The culture is like Singapore or China where an authoritarian/dictatorial power imposes its will upon the people. Tells them what the rules are and creates draconian consequences for failure to follow them. (This is also a Muslim form of rule)
2. The culture is based upon a shared set of values, morality, and social agreements that are the "ties that bind". For America, this has always been the Bible. You did not need to believe; atheists could practice atheism; Mormons could practice their Satanic baptism of the dead...(how many dead has Romney baptized? will they vote for him? tee hee!). However, the Biblical precepts of the Ten Commandments "glued" us together, were constraints of behavior that allowed for decency, humanity, and honor. In 1964, the Bible was removed from the schools and in the following forty years we have created a vat of gutter sex slop people reproducing nitwits whose eyebrows and hairlines are the same, and who then demand we pay them to reproduce some more. Ick!
And that's the choice folks. 1 or 2. Me. I'll take 2. After all, what was so wrong with the Ten Commandments. Seem like some purdy good thunking to moi....And your children are gonna remember what you have done to them when they get old enough to actually realize it. You had a great country, a free country with fresh air and open roads. You are giving them a barrio where the (see number 1 above) the need for "enforcement" for behavior is exterior, rather than the biblical interior. Too bad. That's a nasty world to live in.
Agree.
it could have been worse. they could all have become disaster preaching missionries of the church.
Taco Bell in San Angeles...enjoy-joy your meal.
Demolition Man reference approved.....though if we get to point of being fined for saying fuck, I'll be broke.
Big Mac Attack!
Ronald McDonald is our new overlord.
The best thing about McDonald's - is the BIG DUMP you take afterwards...
Just a big cleanse of the colon...Mmm, Nuggetts...
Fried(e)
And hey...at least the CEO's like heavy metal music too...
I had a picture of McD's ceo (not working?) and someone else flashing the 'devils hand' sign...you can see this pic readily on google images
Fried(e)
This is all part of the transition to a cashless society (The Ultimate form of Tyranny)
Well, does this mean we can finally end immigrats coming into this country? Does this mean that the importation of the world's slums onto our shores might be what finally ends us? When there are no longer the low life jobs for them because while our own people suck up the welfare, we are told that we need the immigrats for employment? Huh? You are aware of the twenty percent unemployment rate, right? Can this country be saved is the "last reality show" before we fall to the Chinese? Anyone else notice the subtle sublimation showing up in tv ads? Lots of Asians suddenly? hmm...
And now the post office is saying it's not making enough money; duh, when you treat your clients (the American public )like crap, as they do, people will find another way. I use Federal Express and UPS as often as possible. The UPS guy who delivers my packages is quite possibly one of the most polite and nicest people on the planet. For some reason, I don't think he is an exception (Thank you, UPS!). The post office doesn't seem to have anyone whose native language is English and as such is a seditious organization (a post-United States holding tank of hostile foreigners) who seem to do all they can to annoy, harass and intimidate their customers. Have you ever had a postal employee who was truly helpful? The answer is NO. You have to know the answers before you get there to mail or they will give you half-answers and your mail won't work. The post office should be privatized, heck no, just turn them over to UPS. Not only are USPS employees not helpful, they actively create problems by providing obstacles when help is needed. This is what you get when foreigners are given power over you. Good luck with that, America. Americans have been fed a lot of propaganda inferring that the rest of the world "plays by the rules." Ha ha ha. How stupid can Americans be?
By the way, my local paper was crowing bout the fact that in the under-three-year-old group whites are a minority. Now what's interesting about that is it is clearly "white hatred", and just how did that come about? We had a great country, very successful, with a problem between whites and blacks that was solvable. Now we have 25%-plus foreigners who are active and vocal in their desire to destroy all that is representative of "whites" and what this country has been, even though that is what they are sucking up via free benefits as fast as they can. hmmm...Now just how does this work that the only group that can be destroyed, albeit voluntarily because after all, whites totally agreed that "white success" was the equivalent of "bad" and necessary self-immolation via third world slums onto our shores and the deliberate devastation, decimation, and deletion of all that is "white" was the only way out of that bad, bad white majority. Of course, no one seemed to look at world statistics and say, "Hey, ya know whites are the ONLY true minority on the planet. And as such, maybe a nice "zoo" of whites, just for the third world to come and gawk at would be worth having. Come see the last of the whites!..." tee hee...ah yes, once the freak show of gutter sex amongst the lobotamized welfare class finishes creating a majority (we just about there) rapacious "The Hills Have Eyes" atavistic semi-human, whose cannabalistic mores turn on those who have been feeding these animals, no wall will be high enough. Ya'll may have seen that the Hollywood types have been building compounds with very high walls out there in Hollyweird land, the kind we see in Columbia and Argentina and, oh yah, like Bin Laden was living in. When we see those appear they are an indicator of real hunkering down; a fear factor undeniable. My local paper being a grossly liberal rag, as every daily paper seems to be, loudly proclaims the wonders of diversity, even though "diversity" has never been shown in any statistical or other meaningful way to actually be beneficial to anyone, simply creating in-fighting and tribalism, but nonetheless the paper proclaims the "minority majority" as an achievement, but an achievement of What exactly? ...do they wonder why they have lost readership? Revenue? They are aware that conservatives are the ones who are willing to pay to read, right?)
Funny how all those unemployed, with five or more kids, who appear on Judge Judy have so many play stations. One woman recently noted her housing subsidy from the govt but she and the father of one of her kids had three play stations and were buying an expensive car. hmm...Compassion once was for those truly hit by a difficult circumstance; now compassion is a code word for the gutter sex crowd and their baby blackmail. And these babies turn into the kind of delinquent, aggressive sociopaths (such as) the one of Judge Judy yesterday. Seventeen-years-old, unable to conjugate the proper (very simple) verbs she was using, this young woman seemed barely human, unsocialized to contain her own aggressions, tutored on reality tv, crude, crass, and lewd in ever way, barely distinguishable as human, the Idiocracy is here now (see movie: Idiocracy). Good luck with that America. Even the American Medical Association has dumbed down to use "social standings" as standards for med school admissions. Oh boy, can't wait for that C-student to do my brain surgery cause they are a barrio baby!
TLDR.
I watch 'Pawn Stars' and I once got a C in an exam so on that basis ..... you're fired!
Why dont you take up this argument with the native americans?
For decades, I've said what we need in this country to improve customer service is a good depression. My expectation was that people would show some appreciation for having a job and not sneer at me when i try to order a Big Mac en Anglais.
I now see that the attitude WON'T change during a depression. So fuck it, bring on the robots. Maybe THEY can make sure my "hambuergo est con carne y queso SOLAMANTE." Bring on Johnny-cab.
The financial crisis, growing pressure on working families, rising inflation, dropping spending power for retired Americans and now exploding gasoline prices are actually eliminating jobs across the board.
As a result, even charity operations and now volunteer efforts to help with the misery of Americans are being severely restricted because of the transfer of money from American communities to the coffers of the TBTF speculators and the investment banks.
For example, a report this week from a San Diego County Meals on Wheels operation shows many volunteer delivery drivers for the hot meals (often senior citizens in dire straits themselves) are having to cut back on helping to deliver the meals because they can no longer afford to buy the gasoline to power their trips.
On top of that a National Public Radio report says this week the input costs to produce the hot meals are rising substantially even in the face of reduced contributions for the program due to losses in the private sector economy.
Fuel costs alone were up more than $7,200 in the first quarter, and Meals on Wheels officials fear the bill will be even higher in the second quarter. Gas prices are up over four dollars a gallon in San Diego and still rising. “It’s not just the fuel,” said Meal's exec Debbie Chase. “The fuel is just the tip of the iceberg."
This is what happens when a labor market is as over-regulated and over-legislated as that in Europe.
Walked in to my local CVS here in Chicago the other day. Noticed immediately that the huge check out desk had been cut in half and replaced by several self check out machines.
Honestly, I'd rather use the self check out. CVS and other retailers in downtown Chicago tend to employ the Post Office's cast offs...
I don't think self-check and 'cashless' purchase are going to get that far. Walmart ripped out a bunch of their self-check stations, they were getting ripped off way too much with those things.
As for cashless McD's, count me out, not that I go there much now. This goes right along with jacked up debit card fees.
McDonald’s got hundreds of millions in bail out money
Perhaps if our never ending legions of Progressive regulatory
orgy-ists could be cowed, more jobs might remain. But then without a welfare state to provide a "Revolutionary" situation, total control might elude the elite for another few years. Soros is already 80, how long can we expect him to wait?
i red this a while back - i think some of you guys will enjoy it.
"Burger-G was a fast food chain that had come out of nowhere starting with its first restaurant in 2001. The Burger-G chain had an attitude and a style that said "hip" and "fun" to a wide swath of the American middle class. The chain was able to grow with surprising speed based on its popularity and the public persona of the young founder, Joe Garcia. By 2010 the chain had 1,000 outlets in the U.S. and showed no signs of slowing down. If the trend continued, Burger-G would soon be one of the "Top 5" fast food restaurants in the U.S.
The "robot" installed at this first Burger-G restaurant looked nothing like the robots of popular culture. It was not hominid like C-3PO or futuristic like R2-D2 or industrial like an assembly line robot. Instead it was simply a PC sitting in the back corner of the restaurant running a piece of software. The software was called "Manna", version 1.0*."
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
I for one welcome our new AI overlords.
.... although, I hope they are drunk friendly. Like most Irish people, I typically only frequent the golden arches after I have consumed a few 'light ales'.
french fries, bitchez
french fries, bitchez
McDonald's received a waiver from Obamacare, and later they trumpeted this 'hiring of 50,000' program. That is the real story, sheeple.
As followers of the Austrian school, we, Zerohedgers should be happy.
Let liberals talk about the need for 'jobs'. We know that jobs in themselves are not the end.
I wonder if the touchscreens will have an industrial size bottle of hand sanitizer attached to it or maybe a box of surgical gloves. Would you like a anti biotic resistant staph bacteria with that?
One step closer
Revelations 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
french fries, bitchez!