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As Fast Food Workers Go On Strike In 100 Cities, Applebees Unveils The "Waiter Terminator"
Today, in the latest escalation by minimum paid restaurant workers who demand greater wages, Fast-food workers and labor organizers are set to turn out in support of higher wages in cities across the country Thursday and walkouts are planned in 100 cities, with rallies set for another 100 cities. While it's not clear what the actual turnout will be, how many of the participants are workers and what impact they'll have on restaurant operations, it is possible that your 99 cent lunch may be delayed or outright cancelled today.
The actions would mark the largest showing yet over the past year. At a time when there's growing national and international attention on economic disparities, labor unions, worker advocacy groups and Democrats are hoping to build public support to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25, or about $15,000 a year for full-time work.
In New York City, about 100 protesters carrying signs, blowing whistles and beating drums marched into a McDonald's at around 6:30 a.m.; one startled customer grabbed his food and fled as they flooded the restaurant, while another didn't look up from eating and reading amid their chants of "We can't survive on $7.25!"
It seems trying to persuade these minimum wage workers to enjoy what they have - namley that corporations have all the leverage while unskilled, undereducated employees have none (the Service Employees International Union represents more than 2 million workers, on the other hand there are 91 million non-unionized workers out of the workforce) and that any increases in wages would simply be passed on to other consumers, and certainly result in broad terminations to keep the SG&A line flat - is probably a moot point.
So instead the strikers were met with something a bit more persuasive: brute Police force.
Community leaders took turns giving speeches for about 15 minutes until the police arrived and ordered protesters out of the store. The crowd continued to demonstrate outside for about 45 more minutes while a handful of customers remained inside. A McDonald's manager declined to be interviewed and asked that customers not be bothered.
Tyeisha Batts, a 27-year-old employee at Burger King, was among those taking part in the demonstrations planned throughout the day in New York City. She said she has been working at the location for about seven months and earns $7.25 an hour.
"My boss took me off the schedule because she knows I'm participating," Batts said.
Considering there are a few hundred thousand applicants for your position , Ms. Batts, we find that perfectly explainable. Then again, if you are unhappy with your position, you are welcome to quit and find a better paying job. Especially since in the very near future you may not even have the option of choosing, as it will be done for you. Earlier this week, restaurant chain Applebees unveiled what may soon be the "Waiter Terminator."
From the company's press release: "Applebee’s steps into the future to redefine and enhance the guest experience through the installation of 100,000 E la Carte Presto tablets, powered by Intel, on every table and multiple bar positions at more than 1,800 Applebee’s restaurants in the United States by the end of next year."
The LA Times reports:
The E La Carte Presto tablets – powered by Intel – will allow patrons to pay from their seats while also adding food and beverages to their existing orders. A pilot program helped customers save time, according to Applebee’s Glendale-based parent DineEquity.
“Let’s face it, everyone who has ever been to a restaurant has been frustrated by waiting for their check,” said Mike Archer, Applebee’s president, in a statement.
Eventually, the gadgets will also feature an expanded lineup of games, video streaming capabilities, music options, gift card sales and social media interaction. The Presto tablets, which were developed at MIT, have been “ruggedized” to deal with the spills and rowdy children common in such restaurants, according to the company.
And the punchline:
In the pilot program, the Presto tablets not only significantly reduced transaction times for guests, but also provided them a better overall experience, based on their feedback. By simplifying the transaction process and allowing guests to control the timing, Team Members were able to provide better service and more attention to guest needs throughout the dining experience, rather than focusing on delivering a check.
Also, much more time to work on their resume. In other words, Applebees is already taking steps at outsourcing its minimum wage waiters with tablets. Which incidentally is a brilliant idea, especially in a cost-cutting environment. So brilliant in fact that others are already joining in..
DineEquity said it might consider introducing the tablets at its IHOP restaurant chain as well. The company joins many others in the industry that have begun incorporating technology into the customer experience, installing ordering kiosks, equipping servers with mobile devices and more.
In other words, a funny thing happened as fast food workers were striking across the land - they were all just made obsolete courtesy of iPads.
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Makes sense. You don't go to such a place for hospitality, but to strap on a feedbag. Skip the pretense.
My favorite place is an Ethiopian restaurant in walking distance. Family run and the customers are treated as extended family.
Hospitality. Generosity. And coffee pan roasted in front of you.
Sorry for being an ass, but do you leave hungry?
Sorry for shitting on your desk.....does it stink?
I leave sated if that's what you mean.
But I don't leave engorged if that's what you mean.
*over your head*
Hint: ETHIOPIA
Oh, I got it BC. Subtle though it was.
Jobs Jobs Jobs!!! So let's have machine do everything and noone will have a job or any money to spend. Maybe then they will unplug the machine.
Once their fired,they will be a robbing and stealing.
Easy--if people want to put up with that automated crap let them. I'll go where there are waiters--good ones.
Old Indian saying: Food cooked without love is poison.
Precisely - I don't go for that boil-in-bag shit either....
"cooked" not "served"
Amazing that those folks don't understand basic economics. If you raise the min wage, then that inflation will surge into everything else, and that wage increase will be a zero sum game as the costs for everything else rise in tandem.
The only wayt to get off of that train is to create leverage for yourself, and become marketable as an individual (i.e skills and education), or create your own business. Low or non-skilled labor is a bitch - you have no leverage and can be replaced by anyone else willing to work for less ( or an Ipad). There will always be poor people, and there will always be unskilled labor. You can't be driving an Escalade as a McDonald's fry cook or grill jockey, and that is a fact. You want to rock that Escalade? Work for it.
It depends on what level you raise the minimum wage too and how much of the workforce is affected. Hard to validly argue that inflation 'will surge' when you are talkinga bout less than 5% of the overall entire and less than 2% if you include restaurant staff only.
No one is saying they should full-time workers at the bottom of the page scale should drive an 'drive an Escalade' but it isn't a problem that large employers are basically on the gov't tit to provide their workers with various progras because their wages & benefits are so poor?
Do not disagree with anything you wrote - I guess my comment was more centered around the raising of the min wage in general, not specific to the fast fooders.
You are also spot on when you state that the gubamint is subsidizing companies like Wal-Mart and McDonalds - most of their workers are eligible for and receive government assistance. We're propping up the bottom line for those companies, and that is a fact. I am all for ending corporate wellfare - it's disgusting.
over the years, nobody would have believed that woolworths would go bankrupt. and then GM. and others. 'great' money making ideas mature and grow old, just like people, the people behind the ideas get old and die and the replacements don't have the same talents. this is life.
now, macdonalds and walmart are seriously being supported by the government because they don't pay a wage that people can 'live' on. of course, most of that is because those jobs were never designed to support a family, but then again, there aren't many other jobs for people with no skills. so parents full time are trying to replace jobs designed for kids. if that's the way it is, they should fail. the government should not be subsidizing corporations.
which of course is the same as subsidizing lloyd and jamie bonus. they should have failed, and they would have.
it's all just a sign of how badly things have gone. time to let the losers fail and then we can deal with what we need to do for the future.
I eat an unprocessed meat and vegetable diet (no calorie restriction, just food types) on about $5 per day.
So this is progress. Our destination seems to be somewhere between Idiocracy and Wall-E, with no real home to return to. Sounds great.
Technology doesn't kill, people do.
Just wait till the technology becomes self-aware.
Yes, well it is still man's finger on the programming apparatus.
Fast food workers aside, lets examine another high employment occupation....
A typical grocery employee (stocker, produce, dairy/ff) might earn 11.00/hr.
At full time that's 440/wk. deduct 20% for taxes is 352.00.
20.00/wk for gas (just back and forth to work)
20.00/wk for auto insurance (mandatory in most states)
20.00/wk for electric bill
150/wk rent or mortgage
70/wk food
20/wk internet (mind you...no phone or cable TV)
10.00/wk in staples like bar or laundry soap, TP, cleaning stuff
20/wk for one incidental (dentist, vet, car battery, tire, socks, shoes and undies, etc.)
330.00. Pretty bare bones.
This is where many folks are
Yes. Then you have the Walmart CEO who retires with a $156,000,000 retirement package.
Stocks at all time highs, not because of performance or productivity but because fraud and cuts are being rewarded.
Unfuckingreal and yet, here we are.
Ask me if I give a shit when this thing blows? Not one bit. Let the 1% and their government minions face full on collapse of their system which only works for their benefit. Why would anyone in the 99% care? My kids don't care. They do what I tell them to do and believe what I tell them to believe.
If they learn that the collapse is in their best interest, they will have no choice but to accept. Showing them how excessive income distorts the world they have to live in, will put it into context. Thankfully they're smart and starting to figure things out for themselves.
The world is a big lie because the truth is controlled by 1% of the population and we aren't part of that group.
I have no problem with a CEO getting a huge payday/retirement if he desired it especially if he was the company founder. Mike Duke was a terrible CEO at Wal-Mart by almost every objective including shareholder value and yet this a$$hole walks away with $150M+.
The problem isn't gov't as much as it is large capture of gov't by select moneyed interestes and it certainly isn't the people at the bottom. It is a system where the people at the top are trying to not only take the cream but squeeze and squeeze the lemon until they get all of the juice and take the pulp too.
Make sure you tell your kids to be well-adjusted.
Again a minimum skilled person who could be replaced by 1,000 others. Don't blame the store. If the person is married and doing the same job they could get a house/appt much less than $1200 a mth. If they are single they may have to find a roomate or move back home. If you like working there and do a good job you'll likely be able to move up in time. If at any point you feel undervalued (who isn't in their own mind) find someplace else to work or find out what is required to get a job that pays more. It's funny how that lady said she was working fast food for 7 months and wanted a raise. Too many people don't want to pay their dues and don't want to accept the consequences of their own actions (dropping out of school etc). When I was applying for graduate school I lived in a boarding house and had a diet of peanut butter crackers and water for several months. It sucked. But I was determined to never go back to that place. That grocery workers biggest concern is going to be how to pay for Obamacare. All the govt handout, programs, blah blah blah and the poverty level is higher. Guess what, the government isn't going to raise your quality of life...only you can. Life isn't fair, get off your ass and change it if you don't like it and pray for direction....God gave you talents. Don't expect it to be easy either, but people will help you if you ask them....but only if you are working hard.
Let me guess, you're 60 and your fun anecdotes about "taking responsibility for your actions" and "I put my time in and worked up" are from the FUCKING 50s?
Hey gramps, it ain't 1956. You graduate from college with a $150K engineering degree and the best fucking job you can find is at Best Buy for $8/hr and no benefits!!
I'm so sick of you people from some outdated era that didn't have globalization and outsourcing. If you haven't looked for a job in the last 10 years, STFU!!
Vincent,
You forgot health insurance, probably over $100 per week for most folks.
$11/hr where?
Where I live grocery workers are a min wage job, $7.40/hr. (which irnoically is above the fed min wage).
Where I live Lowes workers make min wages. People at Target or Walmart, same.
People would cut a bitch to get $11/hr. THAT's where people fucking are at.
dlb post
These have been in Red Robin for a few months now. They are phasing all servers out, same goes for checkers/cashiers at supermarkets and drug stores.
I predict this will happen with every type of service worker.
Eventually, even pharmacists will be obsolete. It will be an ATM that dispenses the drugs... it will scan your fingerprint or eyeball. Sorry new Pharm D graduates... no more 100K pharmacist jobs.
Ain't progress grand?
Since these are the only jobs that our economy is producing, it will be interesting when these jobs go away.
I guess corporations moved manufacturing and engineering to China, call centers and programmers to India, the only thing that they can't pay $2/hr needs to be automated to save the final buck.
Welcome to Das Capital for reals.
.
Say goodbye to that market! lol
Over the years, I've worked lots of different jobs, but the most satisfying, easy and lucrative was easily bartending, so that has to be separated form fast food service jobs. Waiters/waitresses can do pretty well for themselves if they work the right places.
If you eat at Mcd's, Wendy's, et. al., you deserve shit food and the workers get shit wages, simple as that. If you desire quality and a decent experience dining or drinking out, stay away from the chains. They just simply suck.
Private bars ad restaurants, where the owners are often on hand, are your best bets, and you won't find their workers pining or striking for better wages or benefits because they are usually well-regarded by the owner/boss, treated with respect and make very good money.
When I worked at a country club as a bartender, I took home over $700 a week, put in over 30 hours working double shifts on three days and had four days off. If I had wanted to, I could have worked another part-time or even a full time job, but was too happy to play tennis and get drunk on my days off.
The people who want $15/hour minimum wage are the same types who think welfare is good. There's always going to be poor people - it's a factor of capitalism that is inescapable. Better to just not listen to them, or, hope the MCds of the world give in and eventually go tits up. The world would probably be a better place without chain restaurants and fast food corporations. Real food, raised by local farmers, served by real people who live in the community. What an idea!
I'm with you except for the fact that we don't have capitalism
Take away the redistribution from the bottom to the top and we can discuss animal spirits.
I travel alot...In some cities you get Mcd's or Applebeez.....I think that is how they make a few dollars...Not where I live though....Live north of Houston....The Woodlands....I have more choices 2 miles from my house than 100 miles in ARK
My point was...there are still some places doing very well....and some that are not
In other news:
GM Pulls Chevy From Europe After Decade as Opel Expands
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-05/gm-to-pull-chevy-from-europe-to...
General Motors assumed full control in 1931 and today Adam Opel AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors Company.
Applebee's should put "Kosher" meals on the menu. Jewish eaters won't order through a machine. They want their goyim to take the order, cook their food and deliver the plates. If that's not happening, they go somewhere else. How many Jewish waitresses and short order cooks are out there relative to how much money Jews spend on their dining out?
Oh!
Schlomo, here's your order. That little salty spicey bit, if you look closely, has a pointy hair in it and IT'S a booger!!!
Enjoy
I think the corporate view is that labor is but an input, just like electircity. You try not to pay a penny more than you have to for it.
Just to keep ZH real on this topic of INCOME INEQUALITY...
This site has only stepped up to this, the most important issue in our consumer economy, ... AFTER ... Pope Franky dusted off the hitherto ignored Jebus message.
And ZH, Barrack "Crony Capital" Obama, even beat you folks to the issue as well. /Real forward thinking performance, ZH guys.
Ya strike! Give the owners further incentives to get rid of you....FASTER!
now who wouda thunk the other side of the "free market economy" might one day decide to participate? looks like the anti riot programs are wearing thin. at least detroit will be spared.
Actually the past few times i've been to applebees the waiters have been fucking deuchbags so this is an upgrade.
Robots,
Robots who need Robots,
Are the luckiest corporations in the world.
h/t barbra streisand from brooklyn
Hasta La Vista, pimply hipster douche.
bahh. Applebees IS fast food. The quality has steadily gone down hill so I can't even eat lunch there any more. I would be far better off walking across teh street to teh super market, and buying two frozen "TV Dinners" and popping them in the microwave, its that bad. So, getting rid of table service, its more like McDonalds food anyway. Who cares.
Looks like the Manufacturing Index is going to drop today.
We recently ate at an Applebees that is testing these... my kid got sick right on one of them. Bet you'd like to know which one, eh?
Can't survive on $7.25?
You're protesting in the wrong place then.
Try learning a little bit about our currency, central banking, fractional reserve lending - it will help point you in the right direction.
"Considering there are a few hundred thousand applicants for your position , Ms. Batts, we find that perfectly explainable. Then again, if you are unhappy with your position, you are welcome to quit and find a better paying job. Especially since in the very near future you may not even have the option of choosing, as it will be done for you. Earlier this week, restaurant chain Applebees unveiled what may soon be the "Waiter Terminator."
Naive, heartless, souless, selfish and of course psychopathic in it's pereception of others' reality of existence.
"The sphere of circulation or commodity exchange, within whose boundries the sale and purchase of labour-power goes on, is in fact a very Eden of the innate rights of man. It is the exclusive realm of Freedom, Equality, Property and Bentham. Freedom, because both buyer and seller of a commodity, let us say of labour-power, are determined only by their free will. Their contract is the final result in which their joint will finds a common legal expression. Equality, because each enters into relation with the other, as with a simple owner of commodities, and they exchange equivalent for equivalent. Property, because each disposes only of what is his own. And Bentham, because each looks only to his own advantage. The only force bringing them together, and putting them into relation with each other, is the selfishness, the gain and the private interest of each. Each pays heed to himself only, and no one worries about the others. And precisely for that reason, either in accordance with the pre-established harmony of things, or under the auspices of an omniscient providence, they all work together to their mutual advantage, for the common weal, and in the common interest.
When we leave this sphere of simple circulation or the exchange of commoditites, which provides the 'free-trader vulgaris' with his views, his concepts and the standard by which he judges the society of capital and wage-labour, a certain change takes place, or so it appears in the physiognomy of our dramatis personae. He who was previously the money-owner now strides out in front as a capitalist; the possessor of labour-power follows as his worker. the one smirks self-importantly and is intent on business; the other is timid and holds back, like someone who has bought his own hide to market and now has nothing else to expect but - a tanning."
The Golden Rule is lost on those with mea$ly capital.
I ran several restaurants of a popular chain restaurant back in the early 80s and we had bartenders and servers make 7 to 9 hundred a week mostly tax free. It was called the hospitality industry back then. I shudder when I go into one of the chain restaurants. I was forced to go into one for a quick lunch at the bar recently. When paying my tab for 14.00 with a 20 the bartender asked me if I wanted change back. He would have been fired for that 30 years ago. I have lost hope for the younger generation of course I guess 40% is a perfectly normal tip to be expected for pouring one beer and setting down one plate of food with no ketchup for my fries ever showing up. Maybe machines is the way to go but I would like to see machines run a ten burner sautee stove on a Friday night. Hey wait, there is an invention in that. Never mind.
FUCK THE FUCKING GODDAMN CHAINS.
its Hospitality by spreadsheet and therefore not hospitable.
You clearly know this, so let the SkyNet of Shit Food become self aware already.
It'll do wonders for people who DO work for tips and give the masses their Sonmi-451.
My bad.... Please see above.
So.... How is this a "waiter terminator?" People will still be needed to cook and serve the food to the customers. The device merely streamlines ordering and payment.
Right now, if I order a pizza online and pay electronically, workers still prepare it and deliver it to me.
I eat out a lot. It is not uncommon for someone other that your waitress to actually bring the food out.
the customer might actually have to get up off their lazy behind and pick up their food. whoop-eee. waiter terminator.
next, robot chefs.
"Tyeisha Batts" is the scariest name. If your last name is Batts, you think as parents you would have picked a softer, more benign and less terrifying first name such as Ann or Jane.
Thanks Frederick
The FEDs fault. For causing food inflation and blowing out operational costs.
McFIRED!!
Waiters don't make minimum wage. They get a lot less and are supposed to make it up on tips which many times the maitre'd,/owner extort a large portion of tfrom them. And a lot of people don't leave tips no matter what. It's a tough job unless you are in a very expensive place.
Its a tough job, period.
Yours truly left this trade a long time ago but by happenstance became friends through association to a lot of people "slinging Hash" for a buck.
My mom proudly did this work until retirement (not for her whole work life for it started as a weekend gig but became full time and she did this for about 15 years).
Being in service to others is our highest calling however slight that interaction is.
Serving tables is no different. When The Royal We go to a "good place" for dinner or drinks or both, we all know what this means.
LET THE FUCKING NAT CHAINS bring on the automation. Much of the dreck served up as "food" goes well with this.
Me and Mine will still go to the good places, interact, connect, tip our ~25% and be glad we did.
I don't mind auto-ordering systems. No secret that (understandably) plenty of fast-food workers are unmotivated. That gets past on to the customer in order errors. I can remember getting a cold slab of cheese on my Wendy's burger, via drive-through, and when I asked if they could pop it in the microwave for a few secs was told "We don't DO melted cheese." The resentment gets passed to the customer too o
Love those new 10$ Big Macs -- NOT!
Presto from anti-personnel weapon infamy?
More useful idiots on display, as President Gobbels pushes for a "livable wage" for Mickey D workers. WTF, anybody want to stay there for life and work? Amerika gets what it deserves and voted for.
http://vegasxau.blogspot.com
We Deserve Better
Q: Zero Hedge, what do you call an economy that has no consumers?
A: Christmas 2013
You muppets here at Zero Hedge are living your own fantasy lie of becoming the 0.1%. But all you are and all your children will ever be is the "little guy".
Wise up and get on the side of labor...that is YOU, ZH.
Kiss my right-to-work azz.
Thanks, but no. Your poor ass State has absolutely nothing going for it except the income from the donor states.
You live amonst squalor and poverty and you think you've some how achieved something? What a rat infested existence must await your inbred off-spring.
I don't live wher you think I do, HaHa loser!
Bedrock, right!?
What do I win?
Fuck Labor. It was a good idea once but it's become nothing more than a $$ collection machine for the Democrat Party. And it's riddled with Socialists, Marxists, Communists, and Liberal tools that produce a whole lot of problems. I'll be damned if I'll ever be in a union again. Mine sucked and sent all - ALL of the donation money to this jackass Kenyan in the White House.
Want to talk .001%? Try looking up the salaries of your union bosses and Democrat Party bosses. Now there's some real fucking money! And while you're at it, find me one goddamned Liberal Senator, Congressman, Governor, Hollywood star, banker, sports star, media personality or entertainment personality who is anything less than the .001%.
Socialism is on the rise and is the only thing that will save the USA.
Your old, stale ideas are just propaganda from a long gone era... and your concepts are limited by the duoply of Democrat/Republican and their corrupt games and their bankrupt solutions to econonomic issues.
Van, we are going to take over sooner than you realize and your mealy mouthed, 3rd rate grasp of history will leave you perplexed and distraught. Very likely, folks like you will be so disorientated by the changes that you will need to be institutionalized. But not to worry! In this new world we are going to forge you will recieve clean sheets, good care, compassionate medical and psychiatric treatment and the knowledge that your children will have a bright future.
I guess one of the disorienting things to literate people will be the inability of socialists, such as yourself, to state a theme and develop it in a way that makes sense. I challenge you to master the declarative sentence--though its clearly not a requisite for being a socialist.
The declarations come only -after- the status quo completely discredits itself. That is coming soon.
Patience.
Once the food riots start and you ZH fans start queuing up for a stale loaf of bread (metaphor? Maybe.), then PP-Bull, you will get the declarations you crave.
So my point, PP, is as much to say that "Change is Coming"...as to say that the ZH "community" (meaning this population of narcissistic back stabbers and moral reprobates) does not have anything helpful to offer society and has no prophetic or insightful wisdom to guide by.
What's with all of the pseudo-socialist trolls?
+100
NLP tells thems 'if I think like them, then I am them'.
A brief look at their bank account and surroundings would dispel that but in the land of the free you are what you believe you are and reality is a mere amorphous ball for your skilled hands to mould.
"any increases in wages would simply be passed on to other consumers, and certainly result in broad terminations to keep the SG&A line flat". The usual libertardian nonsense that, ironically enough, ignores the basic laws of supply & demand that the 'tardians claim to know so much about, to whit: 1) Given competition from multiple fast food vendors, no single vendor can raise their price point above the average for the industry at the risk of loosing market share. Therefore higher wages will come out of...wait for it...PROFITS...and THAT is why the fast food industry fights this tooth and nail; 2) given demand for fast food products, they reduce their work force at the risk of not being able to keep up with that demand (no sales, no revenue) and or lose market share due to inadequate service.
Finally, fast food workers making somewhat higher wages are precisely the kind of customer with the marginal proclivity to consume...fast food, thus rising wages in this industry will in part supply its own increasing demand, further reinforcing #2 above.
And of course libertardianism fails to grasp the relation between automation and the wage level: The industry has no incentive to automate so long as they can use dirt-cheap workers. It is RISING WAGES that drive automation!
I mean, this is HENRY FORD 101
So if you want to be served by a robot that you won't have to tip (I would), demand higher wages!
Proud to report that I ate at Subway tonight. Kiss off, Socialists.
Let me guess -- you had the turkey?
onion ring batter recipe:
1/2 cup ale
1/2 cup flour
adobo seasoning
salt
pepper
deep fry in a deep fryer
It's fast food and it's good.
No complaints, you made it yourself.
Onion Ring ingredients: $5
Good Deep Fryer with Oil: $50
Trip to the Emergency Room for Massive Oil Burns: $5,000 and up......
They've already one upped this at some sushi chains in Japan, automating food delivery as well as every other table service. You take whatever food you want off the conveyor belts, and the costs are automatically added to the bill based on the type of plate used. For custom orders, you enter it in via the tablet interface, and it is delivered by the same conveyor belt system, that notifies you when it is time to take your food. And when you're finished you can pay by credit card right there. The only time a person comes by is to bus the table after you leave.
There's no reason why this same model couldn't be applied to regular family restaurants as well. And it would work even better in America because the cost of tipping would go away.
Yes. I would like the fish sandwich that has been on the conveyor belt for 7 hours......
This is the first real shot fired across the bow, IMHO. There is much levity expressed in the comments here, but I for one see something much more sinister in all this. The consequences are more far ranging than we can initially comprehend, or care to acknowledge now. Cloward Piven progressing on schedule as fast food workers are turned out and join the ranks of Obama's legions of dependents. Scary shit for sure......
Sorry. Did it again.
Well, this new innovation might make "Dine and Dash" easier. Sit down, order food, people bring it to you, eat, and walk away. Servers won't know or care who you are. You could even order food from an empty table and walk away with it when it arrives. The cooks and servers will be too busy to notice. Kids WILL find a way to hack the device. OK....where is my nearest Applebee's?
You'll need to swipe a credit card to fulfill your order, I'm sure.
EBT CARD
It is worth pondering to what extent it matters if the waiter has charm or not--and most are entitled and charm free. I agree--i can get the freaking food and spare me from paying someone to walk it 50 feet from the kitchen.
the robot security guard would quickly taze your dashin ass.
I was at Chilis in Champain, IL back in the Spring and they already had one of these.
Whatever happened to Playboy clubs with WAITRESSES in Bunny outfits? Pffffffft on sushiboats 'n robots...
Oh man, it would be like dying, going to hell, and then having to pay for the experience to go to a restaurant where every table was blaring different music, videos and bleeping games.
What I liked most about this article was the obvious delight the author took in the food service workers being powerless to improve their circumstances and the glee with which he described their replacement by iPads in retribution for their impudence in protesting their wages.
As so many others have implied, this author obviously believes that capital should be able to freely organize, but should labor ever dare to try, he'll be buying front-row tickets to better enjoy the beating they've got coming.
Adam Smith ("The Wealth of Nations") makes this exact point in Chapter 8:
"It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms. The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily; and the law, besides, authorizes, or at least does not prohibit their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work; but many against combining to raise it. In all such disputes the masters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a farmer, a master manufacturer, a merchant, though they did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or two upon the stocks which they have already acquired. Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a year without employment. In the long run the workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to him; but the necessity is not so immediate.
We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate. To violate this combination is everywhere a most unpopular action, and a sort of reproach to a master among his neighbours and equals. We seldom, indeed, hear of this combination, because it is the usual, and one may say, the natural state of things, which nobody ever hears of. Masters, too, sometimes enter into particular combinations to sink the wages of labour even below this rate. These are always conducted with the utmost silence and secrecy...."
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public," wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, adding, "or in some contrivance to raise prices."
Smith was a very bright fellow who unfortunately is more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Same holds true for J.M. Keynes, much maligned here though he be.
The basic fact of human nature is most people are greedy, and their wants exceed their needs by quite a bit. (cf Steve Cohen's 'pissing match' with his neighbour over whose house had the most bathrooms) This is one place where Ayn Rand fell flat on her face. She might believe that 'enlightened self-interest' would create business owners who treated their employees well (and there are many, I'm sure), but the law of large numbers says there will also be owners who treat employees like canine fecal matter. Governments were supposed to right the balance, both ways, but as Richard Posner delineated in his "Capture Theory of Regulation", inevitably government gets captured by big business or big labour (or both, as banksters and public sector unions convincingly show), until the situation gets untenable, and forcible resets occur.
Hence DHS and IRS need 100 million rounds..
Gas stations really, truely, had guys who pumped the gas for you and asked if you wanted to pop the hood to check on the oil. Labor was cheap. These were guys (gals) that were transitory, working their way up, back when there was a way up. There was true hope.-faith back then. Not a golden age, but always the potential of one. We blew it. We will have another shot at it in a little bit here.
Excuse me, WE didn't blow anything.as in WE the people
Corporations in collusion with the Government fucked society. WE had nothing to do with it.
Time to start thinking of the United States for what it is and it is not WE, it's THEM.
Indeed, We Deserve Better
I was one of those guys, back in the day. Cleaning windshields with an f-ing blue towel that left streaks and got me bitched out. Well, enough waxing nostalgic... ;)
Oh, yeah, me too. I worked at a gas station in Minnesota in 1972 through 1974 while I was in high school, on one of the highest hills in the area. I worked in 20 below weather, and in blizzards that would come up the hill and dump a foot of snow on the driveway, and in driving rain, and in the summer heat. I never callled in sick, never missed a shift.
I was there during the Arab oil embargo, lines of cars waiting for five gallons of gas. I was lucky because the owner would let us fill up, despite the restrictions on the general public.
Then again, I was there on weekend nights when my sometime girlfriend would come by in a car driven by one of my worst enemies, sitting next to him on the bench seat, her tiny little skirt bearly covering those georgeous long legs (she was 5'-9) that I had to look at while I wiped the windshield... Sometimes she would feel guilty and call me just before my shift ended at 11 pm and apologize and invite me over to her place... and I would show up smelling of leaded gasoline, and... but I digress...
Oh, and I was making the princely sum of $1.65 an hour.
Your '70s years sounds like my birthplace (a "Duluthsion"). It was the 'hills" comment :)
East side of St. Paul, actually, near the 3M complex. Of course, your Duluth hills made our hills look like mere bumps. But you understand Minnesota snow during the 70's so you know what I'm talking about...
This reminds me of a song I just wrote for this occassion:
Welcome to Bangladesh
What - you want more cash?
Cuz you can't feed yourself?
You fucking insolent prick!
The computer is on the way.
Welcome to Bangladesh
Oh what's that you're on the street?
Well fuck you - you had a job.
And now you're dumpster diving.
Want the job back - half salary ok?
Welcome to Bangladesh
Hot dang, a regular Woody Guthrie.
I vote for the person less experience..... Unless, of course, the waiter has DSLs or big tits
I think this essay points to the societal juggernaut coming over the next 200 years. What happens to societes when the entire supply chain, in almost every process, is performed by a robot?
For example. automated trucks between cities is not too far into the future.I worked in an automated wherehouse robotically delivering to a robotic manufacturing floor, and that was more than 20 years ago.
By 1940, the US had the productivity capacity to meet the needs of every person in the country. That productive capacity was destroyed by war.
It does not take too much of an imagination to see a society where a robotized supply chain provides for all human wants and needs. Everyone is simply provided for. What "ism" is that?
Not Capitalism or Communism or Socialism, but a new societal model. My guess is that in the meantime, it's not going to be pretty.
serves you right if you eat at GMO-powered Applebee's IMO.
the cashier thing always boggled my mind particularly in drive thru, give me a touch screen already, they don't even have to use words for our illiterate population a burger pic will do.
Seriously, i just ran this little scan disk thang, so it is all good.
Yo mama is so fat, it taes 2 trips for her to haul ass.
Like so many other times, the unions are sending the ignorant workers down the primrose lane. Higher wages, more automation, and less jobs for the lowest skilled workers--making them unemployed. If these folks had the skills to get a better job they would. Also, wait staff is overpaid. Some gal gets a $6 tip for dropping off a couple of plates and then drifting back maybe twice--letting me sit with empty plates when I want to leave. They make a fortune per hour.
Sideways snow, sideways rain. That's why I love them pumping my gas in Oregon! And, it's cheaper gas than in CA or WA. A few tax-paying jobs for them that's their career pinnacle. A couple places will even wash your windshield!
BTW, West of the Cascades - yes, just CA North.
Sideways snow, sideways rain. That's why I love them pumping my gas in Oregon! And, it's cheaper gas than in CA or WA. A few tax-paying jobs for them that's their career pinnacle. A couple places will even wash your windshield!
BTW, West of the Cascades - yes, just CA North.
Just so you know folks, the exact same arguments and slurs were thrown around when labor went against the owners of steel mills and coal mines. The work these laborers did was for the most part very mundane and didn't require a whole lot of education. The labor movement revolutionized the work place for decades to come but before it got better for all, it got very bloody and skulls were crushed between labor and factory militias.
Labor is only accepting to be squeezed for so long. The fact they are organizing across the country and protesting should give everyone pause. Don't easily dismiss where this is potentially headed.
We Deserve Better
JUMPING JESUS ON A POGO STICK!
What a bunch of whiny self-righteous bitches are on this thread.
Never heard that expression before. Love it.
Lets have a thousand comments pissing on the little people. Jesus, what is that all about? Are they fucking robbing the country blind? Did they cause the 2008 financial crisis? No, but gee we can feel so superior and post piss as comments about them by the fucking hundreds. Some days ZH is downright pathetic. This is one of them. Lets instead look at the Royal Bank of Scotland and their deliberate scams to destroy small businesses so they can forclose and swoop in and take assets. But heck, they wear suits and speak the kings english.
I don't eat that shit dog food in a bun those shit holes sell, but neither am I going to piss down the necks of the people who work in those fuck holes. Is this what being American has come to? A desperate search to find somebody lower down the social scale to kick in the nutts?
Jesus, this says Fuck All about 2013 Americans.
Fork em JB, what does your night sky look, feel and sound like out there right now? Was it the Crow, that lived there? Kinda wild guess. Gotta think about it some. There is some wierd sounding shiot coming out of my woods tonight. Feels fine out there though. I am gonna go out out shout thataway to ya right now. Drink up!
1
Smart AND pretty!
Entering cloud waitering.... You will be served by waiters and waitresses from India and Philippine. Through the webcam, speaker and a tablet, your will be served.
I'm sorry but I just don't care. Horrible stuff, anyway.
Recently, 3 of us walked into a McDonald's (against my better judgment) after not being in one for ages. We stood and stood at a near-empty counter and no one seemed to interested to take our order. Poor management and zeroes for staff. I was about to leave when I watched an ungloved employee handle a chicken sandwich. That was it. We couldn't get out of there fast enough.
If every fast food place shut down tomorrow, nothing would change for my family and I suspect many other Fight Club Members.
Anyone who is still playing the blame game at this point is not hedging accordingly.
But seriously, I work my ass off, and I still party more and less than I should. But, whether you agree with my attitude or not, my mama taught how to treat people. I am the best tipper around for the best service around. What good is an ordinary everynight, when you can earn a rare special many nights? Yeah, what he said.
I have to wonder what people on this site expect anyone to do for jobs? You all get SUPER fucking pissed at anyone on any form of government assistance (with the exception of government contracts) but you also seem to be in favor of letting low paid foreigners assemble everything, in favor of all service sector being replaced with iPads, I mean, is the only job left crooked politician, abusive cop, market "trader" (what a joke, it's all rigged) or CEO?
I guess when I get axed at my serving job so an iPad can get your meal, I'll take CEO. It seems a lot easier on both brain and body than what I do, yet pays a lot more.
But I'm just another college grad who took what he could get to get by. Fuck me, right? Glad I saved enought to buy my land outright. When this joke of an economy crumbles, no turnips for any of y'all. No eggs or deer meat either.
You will want to use a really high fence for those deer.
Y'all know that Applebees just serves microwaved frozen food, right? If you're too lazy or tired to cook, don't mind eating processed crap and have no taste, why not save $$$ and just get TV dinners at the supermarket?
Avoid all restaurants where, when they serve you, they say, "Watch out! The plate's hot!"
The majority of the population are minions and it has been this way since we entered emerged into industrialized countries. It would take a very humanitarian society with humanitarian leaders to change that via education (an education that doesn't exist today). Until then, there will always be the poor and unskilled masses. 10% of the population in the US makes most all of the money, the Middle Class has been reduced to the 10% right under them, the remaining 80% do not make very much money at all. Our government is composed of corrupt clowns who just make matters worse. We're gradually headed for a big socio-economic reset. The uneducated, unskilled, irresponsible, dependent, non-self-sufficient will suffer greatly and be thinned from the herd. They are a part of us, of humanity, our brothers and sisters. It is sad. Western man, failing to predict the consequences of his actions, has brought this reset upon himself. Another lesson to learn as we continue to evolve... or devolve.
P.S. The sooner fast foods go, the better for the society. Same for all processed, toxic food sources. We need to go back to unprocessed, natural, healthy, local, whole foods and pure clean water and a non-toxic environment or we'll all be gone soon (cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc.). Just another chapter in the history of man on planet Earth.
When you have the disaster aka Obamacare hanging over your reelection hopes, what else can you do?
I only see a few problems with the Waiter Terminator; 1) It will not bring the food to you. 2) Won't bring your drinks. 3) Won't bend over. 4) Won't show cleavage. 5) Won't fill up your water or iced tea 6) Won't remove your salad plate. 7) Won't bus your table at all. 8) Won't make any money to spend any money. 9) Won't clean the bathrooms or sweep the floors. 10) Won't offer any conversation. 11) etc. Watch the Applebees stock drop, drop, drop. Funny shit! Bet they dump it within the year. Applebees sucks anyway as well as the National Restuarant Association which supports immigration reform so they can hire cheaper labor. Still it's the wage concern rather than the monetary policy. Stupid fuckers just don't get it. Support your local independents who support your local economy.
well said...nothing for me to add to that summation....bravo
Romania, East European country, ex-communist country, EU member, still with a socialist mentality. But:
- average monthly wage: 400$ (4800$ per year). The minimum guaranteed monthly wage: 200$ per month (2400$ per year)
- gallon of gas: 6-7$
- the food is not much cheaper than in US
- eating lunch out: anywhere between 5$ and up, just like in US
I would adventure to say that 15k $ per year is not so small a wage. You just don't need to ride a gas guzzling car. Use public transportation (by the way, the LA buses are full of poor people that obviously don't spend money on personal cars). Taking into consideration the fact that 90% of the world considers this a good wage, arbitraging between expensive services and cheap labor <elsewhere> is the logical thing to do for any corporation just to stay alive. And alive they stay, thank you, because creating trade barriers and tarrifs increases the prize for the corporations that are able to do arbitrage.
Waiters don't get minimum wage. They get a lot less and are only making tips. Waiters upsell customers suggesting expensive options in front of the girlfriend and causing customers to spend more. They only need to sell one extra drink or dessert an hour to offset their meager salary. This will not have much effect on waiter employent.
I don't know what country you live in but if you're an hourly worker you must be paid the minimum wage if the State has such a law. Why do you think they call it that? There are only five states that don't.
They have the self serve touch screen devices already at sheets. No one takes your order. They let you know when its ready. This will be in every fast food joint with in five years. It cuts the costs of paying cashiers. So much for the much ballyhooed service economy. Order up!!!!