"Would I go to an automated McDonalds to buy a Big Mac? Sure, I would try it. Why? Curiosity. And hopefully, it would be cheaper. But we shall see. For now, I am content to deal with humans, despite all their flaws and mistakes."
I just went back and read an article I wrote in January of 2017. Right after Donald Trump got elected. It had to do with jobs coming back from overseas, and how many of them will not exist by 2025. One "think tank" thought that 20% of those jobs will have gone bye-bye by 2025. That pretty well tracks with what I am reading today.
BREAKING NEWS: For the past year, McDonalds has been working on a 100% automated restaurant in Texas. Now it is up and running. Serving customers. Flipping burgers. How is it going so far? Okay. However, many who go there are skeptical at first. But the food comes out tasting the same, orders DO NOT get mixed up.
What does McDonalds corporate think about this new venture of theirs? They are excited. Why? Their corporate goal is to do better with less. And that involves using technology. Why will this be a bellwether event? Heck, if McDonalds can do it, so can we (the competition might be saying). As one customer said after leaving this new McDonalds - "Well, there goes millions of jobs." Yup. That will be truth.
Speaking of truth, every time my wife and I go to Sam's Club, it is spooky walking down the aisles. Why? There is a constant "beep, beep", if a robot floor cleaner is coming up the same aisle. So far, I don't think anyone has been run over by one of these robots, but it takes some getting used to.
Plus, when you are shopping now at Sam's, if you don't want to use self-service lanes, you can use "auto checkout". That is where you use your phone app every time you put something in your cart. When you go through a checkout reader, everything is automatically tabulated, and you just walk out the store. Easy-peasy, just like that. No more check-out lines.
Some "old schoolers" are thinking, can't we just stop this madness? Slow down, for Pete's sake! Here is the bad news for those old-time thinkers. Every second, 127 new devices become connected to the internet. That is what is called the "Internet of Things (IoT)". By the end of this year, it is estimated that there will be more than 75 billion things connected to the internet. By 2030, it is estimated that each person in this country will own at least 15 internet connected devices. Worldwide, the IoT will be worth trillions of dollars. That is our future.
Would I go to an automated McDonalds to buy a Big Mac? Sure, I would try it. Why? Curiosity. And hopefully, it would be cheaper. But we shall see. For now, I am content to deal with humans, despite all their flaws and mistakes.
I've used automated McD's many times, starting in Europe many years ago. It takes a bit more time going through all the options, but you get exactly what you pay for and I'm sure prices are lower than dealing with inefficient and occasionally surly humans. And this mad rush to raise the minimum wage is only going to accelerate the trend.
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