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Customers want good cheap food, they couldn't care less if it's a robot or human delivering it. McDonalds competitors would destroy them overnight if they could offer cheaper and faster burgers via kioks and robots.
The problem with McDonald's is their food, not their employees. The sandwiches and other food portions are too small. When you order a meal at McDonald's you get a message by the size of the portion that says "I don't care about my reputation, I just want to save money by giving you the smallest amount of food that I can get away with."
For a long time this has been the case. I avoid going to this "restaurant" because of these small food portions that seem to be meant for little children rather than adults.
McDonald's can restructure all it wants, but if it doesn't improve the size of their food portions then they will continue to be buffeted around by their competitors
A lot of these layoffs are coming from the kiosks.
I've always thought McDonald's sucked. They're my last fast food option. For burgers, we have a local fast food chain called Pal's. Cook Out is also good. If I can't go to these, Burger King and Wendy's are better for the bigger national chains.
I don't know that this means a lot.
Layoffs are contemplated at the corporate level.
Kiosks are at the retail level. 81% of all McDonalds retail are franchise- owned.
If you weren't so busy trying to fit every little problem into your political agenda you might realize that "frontline staff" do not work for McDonalds, they work for local business people who hold the franchises. Labor in the stores does not eat up corporate profits.
Give it a rest, Kokonutty. This poster can have a different opinion than you do. This is the internet. People will post things you don't agree with. KWIM?
I live in a large city with a whole bunch of McDonalds locations all over the place. But last I heard, none of the ones here are company-owned stores. They are all franchise operations.
I wonder how this will impact those independently-owned franchise operations, whose employees technically don't work for McDonald's?
It doesn’t impact franchise operations.
81% of retail McDonalds are franchise- owned and operated. McDonalds intendes to increase the franchise operation to 90%.
The issue of automation taking over human jobs is sadly ignored.
Since the late 70’s, more jobs have been eliminated by technology substitution/ industrial robotics than outsourcing/ offshoring.
I have a friend whose father was an elevator operator in the Empire State Building. The man pushed buttons for a living. He made enough back in the day to own a small apartment building ( VA Loan) in a rough part of Queens and support a wife and 5 kids. They had no car. They had no TV. They never dined out or vacationed. Mother sewed clothing for the kids. Nothing was wasted or thrown out.
This was the lower Middle Economic Class in the 50’s- 60’s.
He retired with a full pension.
That job was replaced by technology and the public’s ability to push their own buttons.
My first full time employer had multiple massive typing pools. Women who did nothing else all day but sit and type.
Then came Word Processing which eventually evolved to DIY. Hundreds of thousands of jobs just vanished.
On Pay Day, back then, it was common to wait in line 45 minutes to deposit your paycheck. Then came Direct Deposit, ATMs, electronic check clearing and now electronic banking. Hundreds of thousands of jobs vanished.
Today’s custom industrial robotics are designed to compete with the lowest cost sources of human labor.
Kiosks and robot burger makers will be coming soon, and help improve McD's profitability.
It will improve franchise profits which in turn may make franchise licenses more valuable.
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