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I hit a Mc Donald's drive through at least once a day for a $1.00 Coke or Ice Tea. I have not yet encountered automated ordering. No doubt, that will come.
Most higher value, rule based job functions have been replaced with technology substitution over the past 40 years.
Then came self check-outs that were problematic. Costco and many grocers pulled them out of stores. Technology improved, and self check out has proliferated. My local Costco has 8 self check outs manned by one person instead of 8 cashiers paid $25/hr plus benefits. Remaining challenge is that dang consumers are s-l-o-w.
Given regional and ethnic accents, voice recognition is challenging.
Next up will be self stocking and self mopping the floor. Basically, you work for Costco the minute you walk in the door. Then you have to pay to leave.
The cost of real estate and the cost of goods is another large cost, not just employee wages.
Companies have been automating for decades. They are able to fill orders much faster than before with fewer employees. This was long before demands for higher wages.
Cash register, for example. Before cash registers people added and subtracted and wrote the sales in log books and put the money in a box. Cash registers automated that task and made check out faster and more accurate.
Burgers were once made by hand. Automated makes the patties faster and the size is exact. That was automation long before demands for higher min wage.
Drinks are filled by pressing one button and leaving the cup unattended while it's still filling. This automation allows the worker to do other tasks while the drink is filling. This automation has been around for quite awhile. This increases the speed in which an order is filled and it allows more orders per hour to be filled.
Apps allow pre-ordering which means even faster service at a drive through because the customer isn't spending time at the speaker placing the order.
Any automation which allows faster service or more accurate service will be done in the future. And any way to save money.
Those huge toilet paper rolls are a big savings because a human doesn't have to replace the roll as often.
I see kiosks inside McDonalds replacing cashiers to take your order and pay. All of these minimum wage increase demands are incentivizing automated checkout at supermarkets today. I see more and more self checkout registers in markets now.
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