No, but the fryerbot already has that station covered. And McDonald’s already has automated drink dispensers that you can watch through the drive-through window at some places. Burger assembly and some of the prep is about the only part of a McWendy King I can’t see a way to easily and cheaply automate.
On the topic of automation, there’s a chain called Caliburger (which started in China as an unlicensed knockoff of In-n-Out and serves a similar menu) which uses a robot to cook patties and cook fries. Neat little concept, but they still need humans to assemble sandwiches and package things and hand it off to the customer.
When I can punch into a kiosk that I want a double meat animal style with extra pickles and no lettuce, and it pops out two or three minutes later like some sort of restaurant-sized vending machine, then it’ll be time for human workers to panic.
It is entertaining to see how the goalposts shift. Back when globalization and offshoring were ramping up and warnings were given about losing manufacturing to more competitive nations and said warnings were dismissed who knew then that the arguments would shift to the strategically essential burger industry.
Luxembourg GDP per capita PPP (tradingeconomics.com)
With that sort of median income, buying a bucket of KFC shouldn’t be problematic. Not everywhere is as wealthy and the impact of labor costs, which are always ultimately passed onto the consumer, are more meaningful.
I’m sure there’s a point in here that relates to something in this thread? Offshoring/globalization was always and only bad for workers. In-And-Out paying a $20 wage showed you can give workers more and still make money, with the only cost being a modest tradeoff to burger topping diversity. That’s not a hypothetical, that’s a real-world win-win outcome.
No, it’s not. The ever powerful SHAREHOLDER is being cheated of their slightly higher return. /s
And don’t forget:
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Leaving the company after only a few months shows a lack of loyalty to the company
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Job hopping looks bad on a resume
Is there a way to look at some of the big FF corps’ margins over time compared to hourly wages? I’m sure it’s complicated by the fact that so many are franchises.
It would be interesting to see if they are making more money than in the past, and if that extra margin is coming from stagnant wages.
I am so far from an economist that I’m not even sure I’m articulating this right.
Well, it helped all the offshore and global workers.
So the shift manager gets a raise as well?
Good!
We all should get wages that allow us to live.
Arguing it isn’t fair someone else get the same as you is an argument for a raise, not an argument against their raise.
The big FF chains are often built by multi-million dollar investment groups. The McDonalds, Chick-fil-as, In-And-Outs, etc. can likely deal with a $20 minimum wage since these are corporate entities that have made their FF investment in a way that maximizes their profits. But there are lots of smaller FF places which are single-owner and they are just getting by. In many cases, buying into a franchise gets you the equivalent of a minimum wage job when you figure in the income you make divided by the hours you work. These smaller FF restaurants will have trouble increasing wages since there isn’t a whole lot of extra profit to squeeze out.
One thing I’m wondering is if the bigger chains will come out ahead from these smaller restaurants going under. If random places like “Pita World”, “Donuts4U”, “Dave’s Drive-thru”, etc. go under, then the bigger places like In-N-Out, Olive Garden, Panera, etc. get more business. These more expensive restaurants will typically have backers with deeper pockets to help ride things out until they settle out. Maybe they lose money when the wage goes to $20, but they know it’s just a matter of time until the smaller places shut down and they reap extra business from less competition.
The new wage only applies to businesses with 60 or more locations.
Mom & Pop are just fine.
When I was working minimum age jobs in the Stone Age a law had gone into effect that raised it from $2.90 to $3.15 to $3.35. I recall getting a raise from $3.15 to $3.35 and then it went up and I was back to minimum. I definitely didn’t think it was fair. I was 16 years old though.
I thought that meant 60 location nationwide? I’m assuming that a place like Quiznos that has 100+ locations nationwide would fall under this requirement regardless of whether the location is owned by the Quiznos corporation or by a franchisee. A franchisee may just be scraping by with their one or two Quiznos locations. Quiznos Inc. could shuffle things around among all their corporate stores and be okay, but the person with one or two might get squeezed out.
It’s right there in the first sentence - shifting the goalposts to find another bugaboo to expound about.
(f) People should learn a trade to earn more money and postpone children until they can afford to care for them. This is universal and not just for “fast food employees”.
My understanding ( and I could be wrong) is that it will affect Mom and Pop because the "60 locations nationwide " refers to the chain, not the individual owner. If own a single Subway franchise , I’ll have to raise the pay, but if I own all ten locations of Doreen’s Subs, this law will not apply to me. And Panera or anyplace else that bakes and sells bread as a stand-alone product is exempt altogether, because apparently the definition of “fast food” does not include bakeries that also sell other foods.
They will - at the government agency where I worked pre-retirement, the union staff got raises for a few years and the non-union managers didn’t. They couldn’t fill the management jobs for a couple of years (until those jobs got a raise) because it would have been either a pay cut or a tiny raise and no one would take it.
I disagree. It jacks up the cost of living with higher prices which LOWERS purchase power. Your argument for a raise doesn’t mean it’s available.
So you’re saying that nobody should work fast food, or that only independently wealthy people should?
How do you pay the rent while you’re learning your trade?
People who think it’s easy clearly were never on their own.
And who said anything about children? I mean, I disagree that poor people shouldn’t be allowed children (that is what you’re saying), but that’s quite a separate issue.
All my friends worked their way through college. But you don’t have to go to college. Many trades such as plumbing and construction work on an apprenticeship basis.
We worked at less-than-minimum wage jobs to help pay for it while in HS.