# I love fast food ordering kiosks! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 26, 2019, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690 "2019-07-26T22:54:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/41 "2019-09-02T01:12:18Z")
If I had to watch a commercial first I’d walk away and never come back. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/42 "2019-09-02T01:37:51Z")
I’ve used the kiosk at several McDonalds in Massachusetts and New York probably over 100 times and have never had to watch a commercial. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/43 "2019-09-02T05:24:02Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > The kiosk made you watch a commercial before and after the order!?! That’s brazen. > How did they keep their customers from walking away in disgust? > [@Baker](#): > > If I had to watch a commercial first I’d walk away and never come back. It was lunch during work, there was no where else nearby that had a reasonable chance of getting me fed and back out the door in anything resembling my very limited time window and it was my first time, so…yeah. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/44 "2019-09-02T06:12:51Z")
I’ve used the ones at McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Taco Bell. It’s nice to get a more accurate order, and have options that aren’t readily available when ordering via the person at the counter. And they can have the kiosk in multiple languages. But it’s absolutely, positively about eliminating jobs. Fast food businesses are the number one entity fighting against increasing the minimum wage. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/45 "2019-09-02T09:12:59Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > All the fast food joints near me are installing digital kiosks that let you order and pay for your food without any human interaction. (No doubt as a reaction to the skyrocketing minimum wage.) I love them! I can take all the time I want, and I don’t have to interact with any mush-mouthed slacker millennials, other than picking up my food when they call my name. I quite like the machines myself, but I had mention the minimum wage thing, in honour of this boards purpose. These kiosks have zero to do with ‘skyrocketing minimum wage’. McDonalds (I’m not sure on other retailers) was working on these kiosks at least as early as 2008. Well before the minimum wage debate rose to any kind of prominence. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/46 "2019-09-02T11:13:05Z")
McDonald’s have them over here, and I absolutely love them. They are so much faster once you are used to them especially when you’re trying to order in not perfect Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/47 "2019-09-02T13:01:44Z")
> [@GreedySmurf](#): > > These kiosks have zero to do with ‘skyrocketing minimum wage’. McDonalds was working on these kiosks at least as early as 2008. Well before the minimum wage debate rose to any kind of prominence. Mcdonald’s just paid 300 million dollars for the software to drive these kiosks.(Its biggest investment in the past couple decades.) They using artificial intelligence to gather info on every customer and change the menu display as appropriate. It will read license numbers at the drive-through and remember your favorite orders. If there’s a backup of french fry orders, it will emphasize other side dishes, to minimize wait time. In cold weather, it will emphasize hot drinks. This is all about using high tech to increase efficiency and boost sales. It’s been under development for years, and is happening because the tech is now available.It has nothing to do with minimum wage. > **[McDonald's Bites on Big Data With $300 Million Acquisition](https://www.wired.com/story/mcdonalds-big-data-dynamic-yield-acquisition/)** > > The fast-food giant's largest acquisition in 20 years is bringing machine learning to the drive-thru. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/48 "2019-09-02T15:16:56Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > Yeah, I love them. > > Now I can go to my local McD’s without dangerously raising my blood pressure. The counterpeople were always incredibly slow and it really pissed me off, especially if I had to be somewhere. It was indescribable, really. The line would be 8 or 9 deep and the person working the register would take an order, wander over to the French fry station and play with the fryers, take 5 minutes making a coffee drink, wipe down the counters, wander into the back, come back out, straighten the cups at the soda machine, then take the next order. I seriously stopped going for a while because the service made me so consistently angry. > > I liked the Panera kiosks until they changed the software to make it impossible to order a single half sized entree item. You can order the pick two but half sandwiches are no longer a stand alone item. > > So now I have to use the register. I’ve complained to them, though Oh I’ll have none of that make busy BS with a huge line waiting. Or anytime really, it makes me so frustrated to see workers ignore customers. So I speak up with a “pardon me would you mind turning around and taking my order please” Or you might want to drop more fries down I see you’ve run out and none are frying now. And managers that stay out of sight during a huge rush are weanies! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/49 "2019-09-02T16:12:55Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > This is all about using high tech to increase efficiency and boost sales. It’s been under development for years, and is happening because the tech is now available.It has nothing to do with minimum wage. “Improving efficiency” is a synonym for “minimizing labor.” ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690/50 "2019-09-02T20:49:33Z")
Mixed feelings but generally positive, although I usually use the apps, especially for places like Chipotle and Noodles & Company which gets a lot more of my business than regular fast food places. I know the anti-minimum wage people want to blame them, but I think it’s more to help the restaurant to deal with the inevitable staffing problems that occur in fast food. I’m sure a lot of the grumpy employees result from someone going in for their shift thinking they they’re working the fryer and away from the public, only to find out that Joe quit or called in ‘sick’ and now they’re stuck on the register. I’ve never seen a commercial though and I’d be on Twitter complaining. Someone ordering at a kiosk isn’t a captive audience like at a gas pump or in an elevator. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-fast-food-ordering-kiosks/837690.md?page=2)