I’ve used them in the past at those stepped-up convenience stores like Wawa and Sheetz and they’re OK. They have a similar system at the little cafe in our office building. I think in those cases they do speed up the process. You place the order, browse the store for other stuff you may need, check out - and your food is bagged and ready to go 5 minutes later.
I had the privilege (?) of using one at a more traditional fast food place recently, McDonald’s, somewhere in Connecticut. It wasn’t clear whether we could have gone to a cashier to place our order. It was certainly slower to place than had we gone to a cashier. We waited 15 minutes for our food, also. When I tried to get someone’s attention to get our drink cups, evidently I had either lost a LOT of weight (and therefore was too skinny to see), or my magic invisibility ray was working that day - people did not make any effort to interact with the paying customer just across the counter.
So in this particular case, the experience was dramatically worse than if I’d been able to order at the cashier.
Now, I can see where it’d be nice, if the place was a zoo - place my order at a kiosk, sit down, get food brought to me. But the restaurant was quite slow just then.
I never fill out those survey forms… but that day I did. I especially called out the disgusting bathroom (seriously, people: if you wind up getting shit on the toilet seat, it really is NOT that much trouble to wipe the seat with a bit of TP. You’re already wiping your ass, unless you like going around reeking of crap all day.) The crap getting on the seat isn’t McD’s fault. The fact that it was STILL there is. I’d have reported it… but to whom?
I don’t usually mind the kiosks but I hate the apps. Every business in the world wants me to install their app in my rapidly-disappearing phone memory. I don’t want to be part of your data collection scheme just to get my hamburger a little faster.
And perhaps it will get better with time, but heaven help you if something goes wrong. Several of us went to a Taco Bell while on business (IKR) made a single order and the kiosk didn’t provide a paper receipt. No receipt, no company reimbursement. Of course, this was after payment by credit card had been processed.
Counter help said they couldn’t provide one. All the way up to the manager, no way (they claimed) to print a receipt. I was not amused.
(I realize the irony in that, if I’d had the app, this probably wouldn’t have been an issue.)
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
That tale is surprising; most employers now have a bit more reasonable policy regarding small purchases like this.
Either they only require a receipt for things over a certain amount (10.00 is one number I’ve seen), or you simply have a per diem rate that you charge, and spend any way you like. Hookers+blow (well, assuming you don’t get caught, that’s probably fireable) or food - your choice.
That said, I’d have been tempted to demand a refund from Taco Hell.
Your mistake is in using the term “reasonable” in reference to my (ex-)employer.
To make them a little less sinister, we figured it would be both ok, and easier, to put it all on one person’s tab. Per diem was never offered and we were definately over $10. (Although the tightwads in accounting also did not allow any dollar amount before requiring a receipt.)
Missed the edit window.
The above should then say:
I thought about a refund and storming out in a self-righteous huff, but we were hungry and had a lot of work to do. I ended up paying and then begging accounting to show mercy. Thirty days later when I was able to show them my credit card statement they gave me my approximately $30.
Has anyone noticed an improvement in the correctness of your order? The mention of Panera reminds me of a pet peeve. By default they give you a hunk of bread alongside your food. WHich is silly, if you’ve ordered a sandwich or soup in a bread bowl.
They’re supposed to ask you if you’d rather have chips or an apple. That happens about 50% of the time.
When they DO ask, we usually wind up with bread anyway (and yes, we’ve checked the receipt - usually it says apple or whatever).
I have this happen all the time. Then you have to go to the counter and get them to reprint it. I might as well have just gone to the counter in the first place.
I like them in theory, but clearly a lot of restaurants don’t bother to properly maintain their machines.
I haven’t tried one yet. It’s kind of like self checkout at the grocery store. I don’t want to look up the per pound items. I use them when it doesn’t involve that.
The only time a business insist I use a kiosk I just laughed. It was 2am and I wanted their fancy coffee. The store was empty and I just wanted a cup of coffee. I was doing them a favor buying the expensive cup because their regular coffee had devolved into colored water.
Well the clerk insisted I use the kiosk. If taking my order was too complicated a task then making a good cup of coffee probably didn’t rank high in their business model. I thanked him for his time and left. Haven’t been back in 2 years. I’ll just make it myself and put it in a thermos.
If I wanted a #1 meal at McWendy King then I suppose it would be OK to use a kiosk. Assuming I didn’t have to stand in line for that too. There was a time when I could go to almost any Wendy’s in the drive through and it was ready as fast as I could pull up to the window.
I friggin love them, due to the fact that I am mute. Now I don’t have to hope somebody can read my handwriting. I write in all capital block letters, not fancy cursive, and they still stare at it forever before putting it into the computer. And most of them think I’m deaf since I can’t talk, which leads to hilarious antics.
I also love self-checkouts, since most cashiers try to start a conversation and ask me questions when they aren’t looking at me. They get pissed off and think I’m ignoring them.
I don’t love them and prefer not to use them. I’m not normally a germophobe, but in this case the idea of punching my food order into a screen that’s probably been touched, smeared, and possibly licked by kids, not to mention anybody who has a cold or other communicable disease, grosses me out. I’d rather tell the human my order and have them punch it in.
Now, if they’d start putting Purell dispensers next to the touchscreens, then I might change my mind.
I wouldn’t normally pay for fast food with a credit card at the counter; don’t force me to pay that way at your kiosk (& that’s exactly what mobile wallet/watch is, so don’t tell me it’s different)…& if you’re only cashier is (supposedly) on break well then I’ll walk away w/o getting anything. When I talk to someone who was at the exact same location (in the airport) 4-5 hours earlier & find out they couldn’t pay cash either, well then I’ll bitch to corporate about you. :mad:
I had cash in my pocket; it’s harder digging out my wallet, after going thru security, while balancing my luggage.
::Looks askance at Booger King:: (which I don’t really like anyway but they were one of the few fast options in the terminal)
I despise kiosks, the same way I do self-checkout. Something always goes wrong, and I have to go to a register anyway, or get a clerk to help
And Quik Shop, don’t get me started. I pump my own gas, wait for the reciept, and the machine tells me to go inside to get it. They are just trying to get me to buy more stuff.
But when it goes right, it goes sooooo right. I walk up to the self-serve thing, do my business, and skip the long lines at the registers. This is almost always the outcome, so I go to self-serve whenever I can.
I’ve evee only tried a kiosk at Mcdonalds once and it left me wondering what the hell the point was.
Maybe I did it wrong, but I had to watch a commercial first, then stand in line so I could pay anyway since “this station does not process payments, please see cashier” no “at this time” or anything like that. Then another damn commercial before it would print a confirmation reciept so I could stand in line to pay the cashier anyway…took longer to order than if I’d just stood in line and ordered at the counter. I’m sure it’s changed and was probably launched before the "don’t open before " date, it was a brand new store after all, but still, meh, not impressed or convinced
ETA. What I really like are the full service restaraunts that have the little screen with the card reader that you can use to pay…just don’t tell your server when you’re done eating, cause you won’t ever see them again.
What height are the kiosks you see at?