After 'feel-good' hiring blitz in US, McDonald's to replace workers with touch-screens

You can bet your ass this will be coming to the U.S. sooner than later. Our supermarkets have already put a hiring freeze on cashiers as they replace them with automated checkout lines. So as it turns out, the April hiring blitz really was just another P.R. propaganda stunt in order to get people feeling better about the economy on the one hand, and giving an excuse to have no sympathy for the poor on the other, as the number of unemployed and food stamp recipients continues to swell nationwide. A band-aid on a bullet hole.

McDonald's to Replace Cashiers with Touch Screen Computers

McDonald's restaurants in Europe will soon be swapping the chain's legendary "service with a smile" with "service with a beep." European McDonald's restaurants are preparing to replace cashiers with touch screen computers at terminals where customers will be able to order up their hamburgers and fries and pay with credit cards.


About 7,000 of the fast food franchise's locations in the United Kingdom will be fitted with the touch screen technology, which aims to make the McDonald's experience more convenient and accommodating.


The touch screen method of ordering will improve efficiency and make the average transaction three to four seconds faster for each customer, Steve Easterbrook, president of the European branch of McDonald's, told the Financial Times. Easterbrook didn't provide a date for when the touch screens, which were inspired by a trip to Japan, will be introduced to UK McDonald's restaurants.


The new terminals will also phase out cash as an accepted payment method, as the machines will only take credit and debit cards. No word yet on whether McDonald's in the United States will be next in line to replace cashiers with computers, but the addition doesn't seem to be part of the ongoing $1-billion makeover of the company's U.S. restaurants.


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/mcdonalds-replace-cashiers-touch-screen-computers-200601087.html