All the McD*nalds in my area have been upgraded with order kiosks. Regardless of all the controversy around self-checkout, and minimum wage, and automation taking our jobs, I personally love them. I can take my sweet time composing my order, I can see the full selection (such as it is), I can see pictures and prices clearly without having to strain my eyes to read 12pt font on the tableau, and I don’t have to shout at the cashier to be understood or struggle to hear back. I really believe this is the right way forward.
My only complaint so far has been that the order kiosks only accept card. There is actually a way to pay by cash that the machine never lets you know about - you have to press “cancel” on the keypad when it asks to insert card, and then the screen gives you an order number to give to the human cashier (each store still has one register open) so you can pay in cash. So I still have to wait on line, but at least my order selection is locked in, I can have exact change ready, and there isn’t usually a line anyway anymore.
I know all yall Europeans are proud about your nearly total transition to cashless economy or whatever, and you like to boast how not a single euro banknote has graced the inside of your wallet in months. However I personally like cash, and I genuinely believe that a cash payment system is a necessary element of a liberal democracy and secure society. So at least understand my pleasant surprise when I saw these reverse-ATM cashboxes at this restaurant. They work and were being actively used too! (It spat out my dollar coins though, those bastards!) I hope they find their way into more places.
Those are both examples of improvements. Self-checkout is not an improvement, it’s outsourcing of work to customers.
That’s a good point. My examples are pretty bad in that regard, I admit. I would still argue that jobs do come and go though. We have many jobs today that didn’t exist 40 years ago.
About outsourcing work to costumers, I kindly disagree: I personally love self-checkout in my grocery store though. I see it as an improvement over standing in line, having to think which order to put stuff on the conveyor for optimal packaging (gotta put the heavy stuff first), still clogging up the conveyor after the cashier because you happen to have just enough bagspace, but only when you pack optimally, while 2 people look at you angrily because they now have to wait 5 seconds longer because your brain freezes over this stressful situation.
No, this didn’t happen everytime I went grocery shopping at a cashier. But enough to see self scanning as a way more relaxing time.
So for me, it’s not soing someones work, but rather that I, as the costumer, am in full control of the tempo and way I want to so things. But I understand not everyone feela the same way, and that’s ok.
There’s always a line for self-checkout now too though, and you still need to consider what to package first. Ultimately it’s down to personal preference. There are a lot of people on this platform with social anxiety who prefer self-checkout. Personally I hate it, and everything it represents, but I understand why some people prefer it. As an express lane it’s pretty okay, but self checkout for an entire cart of products is bullshit.