Wendy’s To Switch To Self Ordering And Automation To Avoid $15/hr Wage hike

Automated food vending is not new at all, in the 70's our high school had vending machines that were used to sell hot food items hamburgers, sandwiches, etc. Two women ran the whole thing, heat foods and stock the vending machines.

My friend Wendy worked for wendy's, where she had to wear a name tag that stated "Wendy's is hot and juicy"!


Maybe they should just automate, I mean automation is the future of fast food.

a reply to: notmyrealname

Wow, I can't believe you'd label and entire segment of our population with a brush so broad.

And some conservatives have asked me why they are labeled as uncaring, cut throat and greedy?

It sounds like the last gasps of an already failing company to me.

I'm not surprised that this is being held up as an "I told you so!" moment though.

/shrug

a reply to: Aleister

Heartwarming.

What's the name of the government program?

originally posted by: Gryphon66
It sounds like the last gasps of an already failing company to me.

I'm not surprised that this is being held up as an "I told you so!" moment though.

/shrug

Well, I don't know about anyone else -- but where I live Wendy's is one of *the* most expensive "fast food" places around. Two people eating can easily rack up to just shy of $20. A burger/fry/drink combo is $7.99 or so here -- moreso if you want one of the fancy salads or to "upsize" your drink and fries.


If fast food wasn't supposed to be a "career" -- why is McDonalds giving their employees advice on how to survive on the low wages they pay?

A help site for McDonald's employees reportedly suggests they return holiday gifts to get out of debt.

"You may want to also consider returning some of your unopened purchases that may not seem as appealing as they did," the McResource site reads, according to screengrabs that were posted on the website of "Low Pay Is Not OK," a group that advocates for higher fast food wages.

"Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash," the McResource presentation reportedly said.

Business Insider

And that isn't all -- the same "McResource" by McDonalds also said:

'Consider bringing a brown bag lunch and skipping the takeout... You might also consider a temporary part time job to dig out of debt quickly.'

Other advice included eating bruised apples instead of throwing them out, and 'sing away stress'.

Paradoxically, they also suggested 'two vacations a year can cut heart attack risk by 50 per cent'.

Daily Mail

What kind of bizaro world do we live in when a company's advice is to "sell some of your stuff" to make ends meet? If these were high school kids, they'd be living at home and the low pay would be understandable. These are pieces of advice for adults, people with families.

Like it or not -- skilled, good paying jobs aren't as plentiful as some would have you think. Even college graduates are having a hard time putting their degrees to use. I'm not talking about basket weaving degrees, either. There's a lot of competition and the degree is only the first part.

originally posted by: olaru12
Automation will be short lived, because it will prove more expensive to maintain and people just want to be "served" by someone that cares....or should anyway. Imagine a bar without a cute barmaid or waitress. ..no thanks

But cute barmaids don't make minimum wage, and they're not unskilled.

originally posted by: Gryphon66
a reply to: Mugly

Sorry to hear your experiences aren't satisfactory.

Do you think that you speak for everyone everywhere? We are talking about a nationwide industry, not to belittle your anecdotal evidence, per se.

Perhaps you should, I dunno, avoid fast food if you don't like the service?

That would also be the market speaking.

Actually I fully support what Mugly is saying. Nationwide (I would even say Globally) people expect the fast food industry to do two things, and do them correctly . 1.) Serve food as fast as possible. 2.) Get the order right. Those are the only two things anybody going to any fast food chain expects to happen. If You think somebody is going the big M to be served with care, for the interaction, or for that matter cares about the person that is serving them, then sadly You sir are mistaken.

Want care, love or interaction with Your food? Go to a restaurant. There is a reason why restaurant food takes longer and is more costly than fast food.

Automation was coming to fast food chains sooner or later, this 15$/h was just a good pretense to make it happen faster, (in my opinion of course) for the simple reason that automation in FF chains will cut costs and will avoid constant mistakes with orders that have to be handled at an incredibly fast pace for 24/7, which in turn makes humans prone to error.

originally posted by: Gryphon66
a reply to: Mugly

Sorry to hear your experiences aren't satisfactory.

Do you think that you speak for everyone everywhere? We are talking about a nationwide industry, not to belittle your anecdotal evidence, per se.

Perhaps you should, I dunno, avoid fast food if you don't like the service?

That would also be the market speaking.

i dont speak for anyone but i am not the only one with this opinion.
i dont eat fast food all that often.
when i do they usually get it wrong

originally posted by: Mugly

originally posted by: Gryphon66
a reply to: Mugly

Sorry to hear your experiences aren't satisfactory.

Do you think that you speak for everyone everywhere? We are talking about a nationwide industry, not to belittle your anecdotal evidence, per se.

Perhaps you should, I dunno, avoid fast food if you don't like the service?

That would also be the market speaking.

i dont speak for anyone but i am not the only one with this opinion.
i dont eat fast food all that often.
when i do they usually get it wrong

You brought it up. I know hundreds of people who have eaten at fast food places thousands of times who have no issue with service. Beyond that, how does that address the topic of the market deciding against an "automated order taker" exactly?

Have you had positive results with automated responses from, say, telephone customer service?

Why do you think this would be any different?

How many people are going to be frustrated with having to use a machine when they can go across the street to McDonalds, Burger King, etc. and speak to a human?

Oh wait, apparently they're ALREADY going across the street where Wendy's is concerned.

originally posted by: Gryphon66
Seeing the comments here, I can't imagine why fast food workers would have a less than favorable attitude.

Low pay. (So low that they have to be subsidized by taxpayers to make ends meet)>

Long hours.

Mind-numbing repetitious work.

Customers who think they are idiots and treat them as such.

Who wouldn't be excited about that job, eh?

/eyeroll

low pay? seems to be about what the job deseres
long hours? my ass. cry me a river. i thought a big gripe was not enough hours. capped at like 32.
on what planet is that long?
try 12's and 18's. try 30 days with no day off. try swings. then we can talk about long hours.
mind numbing? yup. cause there is nothing to it which is a reason why it is only worth minimum.
ever think that customers treat them like idiots cause they treat customers like idiots? ever think customers get pissed cause a great deal of the time they cant manage to get an order correct? i mean it is not hard.

it is not just about skill level. it is all about responsibility and fast food workers have next to none.

all these ceo's that are complained about. huge responsibility.

I thought the AI/Skynet overthrow of the human race was because of what we did to Hitchbot.

Perhaps it starts at Wendy's when we don't "get fries with that".

a reply to: MystikMushroom

My 17 year old works at Hot Topic during the Holiday season, and sells her art on RedBubble the rest of the time. Most months she does really well, earning roughly double what she could make working 25 hours a week at Wendy's.

The other problem Windy's has? Only old people eat there. The one near work is dead, even during the lunch hour. I'm not sure why anyone would choose Windy's when there is a 5 Guys on the next corner.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

what are they supposed to say?
"hey guys. this is no career. it is an entry level or transitional job. not meant to support a family so go out and get some skills and quit"
hahahhaha
ok

people dont go to fast food for the tender touch and warm smile and thats a good thing cause it is not offered.
people swing through on their way home from their long day(actual long day. not 6 hour shift long) and just dont feel like cooking that night.
they want their # quick and they want it right. how often do both things happen?

i would say maybe 40% of the time my order has been wrong in some way. that is unacceptable from a quality standpoint.
i would say maybe 20% of the time i get the wrong order all together.

but yeah, lets give them double the wages....you know, love paying for people that screw up ALL the time

Wendy’s isn’t the first place to implement automation. There are others. I read about a hotel in Japan recently that replaced most of it’s staff with machines. That included the front desk, room service, etc. As artificial intelligence evolves this will become a more and more frequent occurence. And with time it will move higher and higher into the employment pecking order. Not only blue collar and low wage workers are on the unemployment hit list, but white collar workers are on it, as well. Things like low-level accountants, department supervisors, office clerks, and the like will soon start appearing on the list.

It’s not a matter of a $15/hr min wage causing this. Wendy’s may be using that excuse, but it’s BS. It’s a matter of advancing technology. So, you may as well get used to it, cause it’s gonna get much worse from here on out. And most important, don’t ever get the idea you’re bullet-proof; it just makes the fall that much harder.

Have a nice day...

a reply to: Mugly

Now you're muttering in generalities.

I can see that you don't have a high opinion of fast food workers.

But, honestly, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what hours are worked when under what conditions by the 3.51 MILLION people you're carelessly dismissing.

Have you ever worked in fast food? Do you have any idea what you're talking about from experience?

Or are you, like so many, content to parrot what the right-wing media assigns to you as talking points?

Because that's all you're doing so far.

So this CEO wants to put more people out of work and into the government's lap and instead pay those dollars to the CEO of another corporation who makes the automation equipment.

Brilliant move. Keep the money out of the peoples' pockets at all costs.

I'll wait to see the business case on this one. Cost of automation, maintenance, and obsolescence versus the cost of salaries and the like.

Bean counters are a strange bunch.

a reply to: Gryphon66

maybe you should read my post.
i do know what i am talking about.
what fast food workers why of management are putting in 40 hours.
i worked fast food for a year when i was 16.
not since.

my father in laws wife works at mcdonalds. she works like 25 hours a week.

show me these long hours please cause i am not seeing it.

how many fast food workers work 40 a week?
how many under 30? i bet more than the ones who work 40

those are not long hours and youre the one that brought that up. it simply is not true.

as far as automation. the atm works quite nicely for me. use it all the time.
much prefer that than waiting in line for a teller

im still lol'ing at the long hours comment.
you think those guys and gals are working OT?
come on man

a reply to: AlaskanDad

People can say short lived but look in Japan you have hotels with 90% robotic staff, in China fully automated plants where even the robots are serviced by other robots. Automation creeping up in the states about to explode. I have seen articles that California has robots now going along that can sense the ripeness of fruit and pick the ripe, leave the unripe leading to layoffs of illegals. ( you know it's getting bad when illegals are getting laid off to save money) construction robots digging ditches. Articles from various business/ technologist looking to layoff 30-40% of the total workforce for this stuff. Internet has killed print media, cars killed the cart and buggie, robots will kill off a large portion of jobs. The question is how does the change go? Doing nothing will kill social services by flooding it/ less working people to tax. Maybe start thinking about what new types of jobs will come out of this and get those skills going. But not sure what to do with people who have no aptitude for higher skilled jobs that will be required. All I can say is it will require leadership and vision. Haven't seen it in a long time, won't come from politicians, and certainly not democrats or republicans. Definately not any of the clowns running for president. I've been seriously looking to move into robotics in some fashion from current tech job. I mean I don't exactly live in silicon valley and in the last 15 months 13 robotics companies have opened in a 25 square mile radius.

So from reading this thread, i got that fast food workers are dumb, cant do there job and dont deserve a living wage.

Thats awsome, cant wait for the same people in a couple of years to lose there jobs to robots, now that would karma.