It sounded like a really good idea. Maybe even a treat. A treat since we rarely eat fast food. But in the end it was more like a trick than a treat.
This is the time of year when Dustin and I make our sales calls as we seek to secure business for the following year. We try to visit as many advertisers as possible, and our travels always take us to Georgia, California and Canada along with a few one-offs. On a recent trip to California, we needed to leave our hotel by 8 a.m. Dustin likes his breakfast; I like my sleep. He wanted to meet around 7:15 a.m.; I wanted another 30 minutes. So instead of eating at the hotel and dealing with servers, cooks, etc., I suggested we just stop across the street at McDonald’s. After all, McDonald’s is fast food. Or so you would think.
Some background. Back on April 1, Gov. Gavin Nuisance, er, Newsome, signed a bill into law raising California’s minimum wage to $16 an hour. That is unless you worked in a fast food establishment. Then the minimum wage was now $20 an hour. Sounds like a good idea, right? Wrong. Fast food joints like McDonald’s replaced humans with kiosks. So now they can employ fewer $20-an-hour workers, many of whom were left without a job. Who else got the shaft? Customers who have to deal with kiosks.
On this particular morning, Dustin and I walked into the McDonald’s lobby to find not one worker. Apparently, human-to-human interaction is becoming somewhat of a thing of the past if you’re craving a Big Mac and fries. There were a couple unmanned cash registers where you expect to see humans. However, there were kiosks. Kiosks that don’t require $20 an hour, health benefits and don’t call in sick.
Dustin and I looked at each other with question marks circulating over our heads because, after all, we were here for the Big Breakfast, Egg McMuffin, Sausage biscuits and, of course, the hash browns. Maybe two. (Don’t lie to me; you’re salivating like Pavlov’s dogs as you read this.) So I step up to the kiosk like an Olympic swimmer about to jump in the pool. I like my Big Breakfast without pancakes. Dustin likes his sausage biscuit a certain way. Maybe without egg. Maybe without sausage. I don’t remember. He always personalizes his orders. (Translation: He’s particular). Neither was happening because there was no option for that.
I had trouble navigating the kiosk. So, too, would someone with a bachelor’s degree in microbiology. Eventually, I completed my order. It took me three to four minutes to use said kiosk vs. 30 seconds to order from some pimply-faced 18-year-old behind the counter. As we sat at one of the three inside tables (apparently the new-look McDonald’s does not favor dining in, probably because there is no $20-an-hour employee to clean the tables and empty the garbage) anxiously awaiting our order to come out (we assumed there was a $20 an hour cook, maybe, because everything was happening behind a wall and another kiosk could have been doing the cooking), we noticed an elderly gentleman at the counter seeking a refill for his coffee. I bursted out laughing before wishing him Godspeed.
Another gentleman walked in and proceeded straight to the counter seeking someone to take his order. Dustin, the helpful fellow that he is, told the man he’d be waiting until dinner to order his breakfast if he didn’t visit the kiosk.
Soon, a $20-an-hour someone emerged from behind the wall, sort of like the Wizard of Oz, with our food. He may have been the cook for all we knew. All that was missing was our coffees. Oh, and Dustin’s sausage biscuits with the eggs he didn’t want. Well, he didn’t get the eggs, but he didn’t get the sausage biscuits, either. We did seem to get extra hash browns, probably because I ordered wrong.
So what are the takeaways here? First, when a small business is forced to pay employees an elevated amount, it can have an adverse effect on both the employees (reduction in workforce) and customers (frustration). Second, technology is beneficial only when it makes things easier or more efficient. Third, McDonald’s was probably not the healthiest option anyway.
By the way, we could have taken the lazy route and gone through the drive thru and verbally ordered exactly what we wanted. That person is worth $25 an hour in my book.
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