McDonald's orders 7,000 touchscreen kiosks to replace cashiers

Fast food just got faster: Maccas' DIY burger
Glenda Kwek
May 17, 2011
Ads by Google

Galway Restaurantswww.LivingSocial.com
Get 50% Off Coupons On The Best Galway Restaurants. Sign Up!
Fast food giant McDonald's is moving to introduce customer-operated touchscreens at its European restaurants to speed up serving times by up to four seconds.

The touchscreens - to be rolled out at some of McDonald's 7000 restaurants across Europe - will allow customers to order without the need for cashiers or cash, the Financial Times reported.

The president of McDonald's Europe, Steve Easterbrook, told the Times the changes were expected to cut the serving time for each customer by three to four seconds. The European outlets serve about 2 million customers each day, the newspaper added.

Advertisement: Story continues below
"Ordering food has not changed for 30 or 40 years," Mr Easterbrook said about the rationale of introducing the screens.

The dates and cost of the technology roll-out were not specified.

The data collected from the touchscreens would also help McDonald's track its customers' eating habits in a similar way to that of other retailers, who use loyalty cards to keep tabs on their users' every purchase.

"f more companies shift the humans from the banal and repetitive tasks of customer service to the ones where they are adding more value, that strikes me as a good thing," the newspaper's associate editor John Gapper wrote.

But a McDonald's customer in London, Joe Surkitz, said the machines would shrink the job market, "plus you won't get service with a smile".

Touchscreen technology has already been introduced in Sydney supermarkets and restaurants.

At seven McDonald's restaurants, including Waitara, Sydney Airport Gateway and Five Dock, touchscreen kiosks were used as an alternative way for customers to place orders, spokeswoman Laura Keith said.

While the kiosks have been in place for the "past couple of years", Ms Keith said McDonald's Australia had no plans to move to a fully automated system at its outlets.

Restaurants such as Wagaya in Sydney's Haymarket use touchscreens embedded into walls that allow diners to order directly from their tables without a waiter in sight.

Other eateries have introduced iPads in place of paper menus.

The Microsoft Surface system, whereby users can move objects on a large screen with their hands as in scenes in the movie Minority Report, has already been introduced in some US casinos.

Customers can use the screens to order food and drinks, make reservations, play games, interact with people at other tables and pay their bills.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/fast-food-just-got-faster-maccas-diy-burger-20110517-1eqiz.html#ixzz1MkMiDibD