Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

[jpatter666]

Will having a waiter soon be an experience reserved to high-end dining?

The cannibalization of low-end/starter jobs by technology continues....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-1...ter-terminator

[vt]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

When my 36 year old son was 10, we used to go to Fuddruckers for dinner. At Fuddruckers you place your order at the counter, give your first name, and when you meal is ready you pick it up. You put on ketchup, lettuce, etc. at another central station, fill up your drink form the fountain, and eat you meal where you choose to sit down.

No waiters, but few counter workers too. This may be a model of fewer workers at fast food and other near fast food restaurants along with the above example.
Fewer jobs at the low end for those that need a start.

It's not easy for many at the low end with the pay they receive. But is this the real problem?

Isn't the real solution to create jobs with higher growth potential and higher wages? TECI wants to rebuild infrastructure, which will produce these higher paid jobs.
We also need to do a better job with education to prepare our youth for the jobs of the future.

[don]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

FEDERAL: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)		$7.25	$5.12	$2.13	More than $30

[lektrode]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

i've got to the point where i'd just as soon eat at places where you have to wait on yerself - since the level of service at most restaurants - short of the 100/head joints - has just been getting worse and worse lately - with the waithelp at some places i've been to recently apparently spend more time texting than paying attention to who pays the(ir) check

the downright snottiness of some of them - esp the 'entitled' generation - with EXPECTATIONS of a 25% tip - when they cant be bothered to perform even the simplest of tasks - like have somebody at your table within a minute or 2 of being seated - at least to ask if you'd like a drink - never mind return within a minute or 2 of delivering your food order to check to see if all is good, do you need anything else???

and think that their function is done, just because they've dropped a plate in front of you and can disappear until its time to cash-out?

and then - right on schedule - with the distraction du jure - we have next years BIG issue:

5 hours ago Obama says wage and income gap eroding American dream


that his buddies there in lower manhattan ARENT BEHIND ALL THIS i guess is beside the point - esp since his other
major hot button, critically important issue - i mean syriaously - is all but a wrap and in the can....

sigh...

wonder when he/they will address the REAL ISSUE?

than the 'mancession' is still underway and THEY HAVENT DONE A GD THING ABOUT IT!!!!!

[reggie]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

There are solutions to this "problem' other than what's being presented.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

Will having a waiter soon be an experience reserved to high-end dining?

The cannibalization of low-end/starter jobs by technology continues....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-1...ter-terminator

This is also happening at movie theatres. We now can order out tickets online then go to a kiosk and pick up the ticket without ever speaking to someone until of course we get to the gatekeeper.

[davidstvz]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

There really ought to be more self service burger joints where you can order a really good burger without having to be waited on (and thus tip).

There is a place by LSU called the fat cow that is like this. There is another place where the burgers cost the same and are much tastier (imo) but you've got to be served there, so it costs 25% more (I can't bring myself to only tip 15% when the meal itself is so inexpensive... I'm such a sucker).

[Southernguy]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

What about small drones taking the meals to your table?

[jr429]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

This will be a major problem for the next 25 years - technology replacing not just the menial / low wage worker but mid-level / high-level workers and how our society handles these displaced workers. I believe this growth of technology is partially the cause of the widening compensation range in the US.

[flintlock]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

I can see waiters being replaced by technology. A really good waiter can make the dining experience seamless. But unfortunately there are not enough of those around these days. How many times have you been left rating the restaurant more on the service than the food? The food should be the focus, not how many times your glass is refilled or how long you have to wait on the check. I quit going to a well known steakhouse because some marketing genius decided to turn the wait staff into commissioned sales people, aggressively pushing specials, drinks, and dessert. Tell them "no thanks" and wait for the hurt looks and bad attitude to come out. An Applebees near me has good salads so I used to go every now and then. But every time I went they were training new staff so I got to put up with the usual associated problems. No big deal, but an electronic ordering system would be more accurate, faster, and cheaper. Save the waiters for nicer restaurants.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

No big deal, but an electronic ordering system would be more accurate, faster, and cheaper. Save the waiters for nicer restaurants.

I have never, ever seen one of these work out "well." Either granny takes 23 minutes to order a turkey sandwich, Jimmy's not paying attention, presses the button too quick, and runs over to the grill to yell "no tomato" at the short-order cook, or Joe, who can usually work the damn thing, clicked something he shouldn't and can't figure out how to get to the last menu, so Jane working the register has to hold up the "pay" line to go show him how to do it. It happens every time it's busy (lunch) in the 2 lunch spots near me that use the touchscreen order system.

Just like every time I'm in Stop and Shop and my baser instincts get ahold of me: "I'm just buying a loaf of bread, may as well use the autocheckout and get out of here quickly..." I think. And inevitably the one person ahead of me can't figure out how to type in tomatoes, can't scan his tuna, and tries to send a 2-liter bottle under the space analyzer, which rolls on the conveyor, which screws up the space sensor's timing, and the red lights go off as the lane number blinks and the guy they hired to "watch" the 4 self-checkout lanes needs to come over to reset the machine.

Machines are only as competent as the public that uses them. It may not take much skill to be a register jockey, but it takes some. A learned-encyclopedic knowledge of PLUs is far better than watching Ralph pour over 27 different 1"X2" pictures of different kinds of tomatoes, scratching his empty skull trying to figure out which goddamn tomatoes he picked up 40 minutes ago when he was in the produce section. These things suck because people suck, especially at activities they don't perform often and in a repetitious manner. And then there's the Windows: I've seen more blue screens of death at order counters and on touchscreen registers than anyone ever should have to. "Ahhh, ma'am, sir, I'm, like, um, sorry, but the computer's not working. Um, I don't know, like, maybe the manager can let us just write it on paper, but like the register's hooked up to corporate, and we can, like, get in trouble or something. Hold on..."

Forget the 5-figure computer program to order and take money. I'll take my local breakfast counter waitresses any day. I know them. They know I only want my coffee black with the paper. The register is just a calcuator and a drawer. And a meal is still cheaper, even with tip, than the places that drop the big money on a bloatware touchscreen order software system running over Windows.

[jpatter666]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

I have never, ever seen one of these work out "well." Either granny takes 23 minutes to order a turkey sandwich, Jimmy's not paying attention, presses the button too quick, and runs over to the grill to yell "no tomato" at the short-order cook, or Joe, who can usually work the damn thing, clicked something he shouldn't and can't figure out how to get to the last menu, so Jane working the register has to hold up the "pay" line to go show him how to do it. It happens every time it's busy (lunch) in the 2 lunch spots near me that use the touchscreen order system.

Just like every time I'm in Stop and Shop and my baser instincts get ahold of me: "I'm just buying a loaf of bread, may as well use the autocheckout and get out of here quickly..." I think. And inevitably the one person ahead of me can't figure out how to type in tomatoes, can't scan his tuna, and tries to send a 2-liter bottle under the space analyzer, which rolls on the conveyor, which screws up the space sensor's timing, and the red lights go off as the lane number blinks and the guy they hired to "watch" the 4 self-checkout lanes needs to come over to reset the machine.

Machines are only as competent as the public that uses them. It may not take much skill to be a register jockey, but it takes some. A learned-encyclopedic knowledge of PLUs is far better than watching Ralph pour over 27 different 1"X2" pictures of different kinds of tomatoes, scratching his empty skull trying to figure out which goddamn tomatoes he picked up 40 minutes ago when he was in the produce section. These things suck because people suck, especially at activities they don't perform often and in a repetitious manner. And then there's the Windows: I've seen more blue screens of death at order counters and on touchscreen registers than anyone ever should have to. "Ahhh, ma'am, sir, I'm, like, um, sorry, but the computer's not working. Um, I don't know, like, maybe the manager can let us just write it on paper, but like the register's hooked up to corporate, and we can, like, get in trouble or something. Hold on..."

Forget the 5-figure computer program to order and take money. I'll take my local breakfast counter waitresses any day. I know them. They know I only want my coffee black with the paper. The register is just a calcuator and a drawer. And a meal is still cheaper, even with tip, than the places that drop the big money on a bloatware touchscreen order software system running over Windows.

You are right -- there are issues. They will be solved.

I heard the same version of comments when they installed credit card machines on the pumps at gas stations. When's the last time you went to the counter and paid?

[Woodsman]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

You know, that's a frigging brilliant idea!

While we're at it, why not let restaurants do their own health inspections and submit it via the web so we can get rid of a few more of those lazy government public health workers too.



Or maybe the customers could just rate the place when they finish their meal using the same table they ordered. I mean, we got an extra line on the receipt now, right? No more tips.

Then again, it occurs to me from that a purely knuckle-dragging selfish POV, wouldn't every waitress who gets replaced by a tablet and wifi network end up just one more welfare recipient you and I have to carry, one more fat ass lazy diabetic smoker for medicaid to treat?

And one more vote for the Democrats?



And then there's the bonus of countless more barefooted little rugrats to suck on the teat of WIC, AFCD (or whatever the heck you call it now), Head Start, school lunch, etc. etc. And that's not to mention every social pathology we've happily come to accept as "normal" that'll befall the little gladiators.

I guess there's always a trade-off. Okay, so maybe we leave Applebee's one night and meet up with the little gladiator in the parking lot pushing the barrel of a Glock in our face. But if that's what it takes for faster and cheaper service, who am I to stand in the way of progress and free enterprise?



I tell you, I learn so much here in the public side.

Here I was thinking that from a rational perspective, a waitress working is out there hustling. She's earning, consuming, spending, paying taxes, and contributing in aggregate a big share of cabbage to our crapola real economy. So what if she's out there adding to the life of the community, I don't live there anyway.

You know, this makes sense to me on a basic, appetite level. Full speed ahead! Screw the dignity of work, my meal is waiting and it's taxing my gustatory enjoyment.



It's just so damn irritating sitting there while everyone else gets their Potato Twisters and I'm here sucking on ice. I hate that crap!

Anyway, what the hell difference does it make to me if some mother or daughter has a place to go where she's needed, where people know her and rely on her. I want my Spinach and Artichoke dip now, so pound sand bitch, you know what I'm saying?

Don't forget, it's Christmas.



And I got a lot riding on NCR. They've been kicking ass year over year and 2012 was a phenom - net income up 181% over the previous with an EPS of 169.7%. And 2013 is looking good, daddy. Cha-CHING! I just looooooove the sound of cash registers.



So if it means some waitress making $2.13 an hour in direct wages has to hit the bricks, well that's the invisible hand slapping her around like Ike Turner, not me.

Me, I'm just sitting here minding my own business and glad that my Double-Glazed Baby Back Ribs get to me 4 minutes faster and 5 cents cheaper. I'ts not my fault.



I feelz so brilliant I might even treat myself to a Triple Chocolate Meltdown. Or maybe Devil's Food Cake.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

I pay cash all the time. Cash price is 15 cents per gallon cheaper. I can walk 20 steps for a buck or two.

Plus I'd rather give 15 cents per gallon to the National Highway Trust Fund than pay my FIRE tax.

[jr429]

Re: Waiters to be replaced with iPads?

You know, that's a frigging brilliant idea!

While we're at it, why not let restaurants do their own health inspections and submit it via the web so we can get rid of a few more of those lazy government public health workers too.



Or maybe the customers could just rate the place when they finish their meal using the same table they ordered. I mean, we got an extra line on the receipt now, right? No more tips.

Then again, it occurs to me from that a purely knuckle-dragging selfish POV, wouldn't every waitress who gets replaced by a tablet and wifi network end up just one more welfare recipient you and I have to carry, one more fat ass lazy diabetic smoker for medicaid to treat?

And one more vote for the Democrats?



And then there's the bonus of countless more barefooted little rugrats to suck on the teat of WIC, AFCD (or whatever the heck you call it now), Head Start, school lunch, etc. etc. And that's not to mention every social pathology we've happily come to accept as "normal" that'll befall the little gladiators.

I guess there's always a trade-off. Okay, so maybe we leave Applebee's one night and meet up with the little gladiator in the parking lot pushing the barrel of a Glock in our face. But if that's what it takes for faster and cheaper service, who am I to stand in the way of progress and free enterprise?



I tell you, I learn so much here in the public side.

Here I was thinking that from a rational perspective, a waitress working is out there hustling. She's earning, consuming, spending, paying taxes, and contributing in aggregate a big share of cabbage to our crapola real economy. So what if she's out there adding to the life of the community, I don't live there anyway.

You know, this makes sense to me on a basic, appetite level. Full speed ahead! Screw the dignity of work, my meal is waiting and it's taxing my gustatory enjoyment.



It's just so damn irritating sitting there while everyone else gets their Potato Twisters and I'm here sucking on ice. I hate that crap!

Anyway, what the hell difference does it make to me if some mother or daughter has a place to go where she's needed, where people know her and rely on her. I want my Spinach and Artichoke dip now, so pound sand bitch, you know what I'm saying?

Don't forget, it's Christmas.


And I got a lot riding on NCR. They've been kicking ass year over year and 2012 was a phenom - net income up 181% over the previous with an EPS of 169.7%. And 2013 is looking good, daddy. Cha-CHING! I just looooooove the sound of cash registers.



So if it means some waitress making $2.13 an hour in direct wages has to hit the bricks, well that's the invisible hand slapping her around like Ike Turner, not me.

Me, I'm just sitting here minding my own business and glad that my Double-Glazed Baby Back Ribs get to me 4 minutes faster and 5 cents cheaper. I'ts not my fault.



I feelz so brilliant I might even treat myself to a Triple Chocolate Meltdown. Or maybe Devil's Food Cake.

No doubt lets throw out the whirlpool dishwasher, meat slicer, blender so restaurants can employ more.