What it’s Like Shopping at the New McDonald’s With No Cashiers, Tables or Chairs

So where do you sit when you eat?

It’s a brawl. I mean ... ball.

Somewhere else. They want you to leave afterward.

Heaven.

You get to avoid the trash.

Exciting.

If you didn’t want to eat your food at the restaurant, wouldn’t you use the drive thru?

The classic methods are due for a comeback

This place is in a part of London where people don't have their cars, R6.

So where do you eat? - leaning against a storefront?

Well, it's London so a drive-thru might be less helpful than a walk-in - you see a lot of that kind of take-away restaurants in cities.

Not sure what I think about no cashiers. I know it's a shit job - but there are always people who need a shit job anyway. That part is sad.

Prison-like.

Many served.

We already have a way of ordering with a screen in London. I don't use it cos I need to tell them to [bold]make my burger fresh. [/bold]Even then they're often cold and I have to send it back.

What kind of time does the typical downtown employee get for lunch in London? I could see this working if it were inside a large office building, where you could take the lunch back to your desk/cafeteria upstairs, but you get your meal, then walk back to your office to eat it (cold by then)? This does not seem well thought out.

[quote]What kind of time does the typical downtown employee get for lunch in London?

An hour.

[quote]But you get your meal, then walk back to your office to eat it (cold by then)?

They're often cold way before that - ever since they stopped with the polystyrene boxes.

I have to say the worst thing about fast food is the teen cashiers with an attitude. I just want a freakin burger and fries.

Bring back the Automats.

Used a kiosk at a McDonald’s a few weeks ago while on a road trip. It was a surprisingly unpleasant experience. The interface was non-intuitive, you had to go through a ton of screens. It is much more time-consuming than just verbally giving your order to a real human. Also you couldn’t put in a request for ketchup (even though they do not give out any ketchup packets as policy) so the person who brought us our order had to go back and get us some ketchup. I don’t need the hassle and plan to avoid kiosk McDonald’s in the future.

[quote] so the person who brought us our order had to go back and get us some ketchup.

OMG - that's AWFUL!

[quote]I don’t need the hassle and plan to avoid kiosk McDonald’s in the future.

I don't blame you.

People still eat that shit?

We've had them in Maccas in Australia for years. I prefer the ol' fashioned face to face service though.

I experienced the same thing, R16.

But we fought so hard to raise the minimum wage!? I don't understand what happened??

Now if they had food that was actually edible...even just a little edible...

The shop is on Fleet Street? Are they "meat pies?"

It's sort of the 21st centurys' version of an Automat - minus the seating... And the good food... In our society, less human interaction is not a good thing -- although, the way some humans interact nowadays, I can see why this might be in demand....

Have them in central Paris as well. A valiant effort to make getting food in Paris efficient and quick - but, being France, didn’t quite work out that way. As Noted above, the ordering process is non-intuitive. But more importantly, from the time the order was entered to getting food was over 20 minutes. And it was cold. And no where to eat it.

Ultimate fail. Maybe in NYC they could pull this off. But there is still an element of worker efficiency involved - which as long as they pay workers nothing, will never happen.

[quote]I have to say the worst thing about fast food is the teen cashiers with an attitude.

Where do you live that teenagers actually work at your fast food restaurants? I haven't seen a teenager behind the counter at one in years.

I hate it when shop people try to make conversation. I'm not there to make friends. I just want to get my stuff and get out.

The lack of tables is a deal breaker. If I don’t eat in my car and instead go inside, I want to eat in the restaurant. There’s nothing worse than cold McDonald’s food. It’s gross when it’s cold. Or, when you’re full, it’s gross then too, even if still hot.

OMG, R26, it's all teens in my country. Working at Maccas or KFC is a rite of passage. Are you American? The adult wage rates there are just a tragedy.

As an elder, I can remember a time when McDonalds made all burgers fresh. The patties may have been frozen, but they were frozen raw and were cooked on a grill. If any burger wasn't sold within 10 minutes of being made, it had to be thrown out. Mystery shoppers were on hand to check these practices.

Nowadays, I think it's funny when people call what they sell there "food". It's like eating Play-Doh.

Most McDonalds are going this way - order yourself, which I guess is OK. I would say it keeps the costs down - but McDonalds has increased their prices so much in the past decade, I doubt you'll see much savings.

McDonalds has become expensive somehow. When an eggmcmuffin, hashbrowns and coffee costs over $8, it's time to look at other options.

R29, who works there during the day when teens are in school?

R21, people make minimum wage at a lot of places, not just McDonald's

Good question, R31. I don't go there a lot but I'll check for you next time I'm near one. Probably uni students, I'd guess. Almost every high school kid I've known has worked there evenings or weekends.

Don't worry, we all know practically everyone a tourist meets in the US is on minimum wage, if not an intern or a volunteer. That's why we have to pay such huge tips (10% is considered handsome here.)

I’m sick of stores giving me an ugly time. I don’t care if it’s supposedly-(but not) faster. Whether it’s a jail-like holding room at McDonald’s to having to cashier my own groceries. Not faster. More dreary and depressing. I will always go farther to spend my money at a business doesn’t treat me like a pariah.

This is bullshit anti social and a money grab. Dystopian ugliness. I won’t help it succeed.

Besides just efficiencies, I think McDonald's is doing this because their restaurants with tables are becoming social service agencies. I was in a McDonald's about 3 months ago by Penn Station and almost all the tables were taken up by homeless people.

The place looks like it’s made for the worst neighborhoods. It looks made to spray down with a hose.

[quote] R32: Don't worry, we all know practically everyone a tourist meets in the US is on minimum wage, if not an intern or a volunteer. That's why we have to pay such huge tips (10% is considered handsome here.)

Please, let’s not be dishonest about this. Or perhaps you honestly don’t understand? I can’t tell. You may be surprised to learn that, in different places, people do things differently. There is that tired old story about the “ugly American” who travels to Europe and expects things there to be like home, which is exactly what R32 reads like, except in reverse.

In the US, it is the custom to tip certain workers in certain circumstances. Servers who provide table service earn less than minimum wage, and it is the custom to tip them. Some do extremely well. Others, not. The customary tip is 20%, though it is entirely voluntary and some customers tip more or less. We do not have indentured servitude in this country, and workers are free to job-hop with no notice if they seek a higher income elsewhere, and are able. McDonald’s employees start at slightly above minimum wage, and you do not tip them.

It is simply a different system than you are used to, and not better or worse, though it might take some getting used to. It is a good rule of thumb that you should not go somewhere where tipping is the custom, if you are not willing to tip. Just like I would not go to a European restaurant and refuse to pay the mandatory service fee. That feels like extortion to an American, especially since the service there is so often terrible. It’s like you’re charged for nothing. But I know that is the custom.

It’s similar to the difference in pricing due to sales tax. I seem to recall that prices in Europe are usually quoted to include sales tax. So, you pay exactly the price that you see posted. In the US, the posted price usually excludes sales tax, so you might pay ~5% more at the register than you are quoted, often resulting in the exchange of pesky American coins of small value. They are different systems, and you get used to them. If you don’t know, some places, like Provincetown, tack on usurious hotel taxes that aren’t quoted until checkout, and those can seem quite unfair. But it is the custom here.

[quote] R33: I’m sick of stores giving me an ugly time.

That’s how I felt for years about grocery stores that expect you to put your shopping carriage in the parking lot corral. You used to just leave the carriage at your car, and an employee would wrangle all the carts from their random locations, and bring them back into the store. This was already a concession from the days when the store had employees who would carry your groceries to your car for you.

Oh, yes, ditto for bussing your own table at McDonalds. They used to have employees who did that, like in more formal restaurants, like Friendly’s (ha!).

However, time marches on, and customs change, so I evolved.

But, if I’m inside a McDonald’s Store in a city, and have walked there, so I don’t have my car, I’m not buying food that I’ll have to eat, sitting on the curbstone. Screw that.

[QUOTE]The place looks like it’s made for the worst neighborhoods. It looks made to spray down with a hose.

It is reminiscent of some fast food joints in the hood with employees hidden behind bulletproof glass. I guess now they can just put a wall there with a hole for some guy in the back to silently pass your food out.

Have to agree with R16 & R20. I used one a few months ago. Surprisingly slow process and the order was still incorrect (missing hash browns) when they brought it out to me. The article mentions that this McDonalds has a bare bones menu, but the average one just has too many options to make going through a touch screen an efficient process.

R36 Bravo! Well said. Also, for those who think American restaurants are enslaving workers, my relative works at a casual but pricey harborside seafood restaurant in Boston. She's a seasonal employee whose worked there for years. She starts in late April in finishes her season late October. She makes enough in tips in that six month period to support herself for the entire year so she's able to spend November through April volunteering for her pet causes of homelessness and affordable housing. The only downside is that it's a touristy place so they get a lot of Europeans who routinely will drop a 5% tip and think they're being generous. Management had to note the customary tipping protocol on the menus so the staff wasn't getting screwed by ill informed foreigners.

Generally speaking....

Worst tippers: Continental Europeans Best tippers: Gay American men

I'm quite frankly not into these, as well as other point of sale computer touch screen devices, self-checkout at grocers, Home Depot, and other large retailers. Not only do jobs disappear from the economy, but some of us don't wish to deal with the bloody things. The Wendy's self order kiosk troubled me twice, I had to put my readers on to see it, and the screen was smeared with filth. Both times I was told to step out of line to use it, I still required assistance from a human.

I remember, as a child in the '60s, going to the first McDonald's that opened up in our area. There was no indoor seating. Everyone ate in their cars.

I don’t think I’ve eaten inside a McDonald’s since I was a child. But the place always has people in there, especially families.

Where and who were the focus groups that agreed that this was anything good??? What kind of person says “yes! I enjoy the institutional feel.

Thus looks appropriate to be a McDonald’s in a mental institution or jail.

Fuck McDonald’s and their shitty cold, overpriced food.

No kiddie play area, either? Sheesh. That does it. Where are my kids going to pee?

Fecal matters.

I carry alcohol wipes meant for cleaning eyeglasses and computer screens with me everywhere now. I wipe-off screens, shopping cart handles, etc. before I touch them.

I once read about how they randomly tested a public ink pen at a reception desk and it had MRSA on it (among other things).

There’s fecal matter on EVERYTHING. If you use the drive thru instead, there’s fecal matter on the steering wheel and gear shift of your car. If you go inside a McDonald’s with humans, there’s fecal matter on the door handle. When you hand them your credit card, anything on the worker’s hands will be transferred to you when you take it back (assuming there isn’t any on there already). You can go around being a wet wipe freak all you want, I guarantee you’re getting some shit on your hands.

[quote]Worst tippers: Continental Europeans

[quote]Best tippers: Gay American men

Those gurls is THE BEST.

Why would you keep going back, R12?

It’s SO much better. I do t have to fake smile and be polite to the trashy cashier anymore.

This wouldn't be for everywhere, but in a big city, this might be a good idea.

I've been to the new HQ restaurant in Chicago and it's like this, but with seating. You type in your order on a kiosk.

I could see the benefits to a smaller takeout only one near some of the big offices, etc. Another burger chain here, M Burger (much better than McDs) already has this, essentially. They have a few seats for while you wait but no tables, and it's a takeout counter. You take it back to the office to eat.

[quote] This is bullshit anti social and a money grab. Dystopian ugliness. I won’t help it succeed.

MARY!

The McDonald's kiosk should be simpler, especially for someone like me who will order a quarter pounder with cheese meal with a soda. It should be two pushes of a button, one for the meal, and one for the size (small, medium, large). Instead it takes like 5 or 6 steps.

R16 There is a screen to request condiment packets on the kiosk. My problem is that my local McDonald's always throws huge number of ketchup packets in the bag even though I didn't request it. I hate ketchup.

[quote]My problem is that my local McDonald's always throws huge number of ketchup packets in the bag even though I didn't request it.

Your life sounds tough. REAL tough.

As for the dirty touch screens, they have them at the deli at my supermarket, and they are never, ever, cleaned. Sometimes you even see blood smeared on them. I have occasionally asked the store to clean them. Sometimes they act promptly. Sometimes they act like a European food server with a mandatory service fee, haha.

R21, automation is inevitable in capitalist societies. If a machine can do something cheaper (especially cheaper) and almost as good as a human, eventually it will.

We're all just covered in poop and there's nothing you can do about it.

There should be an antiseptic wipe dispenser attached to all public touch screens.

My Mom used to comment that the filthiest thing on the planet is the ketchup bottle that gets passed from table to table in a restaurant, because some places never clean them.

My personal least fav is an escalator railing, especially in a subway station. Highly used, and never cleaned.

Finally, public bathroom design is catching up with the way they are used, by which I mean, it is becoming more common to find garbage bins near the exit door, for those people who use paper towels on the door handle to open the door, and then want to drop the paper towel in the bin, or in it’s absence, on the floor by the door, as they exit the room. Sometimes I use my foot to pull on the door handle, but I’m getting too old for that.

[QUOTE]There should be an antiseptic wipe dispenser attached to all public touch screens.

The dispenser itself would instantly become covered in fecal matter.

R11 I pledge fealty to you.

"I have served, and I will be of service."

I won’t shop McDonald’s until I’ve seen their fall line

Does one "shop" at McDonald? I never consider myself shopping for fast food?

[QUOTE]shop·ping / noun / 1. the action or activity of purchasing goods from stores. 2. goods bought from stores, especially food and household goods.

Now shut the fuck up.

Didn't they do this 80 years ago, only they called it Horn & Hardart and sold better food?

I find it's the uneducated who are so concerned with germs. They don't understand immunity by exposure. It's how we got vaccines. The more you obsess about germs and use antibacterial soaps and wipes, the more likely you are to catch something communicable because your immune system is a delicate snowflake.

Tbe also believe in magic food

I find it's the uneducated who are so concerned with germs. They don't understand immunity by exposure. It's how we got vaccines. The more you obsess about germs and use antibacterial soaps and wipes, the more likely you are to catch something communicable because your immune system is a delicate snowflake.

Tbe also believe in magic food

Here's R67 considering the pie selection.

It's actually even more impersonal than a McDonald's kiosk. There's no human interaction at all. I like it.

McDonald's opened up their kitchen to public view years ago because of rumors of employees spitting, blowing their noses and cumming in the customers hambergers,

This will make it so much easier for Trump's lackeys to go to McDonald's and get his food. And for the WH chef to cater WH dinners for winning athletic teams.

I remember my FIL reminiscing over Horn and Hardart's mac n cheese and pies.

For years, my nephew used to buy Howard Stern’s breakfast and lunch at the neighborhood restaurants. Howard was paranoid that his food would be tampered with, so he couldn’t buy it himself, not that he would. He’s probably right.

R70 reminds me of France. Their fast food, for the French hoi polloi, is awful. Mayo and shredded carrots with everything. Every country has its great unwashed masses.

All highly visible celebrities do that.

Trump and Stern are both right. Two peas in a pod. I'd piss in Trump's milkshake and leave a deposit in his taco bowl.

[quote] [R70] reminds me of France

Horn & Hardart was good food.

[quote] After reading up about the Horn and Hardart company, what really strikes you is the insistence by the Horns and Hardarts on high quality standards for their food. Beginning in the 1910s, when the first automatic restaurants were opened in Philadelphia, co-founder Joe Horn initiated a Sample Table. Every afternoon at 12:30 on the dot, a group of company executives and branch managers gathered at a long wooden table at company headquarters to taste pies, soups, baked beans, and sometimes multiple brands of milk or butter.

[quote] Even the lowly nickel cup of coffee was treated with reverence, as a cornerstone of the Horn and Hardart brand. It was the coffee that built the Automat: Frank Hardart, a German immigrant, worked in New Orleans cafes during his youth, and would roast and grind the day's coffee before customers arrived. In a country where boiled coffee was often clarified with egg shells or stretched with sawdust, this fresh, French-drip method was revolutionary. Hardart brought the technique to the Automats, insisting that employees discard coffee that had gone unsold for more than two hours.

[quote] In New York and Philadelphia, trucks were dispatched in the early mornings to go to market to fetch the fresh meats and produce needed to supply hundred of restaurants. If an ingredient for a certain dish wasn't available, it just wasn't on the menu. English muffins were to be cut with forks, never knives, and day-old food was given to day-old shops, not reheated and sold at full price.

If germs were that dangerous there wouldn't be humans in existence by now.

[quote] In a country where boiled coffee was often clarified with egg shells

I'm not even a coffee drinker, the smell revolts me, but I do know enough chemistry to realize the alkaline egg shells neutralize acid in the coffee. Why is that bad?

[quote]My Mom used to comment that the filthiest thing on the planet is the ketchup bottle that gets passed from table to table in a restaurant, because some places never clean them.

That's why we have immune systems. There are germs everywhere.

[quote]I remember, as a child in the '60s, going to the first McDonald's that opened up in our area. There was no indoor seating. Everyone ate in their cars.

Exactly, they all began as walk up take out only.

There’s also another McDonalds about 10min walk away from Fleet Street that’s only takeout and has been for several years. The only difference seems to be the ‘to go’ branding.

This thread is the height of prisspottery.

The maiden aunt brigade is bringing it today, what with complaining that they aren't getting 5 star service and actually have to touch a kiosk to order their two dollar hamburger.

Thanks for bringing back memories with the Horn & Hardart Automats. I looked forward to going to them as a kid back in the 50s when I visited New York. It was a technological marvel!

R82, But didn’t those McDonald’s have picnic benches outside? We’re they possibly seasonal, at first?

In my town we had an A&W Root Beer Shop. It’s specialties were foot long hotdogs; and we had Dairy Queens, but these were always opened seasonally. My favorite today is Rita’s ice cream shoppe, but it’s seasonal, too. There’s also a hometown family owned ice cream shop that’s super. They had cows when I was a kid, and made all their dairy products from scratch right there. It’s seasonal, too. It was always a big deal when it opened for the season. Imagine, a farm right in the middle of a city.

For some sure R84, but just from a practical matter, McDonald’s is expecting people to order food via kiosk in downtown London, and schlep it back to their office to eat cold? From October to March?

I occasionally eat there and won’t apologize for it, but I’m not going to tredge through the snow and rain holding a bag of increasingly cold food to take back to my office to eat.

Unless this is meant to appeal to UberEats/etc. this is a moronic idea.

[quote] My favorite today is Rita’s ice cream shoppe

Pittsburgh?

R87 I think the point many miss is that they are unlikely to replace their traditional outlets.

For places where real estate is limited and much of their business is take out, it makes a lot of sense to try the idea.

I hear you re: winter, but there will be other locations around to dine in.

Wonder if an Automat would work today except the 25 cent slice of pie would be $8 bucks today

Automat scenes from "That Touch of Mink," with Cary Grant, Doris Day and Audrey Meadows.

R88, no, it’s a chain. New London, CT.

I think the old A&W Root beer and Dairy Queen, which I knew in the 1960s, went bankrupt. Also a “Kelly’s Hamburgers”. They were there. Score McDonalds and were very similar. After the first McDonald’s opened, Kelly’s closed.

We use the touchscreens to order where we live, but there are still places to sit. The one thing that grosses me out about the touchscreens is the germy hands that touch it.

^^ As opposed to all the parts of a regular McDonald's that are untouched by germy hands?

Well, they stilll have a regular register so any of the kiosk impaired Marys can order there.

When I use a touchscreen, I use my knuckle. If I have to use a pen, electronic or other, I sign with my left hand so that my right hand remains uncontaminated in case I need to put it in my mouth for any reason.

I've found these marvelous inventions called "soap and water" and "Wet Wipes" and also "hand sanitizer" and if I have to touch any surface in a store or restaurant, why, I use that before I handle food!

Maybe people should go back to wearing gloves all the time - like they did in the 50's (and before)

https://www.retrowaste.com/1950s/fashion-in-the-1950s/1950s-gloves-etiquette-styles-trends-pictures/

Oops

R68 I understand perfectly well about germs.

I just don’t want to go around eating other peoples FECES that they have left smeared on various public surfaces.

Which is why restaurants have places for you to wash your hands.

There's enough time after touching a kiosk to skedaddle to the rest room to wash ones hands OR you can pull out a hand sanitizer from your murse.

R100

"The fact remains, however, that poopy microorganisms are all around you all the time and there’s just not much you can do about that except to embrace them. They are the tiny pathogens that help bolster your immune system and create colonies of organisms that make your body the beautiful, diverse place that it is. Celebrate them! And wash your hands."

I've pretty much stopped shopping at places where there is no human interaction with the staff. I would never frequent a fast food restaurant where you had to order from a touch screen, and then have no where to sit and eat your food. Generally, the only time I ever go to a fast food restaurant is when I am travelling, and I specifically look for a place where I can eat, sit, and rest a little from travelling. I do not allow eating in my car under any circumstances, even the dog is prohibited from eating a dog biscuit in the car! I avoid the self check out lanes at stores like a plague. If the store only opens limited cashier lanes in a hope to push people into the self check out lanes, I leave the cart full of groceries at the check out and stop patronizing the store in the future. These may be low paying jobs, but there is a need for these types of jobs for people without education. Also, a cashier in the unionized Chicago area actually makes a rather high salary. I do however, object to increasing a retailer's bottom line by doing all of their work for them. It's also important to post a critical review on Yelp or a similar website when you encounter these types of operations.

The kiosk is confusing.

But EVEN WORSE is the video screen menu at the counter. The picture changes every four seconds or so. The prices are difficult to locate. It’s all very strobe-like and deliberately confusing. If you don’t know what you want immediately, you wind up standing there longer.

R103 Have fun in 1979. Automation is happening whether we like it or not.

Personally, I prefer self checkout and the kiosks.

I wouldn't know. Haven't eaten at a McDonalds in 25 years.

Damn that clip from "That Touch of Mink," is funny "Millie get the cleaver!"..lets see Audrey gave Doris a chicken pot pie, baked potato, carrots, jello & cake for $1.12