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Nearly 20% of McDonald’s will have electronic kiosks by the end of 2017

Posted on by Razib Khan


McDonald’s hits all-time high as Wall Street cheers replacement of cashiers with kiosks:

Andrew Charles from Cowen cited plans for the restaurant chain to roll out mobile ordering across 14,000 U.S. locations by the end of 2017. The technology upgrades, part of what McDonald’s calls “Experience of the Future,” includes digital ordering kiosks that will be offered in 2,500 restaurants by the end of the year and table delivery.

There are 14,500 locations. Right now 500 stores have kiosks.

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5 thoughts on “Nearly 20% of McDonald’s will have electronic kiosks by the end of 2017”

  1. I was wondering when this would happen here in the US. The major grocery stores, the library branches, and the movie theaters all have these here, and they’re all extensively used. The only real barrier I could see to having them in fast food restaurants is meal customization, and I doubt it’s that big of a deal – the fast casual places with websites that let you place online orders all allow for customization with easy interfaces.

    The McDonald’s executive is saying they won’t reduce employment, and while that’s a PR statement it might actually be true. They could move more people back into the food prep area if the cost savings make sense.

  2. I’m not sure of the exact numbers here in France, but it has certainly been a couple of years since I’ve ordered with an actual person. I don’t eat regularly at McDonald’s but it’s convenient when travelling by car with kids.
    The lack of cashiers doesn’t seem to have helped with the main problem here:they seem to have forgotten the “fast” part of “fast food”. Wait times of upwards of 15 minutes are not unusual (although they’ll bring it to your table if it’s not takeout).

  3. Doubt it will happen in Hong Kong.

    I have been told by a management consultant that HK is the only place in the world where people who eat in McDonald’s do not place their own waste in the bin when they leave – they just leave it on the table. Sounds bad, right? But wait – social services in HK, esp. for elderly people, absolutely suck, and many elderly people are impoverished, and are no longer supported by their families. McDonald’s employs elderly women to go around and clear the waste off the tables and wipe them down – very easy job for them, and they can earn some money to live on.

    So if you actually try to clear away your own waste, you will find some old lady telling you off for taking her job.

    I’m no fan of Maccy D’s, but this is a good thing that they do.

  4. I also don’t regularly go there, but while traveling within Europe, they are a fantastic advancement.

    No misunderstandings with cashiers, no mistakes in the ordering, no arguments when your order was given wrong, take as long as you need to understand the language, etc.

    I’m sorry that there may be fewer cashier jobs, but… I can’t really complain.

    I am not in North America that often, but I have noticed that Taco Bell is particularly terrible on many aspects (beyond the risk of hepatitis). The ‘drive-thru’ has some kind of pass-through tracking that reflects how a manager will get paid based on speed of a car passing through the system.

    So, you usually order, then they tell you to drive over somewhere and park for 5 minutes, and then they take forever to bring you an incorrect order. And then the arguments about the order…

    So, statistically, the manager is doing great! Fast and accurate orders all the time! Corporate is loving it! They get a raise!

    The customers wish they had a few robots.

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