You remember that great idea "Let's raise min wages"? It ain't such great idea after All!

You remember that great idea "Let's raise min wages"? It ain't such great idea after All! HT: Business Insider.

McDonald’s is quietly testing an order-ahead and mobile payment app at a tiny handful of its more than 14,000 U.S. locations.

The pilot is limited to 22 locations in the Columbus, Georgia area. Called “McD Ordering,” the app links to a credit or debit card, which is automatically charged when a customer arrives and scans a QR code displayed at the restaurant.

The phone then displays the customer’s order number. Once everything’s ready, the customer picks up food and drinks — without waiting in a line or interacting with a cashier.


Notice how companies in Seattle have between three and seven years to start paying the $15/hour rate? *wink*

Will this be a ready-the-robots phase? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what happens, at least to some extent in fast food:

Funded by San Francisco’s Lemnos Labs, it has developed a robot designed to take the place of humans in burger restaurants. 

Its creators believe their patty-flipping Alpha robot could save the fast-food industry in the United States about US$9 billion a year. 

Designed to entirely replace two to three full-time kitchen staff, it can grill a beef patty, layer it with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and onions, put it in a bun, and wrap it up to go – no less than 360 times an hour. Momentum believes kitchen robots are not only more cost-effective than human staff, they are also more hygienic. 

Silicon Valley technology industry watchers believe businesses will be early adopters of 21st-Century robotics technology. 

“Like PCs, we’ll likely see the first wave in business because it can handle the costs more readily and then move to the high end of the consumer market,” says the Rob Enderle, the principal analyst at the Enderle Group, based in Silicon Valley.

Related:  

Will workplace robots cost more jobs than they create?