In 2016, McDonald’s attempted to speed up customer wait times by using touchscreen kiosks to take orders, but guests paying with cash still had to go to the register at the counter. After eight years of waiting, though, the fast food chain is finally testing kiosks that can also accept cash and make change. The cash kiosks are optional for McDonald’s franchisees, who own and manage 95 percent of the company’s more than 14,000 U.S. locations. So far, only 2 percent of franchisees have opted in. At those stores, the screens behind the counter that normally display the full menu will instead encourage customers to order on the app or at a kiosk. Customers who prefer to tell their order to a worker at the counter will still be able to do so. 

McDonald’s claims the new machines will not result in job cuts. When kiosks first appeared on the scene a few years ago, experts feared that job losses would soon follow. Instead, restaurants have found that kiosks free up human cashiers for new tasks, such as bringing food to customers at curbside pickup. “In theory, kiosks should help save on labor, but in reality, restaurants have added complexity due to mobile ordering and delivery, and the labor saved from kiosks is often reallocated for these efforts,” said restaurant and retail analyst RJ Hottovy.

Christopher Andrews, a sociologist at Drew University who studies the effects of technology on work, compared the impact to other self-service technologies like ATMs at banks. “The introduction of ATMs did not result in massive technological unemployment for bank tellers,” he said. “Instead, it freed them up from low-value tasks such as depositing and cashing checks to perform other tasks that created value.” Only time will tell if McDonald’s new digital ordering options will reshape the fast-food landscape in a similar way.

Questions:

1. What are some potential advantages and disadvantages of using touchscreen kiosks at fast food chains like McDonald’s?
2. Do you think more McDonald’s franchisees should start using the company’s new cash-enabled kiosks? Why or why not?

Sources: Nathaniel Meyersohn, “McDonald’s Touchscreen Kiosks Were Feared as Job Killers. Instead, Something Surprising Happened,” CNN, Sept. 20, 2024. Daniela Sirtori, “McDonald’s Rolls Out Kiosks That Take Cash, Pushing Diners Away From Cashiers,” Bloomberg, Sept. 11, 2024.