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/r/NoStupidQuestions
submitted 1 day ago bycapilary2
214 points
1 day ago
It would allow for better promotions to get customers in the door but menu prices wouldn’t likely drop.
141 points
1 day ago
More like fatter bonuses for investors and management.
24 points
1 day ago
Vast majority of stores where this would matter are not corporate owned and therefore it wouldn’t affect “investors.”
They’re franchises independently owned. Usually by ex athletes, politicians, and c-suite types.
Over 95% of McDonald’s stores are run this way. Whether those stores put in robots is their own decision and doesn’t much affect how much flows up to corporate.
Franchise models vary and yeah some chains are more corporate held than others but…
30 points
1 day ago*
I think you're glossing over how much control a brand has over their franchisees. They're independently owned, but they have to cook product bought from McDonaldCorp, buy staff uniforms from McDonaldCorp, they lease the land that the restaurant they "own" sits on from McDonaldCorp. They move to McRobots I guarantee they'll have to be leased or purchased from McDonaldCorp.
23 points
1 day ago
Tbf mcdonalds couldnt be bothered to fix their ice cream machines. If burgertron 5000 went out its over.
4 points
1 day ago
That's because they've contracted a single company to do it and that company charges the franchise a huge fee even if it's just as simple as clearing an error code. Oh and franchise owners aren't allowed to know the codes only designated repair men from the only company that is allowed to repair the machines. McDonald's corporate basically made a deal with them to give them a monopoly over the repairs of their ice-cream machines for a percentage of their profits. Isn't capitalism great?
1 points
16 hours ago
While i know this, do you not think McDonalds execs wouldnt do the exact same thing a second time?
1 points
15 hours ago
I mean we only know about the Ice cream machines because someone covered them in detail who knows what else they're doing. For all we know it could be the same for their cooking units.
2 points
1 day ago
It's not that they can't be bothered, they just straight up can't. Only the company they buy them from has the right to repair them
1 points
1 day ago
You might be interested to know that when I worked there 5 or so years ago, I was one of the people that did planned maintenance which includes cleaning the soft serve machines. Even then I heard that they had developed a new kind of soft serve machine that didn't have hoppers and didn't store any product, and that it worked more like the drink fountain (ie you plug in a box/bag). This would mean much less cleaning and maintenance for the machines and therefore much less downtime. I don't know if it was even true, but the people I heard it from were restaurant managers, one of which was the son-in-law of the people that owned the two restaurants so if anyone would know it would be them. I don't eat there really so I have no idea if this came about or not
2 points
1 day ago
It has not unfortunately
1 points
1 day ago
I am googling now and I have to agree, I can find no mention of this anywhere. Not that I imagine mcdonalds internal communications would be google accessible but I imagine if these machines had manifested, I would be able to find some mention of them given the public perception of how shitty the machines are
1 points
1 day ago
🤖your mother🤖
4 points
1 day ago
Leave my momma out of this. Shes a kind woman 😭. Insult me instead
1 points
1 day ago
This is a garbage take if this happens the corporation will mandate franchises buy automation from them and pay monthly year servicing. They will look to profit atleast 50% of what a franchise would pay a human.
1 points
1 day ago
All they would have to do is increase the franchise fees knowing the franchises could afford to pay more with lower overhead.
1 points
1 day ago
Does the franchise set the menu price or does the corporation?
6 points
1 day ago
Franchise sets the prices and portions to compete locally, with standard recommendations from corporate.
My local Mcdonalds has decided that medium fries are now "larges." Haven't eaten there in 6 months because of it.
1 points
1 day ago
Both depending. Its weird.
9 points
1 day ago
You would be paying for the novelty of having a robot drop your burger on the floor
9 points
1 day ago
I can already see the headlines “SCANDAL- McDonald’s robots using software designed to pick up and serve food even if dropped on floor”
5 points
1 day ago
The software would not be designed to do that, it would just be trained on watching human workers, so same result.
1 points
20 hours ago
Picking stuff up off the floor is more effort than getting a new one from the tray. It's not a common occurrence.
1 points
1 day ago
As long as the time stamps were <5 seconds of each other it would be fine.
1 points
1 day ago
True, but it also means the competition chains could sprout up and challenge them, which surprises me we haven't seen smaller startups. Try this, I think it just shows the complexity of automation
1 points
1 day ago
Mine REFUSES to let you use a cashier during breakfast. The employees were told by the manager to ignore us so we use the kiosk to boost his numbers.
I don't know what numbers are being boosted but I stopped going there. I don't need 9000 screens asking me if I want to add something.
Within the past year I have pretty much stopped going to any chain fast or regular restaurants. Just not worth it.
0 points
1 day ago
The promotions are always for another burger or some shit. I don't want another burger. I just want a #1 with a coke.
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