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 Post subject: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:00 pm 
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Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:13 pm
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Location: Dunedin, Alba.
I don't know where to start laughing first with this... initially it was the 'notice' on the bottom of my screen warning me I'm so old fashioned i needed to upgrade my browser to one 'like Chrome or Firefox' in order to watch videos... yet despite running IE11 and clicking on play it still allowed me to view the nonsense in the video! LOL

We have places like McDonalds and Burger King here... they have machinery where an operative can place any number of burgers at one end of the 'grill' and the machine cooks the burgers as they 'travel' along the 'grill.... why in the name of the wee man would anyone want to spend $60,000 on something that likely doesn't do a better job... do fast food 'chain' employees ever cook anything?

The only time i ever see any fast food getting 'flipped' is when i visit a street vendor, good luck trying to sell them a $60,000 robot! LOL

That said, "Flippy the Burger Flipping Robot" does have a hilarious name!

http://ktla.com/2018/03/05/flippy-the-b ... ood-chain/

I didn't go looking for this, blame Drudge Report ;)


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:18 pm 
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Oh that is no joke. With the 15/hour craze, these machines can cut manpower and save a lot of bucks without sacrificing quality. It's going to spread bigtime


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:40 pm 
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Peter2150 wrote:
Oh that is no joke. With the 15/hour craze, these machines can cut manpower and save a lot of bucks without sacrificing quality. It's going to spread bigtime

I'm unsure if that was tongue in cheek Pete, I'm going to assume it was because i can't get my head around why a fast food chain, any fast food chain, would invest in something that flips burgers one at a time when there's already machinery in place to cook multiple burgers at the same time using a conveyor belt method.

Flippy apparently can't place the burger on the hot plate, nor can it place the cheese on the burger... i therefore presume it also can't take the burger and place it in a bun or add salad and relish... seems an awful lot of money for something that doesn't do an awful lot! LOL

In the 1970's i was young, i was promised then that the machines were coming and I'd live in an age of recreation and untold wealth... i didn't believe it then, i don't believe it now.

Time always changes everything, the one constant though has and always will be, the need for a workforce.


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:08 am 
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No it wasn't tongue in check. It's the reality of what is going on. McDonalds is heading the same way with Kiosks to replace order takers.


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:31 pm 
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Peter2150 wrote:
...McDonalds is heading the same way with Kiosks to replace order takers.

I noticed that and i hated the experience and won't be back to that particular 'restaurant' until it returns to using humans.

I simply can't get my head around why a company such as McDonalds is pushing ahead with this... all these automated kiosks are doing is doubling (at least!) the time it takes customers to place orders and removes any semblance that the 'place' is warming and customer friendly... if the aim of McDonalds et al is to have ever growing queues and alienate their customers they've hit the nail on the head!

I suspect, and hope, that when their sales and footfall falls off a cliff they will reconsider.

All of this hype about robots taking over everything is, to me, akin to a high-street dot-com bubble, in the same way that the Tech dot-com bubble at the turn of the century was.
i.e. every man [company] and their dog is jumping on the bandwagon in the hope of not being left behind.
In reality the likely outcome will be billions of $/£ lost chasing a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, only to find that pot never existed.

In any case, what I've now dubbed 'Flippy, The Flipping Useless Burger Flipper' isn't really the same thing as a customer facing automated kiosk, even though both are probably equally unwarranted and unnecessary ;)


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:20 pm 
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Doddie wrote:
I simply can't get my head around why a company such as McDonalds is pushing ahead with this...


Labor costs are the biggest controllable expense for any company. As more and more people are demanding higher wages, more and more companies will be reducing its workforce needs. I work for Walmart which raised their starting wage to $11.00 in the stores, you can be sure hours will be cut back in order to make up for this cost.


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:50 pm 
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dvair wrote:
Doddie wrote:
I simply can't get my head around why a company such as McDonalds is pushing ahead with this...


Labor costs are the biggest controllable expense for any company. As more and more people are demanding higher wages, more and more companies will be reducing its workforce needs. I work for Walmart which raised their starting wage to $11.00 in the stores, you can be sure hours will be cut back in order to make up for this cost.

I get where you're coming from but i hear that every time the minimum wage is increased in the UK, it's almost beggars belief that nothing really changes.... that said i do somewhat suspect, not being an economist, that much of increasing the minimum wage is just another way to increase perceived GDP... or as is never out the news these days, something called 'growth'.

The sad truth is that any increased cost cutting by short-sighted 'investment' in robotics will be offset by increased prices in the same way increased minimum wages have increased prices.

I simply don't see job losses happening in the way many project, people want to deal with people, that's a fact.


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 3:06 pm 
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Doddie, it has already started happening. You can deny it, but it's reality. If wages go up and the market wo n't support high product prices something has to give


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 3:27 pm 
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In certain areas jobs are so much harder to find and the bosses know it so if they put the wage up they will just expect their workers to do more knowing a lot just can't afford to lose it. I live in a tourist area so the majority of work is seasonal and you have to be able to make enough in the summer to last you through 3 to 4 months of no work and things are getting worse rather than better as more and more people would rather go abroad.

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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 5:20 pm 
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Peter2150 wrote:
You can deny it, but it's reality.

I'm not denying anything, i do however doubt it's going to have the impact that many predict (is it media hype/a social engineering attempt by big business?)... if people are happy sitting in what feels like a barn or bus shelter because the back of house has been closed off entirely so only automated tills are visible then i guess it might work... that's what McDonalds are doing from what i experienced... i didn't like it and i won't be back until i can at least see the back of house.

I simply don't understand how or why McDonalds thinks a customer staring at a dry wall when there used to be servers and the rest of the kitchen visible is an improvement that would entice them back... the mind really boggles that the number of 'service points', where there were 5 humans is now cut down to two automated 'tills' with no help available... supermarket automated tills that have been around for years haven't exactly been a huge success... and they have staff hovering to help customers if they have problems!

Yes, automation is progressing, but in the ways we are being told it will i simply don't believe it will work... i recently contacted my bank through the live chat function... thinking i was talking to a human as i always did... i was gobsmacked at the replies i was getting from someone called "Cora"...
"Cora" is their digital assistant and about as much use as a hacker emptying my bank account!!
Needless to say when i see "Cora" i close my browser and roll eyes.

I used to think out-sourcing call centres was a bad idea, little did i know the bean-counters had other ideas when that plan back-fired!


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 6:00 pm 
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Human contact in retail is going to get less and less. Many stores now are eliminating cash registers all together. There are some self checkouts but the way of the future is to grab a scanner as you enter the store scan the items as you shop and put them into the bags already in your cart. When done drop the scanner off at the exit and pay with your card. Home delivery is also starting to grow. A couple of fast food restaurants are using Grub Hub to home deliver.


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 Post subject: Re: Bionic burgers!
 Post Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 6:30 pm 
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It may just be me hanging on to the past but i strongly believe there is a future for a high street presence, admittedly it won't look like what we see today but there will be one.

Fast food outlets such as McDonalds is one that should survive simply because if you're on the street and want to eat then you can't order in... the only option is to walk in and sit down.

However, if they make the experience so unwelcoming then people will walk past them and sit else where.

Home delivery i totally agree, i personally can't remember the last time i walked into a shop and physically bought anything, almost everything i buy is bought online and delivered.

All my groceries are bought and delivered to the door by Tesco, a UK grocery chain.. almost everything else is bought and delivered to the door by Amazon.
Basically if the Royal Mail, or Amazon, can't deliver it i shop elsewhere.

Some might argue i bought my wife online via VPlaces in the 90's! (She'd argue she bought me as a defect i suspect but that's a debate for another day!) LOL

As for fast food home deliveries, we have a company here called 'Just Eat' that does the same although I'm beginning to think it's fast approaching cartel status due to the rise of its user use and the inexplicable increase in prices across their range... the really good used to cost more, the not so good less... seems like they all uniformly rise prices whenever they want and they all now cost the same.

Anyways, back to basics, the customer always used to be king... I'm not sold on the idea that anything has or will change.

As a customer i don't like where the market is going, particularly the US based companies with footfall in the UK... time will tell if they've got it right, or I've got it wrong.


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