"..it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries,”
Posted on 05/25/2016 5:40:40 PM PDT by ghosthost
"If you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry — it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries,” Rensi told Fox Business. “It’s nonsense and it’s very destructive and it’s inflationary and it’s going to cause a job loss across this country like you’re not going to believe.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
"..it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries,”
The 15’ers don;t realize that many mcdonalds are owned locally and their 15 policy will only hurt the local biz owners and employees
$15/hr,based on a 40hr work week= $600/wk, just over $30k/yr + benefits. A robotic arm costs about $35,000. Even factoring in the costs of installing, programming, upgrades, maintenance the cost of the robot will be recovered in about a year, even less time if it replaces more than 1 worker.
Sez the man who should know.
Think of the advances in technology caused by worker’s demands for more than they are worth!
In the olden days this would bring out the Luddites in force but today that requires personal effort.
And the robot doesn’t take breaks, and works open to close. Much less than 1 year to recoup the initial cost.
Cracka robot
I stopped going to my local McDonald’s because the food is never hot. Who wants a cold hamburger and cold fries? The robots will make the food on demand, and it will better. Sales will go up and the robots will pay for themselves in less than a year. Working at one of the new McDonald’s will also be a lot easier for the managers.
And, McD’s typical thug customers will have to endure the frustration of pressing buttons on a screen and have no one to insult. I support this change.
You are so correct, the worst thing about working in fast food, or retail is dealing with rude customers.
And, no matter how rude they are the company never supports their own employee.
“Even factoring in the costs of installing, programming, upgrades, maintenance the cost of the robot will be recovered in about a year, even less time if it replaces more than 1 worker.”
Oh you are assuming a land of reason. You forgot to factor in the new “robot tax”, the “robot social security impact fee”, and the “minimum wage worker retraining assessment”.
These people are crazy. They will make it more expensive for business whether you use robots or not.
Watch it happen.
If a McDonalds is open 24 hours, it will take a little over 4 months to recover the costs.
18 hours a day (6 AM to midnight) and it will be 7-8 months to recover the cost.
Even at $7.50 an hour, the time for a 24 hour McDonalds to recover the cost is only 9 months.
It looks like robot makers are going to become busy. All the $15 an hour people have done is open business owners eyes to how cheap robots actually are.
And at $3 an hour, the robot pays for itself in five years. This was coming either way.
We have a local Mc D that is just horrible. I say that because there must be a concerted effort on behalf of the employees to be so bad.
If you are in the drive-through, I would bet there is a 25% chance your order will be wrong when you get it. Not that they repeated it back to you wrong, or it was incorrect on the screen wrong, but when you get the bag, there is a 1 in 4 chance that you will have the wrong sandwich or be missing an item or sometimes even have an extra item. You have to stop, count the sandwiches, and look at the wrappers before pulling out.
Add to that, the time it takes in that particular drive-through. It is almost always faster to actually go into the place and order (and you can see if the order is correct then), than it is to sit in that drive-through.
Plus you are correct, it is never hot, and borderlines on temped or room temperature.
This particular McDonalds is owned by a family that owns a few others in the area, and none of them are bad like that. They are actually pretty good to be honest, it just makes no sense why this one particular restaurant is so bad, and has been for a few years.
A restaurant like this would be a total candidate for robot assistance. It is obvious they cannot get a handle on the employees, so paying a 15$ minimum wage just doesn’t make sense. Better to bring in a reliable machine.
And... when I go to that McDonalds, because they are such f*ck-ups and goofing off all the time behind the counter (kids they are), I always feel like there is a chance someone has tampered with my food. Robots don’t do that.
Plus... robots don’t sue the owners, and you don’t have to pay unemployment or disability insurance or health benefits either.
When I was a store manager, I have to say that my first boss was always fair when it came to customer complaints. When he left, it quickly went to hell. My new boss would always take the customer’s side, because he was a spineless idiot.
...the “robot social security impact fee”, and the “minimum wage worker retraining assessment”...
Ding ding ding!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.