Yes, we are that far already, at least with the Burger King in the gas station here.
They have now these order terminals, which is fairly common these days. But Burger King made it one up worse by basically forcing people to use those terminals, as they’re now right in front of the original cashier’s places.
You can still force yourself into getting served by a person just by standing there and acting like you don’t know how the terminal works. The staff is always friendly and has no issues helping you out, nobody’s gonna look stranger at you if you do that.
But the intent by Management is clear here that they have no interest in serving you by a person.
What comes on top of that is the problem that they apparently saved some staff in the process. But this is just basic math failing, because they have two of these terminals, they cost maybe $1,000 each, and one staff makes $300 a month. So in six months, they’re basically breaking even and making more money at this point.
That’s the typical corporate math. Of course, what they’re missing completely is the fact that this missing staff, when they are not counting money, actually help in the kitchen and getting stuff out.
And this is completely gone now.
As a result, getting your order takes forever. And, yeah, basically the service is degraded massively while the price is still up. You have to keep in mind, Burger King is not a cheap place. Like, a one-person meal is gonna cost you 500 THB or more. Sure, they’re better than McDonald’s, but at least McDonald’s doesn’t force you to use the robot. And to make it even worse, they cheaped out so hard on the terminals that they are basically impossible to run smoothly constantly having lag or not register the touchscreen properly.
So they’re not only cheaped out on the hardware, they’re also cheaping out on the stuff, and the total result is much worse service at a quite expensive price.
Yet they wonder why Burger King is not that famous anymore.
