No article, just my thoughts on this.

Seems like as we pay fast food workers ever more, the level of service has dropped off drastically. Is this due to the better workers getting better jobs?

The two things that made fast food so popular and successful: CHEAP and FAST are now both gone so how are they going to survive?

My boys love Taco Bell so after soccer and baseball practice this past Saturday we headed to pick up an order ALREADY PLACED by my wife online. Got into the drive thru and sat...and sat...and sat for at least 20 minutes with 2 cars ahead of me. Totally unacceptable for fast food. I could have been sitting down and already eating at the diner right down the street.

I get to the pickup window and the kid standing there is playing on his phone. I wave to him and ask what the holdup is? How long does it take to slap mystery meat on a a tortilla? They weren't even busy and his attitude was that he could care less and I'd get my food eventually. So much for ordering ahead, they simply could not care less.

I really don't get it. There appeared to be zero work ethic and zero sense of urgency with these workers.

I think there may be a big shakeout in this industry if they keep going like this.

I think robots with AI will replace the fast food worker very soon. Good or bad, I haven't thought much about it.

With lack of work ethic, and rising cost of what labor they can get, I believe fast food will automate.
Maybe the AI driven automatons can at least get your order right.

No I don't think they will go out of business. As stated above the quantity of employees will plummet which may not be the loss of speed and quality that it would seem to indicate. Machines may be faster and certainly are probably more accurate than the dumb ass behind the counter.

My local Steak and Shake has those kiosks to order from and I suspect they have less staff because of that. Soon it will be a machine burger maker and a tech/refiller. They can't keep passing the 20 bucks an hour to the consumer forever. There is a top end cost we will accept from fast food.

If they keep charging like they do, they will. Its within a couple dollars for me to go to Wendy's or McDonald's compared to an actual restaurant in my area. I dont drink alcohol, so th hat does help narrow the gap though.

quote:

Originally posted by hudr:
With lack of work ethic, and rising cost of what labor they can get, I believe fast food will automate.
Maybe the AI driven automatons can at least get your order right.

"Would you like another EXTRA BIG-ASS FRIES?"

I think robots will replace people in fast food, and probably even chain restuarants (e.g. TGI Fridays). I've already been to a sitdown restaurant with a robot for a food runner, and the small chain only had a half dozen locations.

This isn't my video, but it's the restaurant I'm talking about:

I don't know if they'll disappear entirely, but I avoid them now if at all possible. As you said, they're no longer cheap and no longer fast; and the quality, which was never the reason you went, has gotten even worse.

Recently, I was on trip with the wife and we wanted to get something quick to eat before we headed to our destination. Instead of trying to find something edible at a fast food place, I went to a Trader Joe's grocery store and got some sandwich wraps, a bag of chips, an iced coffee and bottled water.

It was less convenient, but the food was much better.

And right on queue,

Link

California Fast-Food Franchisees Face Customer Exodus to Chili’s and Applebee’s

ITs a clicker but timely

quote:

Originally posted by wolfe 21:
If they keep charging like they do, they will. It’s within a couple dollars for me to go to Wendy's or McDonald's compared to an actual restaurant in my area. I dont drink alcohol, so th hat does help narrow the gap though.

I’ve already done this for my weekly cheat meal. I usually get Tacos or something with rice and beans. With the prices the way they are, I’ve just pivoted to going to Fuzzy’s. A taco plate is $9.70 with tax and I tip a buck to the bartender/order taker. Instead of ordering online I just old fashioned call them, tell them what I want, then drive up there. Hamburger, same thing. For what a fast food burger combo meal costs, you can easily find a few restaurants with much better quality for the same thing. Yeah you lose the soft drink but it’s actually cheaper at the restaurant now compared to fast food. That’s how bad it is. The service at fast food places, sans Chikfila, is awful. I hated dealing with many customers when I waited tables. They’d “run” you, be cheap or no tip, but I never let them see my disgust. That was saved for the serving line in the kitchen where we’d all talk shit. Now these idiots play on their phone and act like you are a problem in their life. No dipshit, I’m a paying customer. You don’t need to kiss my ass but at least show some kind of respect.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfe 21:
If they keep charging like they do, they will.

I rarely eat fast food these days, mostly because there isn't any within about 90 miles of me. When I do go up to the big city, though, there's a burger drive-thru that I've always really liked so I stop to get some food for the drive home. I used to get a combo (cheeseburger, med. fries, med. drink, and some fry sauce) for less than $5. Same meal now is over $10. As much as I really like their burgers, fuck that.

Also bear in mind….the same generation that stares at their phones and ignores customers are also, from what I have seen, unable of cooking anything that requires anything more complex than a microwave.
They will continue to pay these prices for fast food and complain about capitalism.

Not ALL kids are like this, but there are a bunch of them.

I told my sister a few days ago, what would you rather have? A now shitty cold Whataburger meal deal that you waited 30 minutes for, or for a couple bucks more, a fabulous half-rack of ribs from local BBQ joint. She was being nice to me a few weeks ago and used the phone app to order me a couple whataburger taquitos on the app. Ready in five minutes. After thirty minutes watching them stand around and play with their phones she walked out and told them to shove the food she had already paid for. They were not busy. They were just screwing off, including the manager.

We generally stop at Chili’s, Culver’s, In ‘N Out, or Jersey Mikes. Service is excellent at all of these and the prices are reasonable.

I think gourmet fast food will do better than the big chains. Around here, places like JCW’s or Five Guys are now not much more expensive than a crappy national chain, but the service is still much better. Also, Chick-Fil-A will probably persist.

I saw that Ruby Tuesday is now really pushing hard the fact that a combo meal at BK or McDonald's now costs more than their own burger/fries/drink deals.

Fast food companies like Chick Fil A and In 'N' Out will prosper and flourish because A) they are family owned businesses, no stock holders to deal with, and B) they focus on customer service, employing over a dozen workers at each location, all earning good wages and benefits, creating good workers and employee loyalty. Plus they serve fare typically better than corporate chains.

Nothing Chik fil A does is hard to recreate. Pay decent wages and hire managers that will actually run the store correctly. I guarantee the the manager at a Chikfila has zero issue firing a troublesome employee.

At their current prices, they cannot survive because they're so close to sit down restaurant prices. My kid likes Happy Meals so she gets one every other week. Looking at the prices, I can't believe a Big Mac meal is $11-12 these days. No way I'm paying that for a crappy burger, fry and drink. I'd rather go to BJs on Wednesday for their burger special for $11 and drink water.

Maybe. I can tell you that around here sit down restaurants have outpaced the fast food joints price wise by a healthy margin. I take my wife out to Chinese and I am lucky to be leaving at the 40 buck mark. Fast food has gotten expensive but I think we are kidding ourselves to say sit down is the same price, I wish. lol