I've seen video of the kiosks in Asia, they allow you FAR more customization than the 15-year-old behind the counter currently does, you pick the base item you want and the system allows you to fully customize it with pictures to the point of making a foot tall monstrosity out of a regular hamburger.

If they are really smart about it, they'll tie it into an app so you can order ahead or save your favorite orders and just use NFC to load the entire order and tweak anything if necessary. This would not only be nice for the consumer but would provide them with a treasure trove of data on individual customers.

The Israeli franchise has an app that does what you suggest (order ahead and favorite orders). It was rolled out with those features at least 3 years ago, IIRC.

Available in Canada for at least the past few months as well.

In the UK they have been rolling these out. They don't eliminate the cashier completely, there's still 1 or 2, but most people now seem to use the kiosks from the few times I've been in since they rolled them out a year ago.

The more annoying thing is that they've moved to a JIT production system at the same time, which means if you just wanted to pick up a cheeseburger in a rush, you end up waiting much longer than you used to.

The people on the JIT production line also tend to completely ignore the customers and tend to just stand around chatting right in front of them waiting for things to arrive, the customers all mill around awkwardly near the serving counter, and all this reinforces the impression you're waiting a lonnnggggggggg time.

It really feels less a fast food restaurant and more like an awkward food restaurant.

Perhaps it's just because I'm British ;)

On the plus, I'm sure it's reduced food waste.

>The more annoying thing is that they've moved to a JIT production system at the same time, which means if you just wanted to pick up a cheeseburger in a rush, you end up waiting much longer than you used to.

They've done this here in the US with several of the product lines, preparing it once you order it instead of keeping it in a heating unit. It's pretty annoying in the drive-thru unless they are really busy. If there is only a car or two in front of you, guess what... once you pay they're going to have you park and wait a couple of minutes, if there are several cars in front of you though it will usually be ready by the time you get to the second window.

I'm not getting fast food because I want made-from-scratch freshness, I'm getting fast food because I am in a hurry and want something inherently portable.

>I'm not getting fast food because I want made-from-scratch freshness, I'm getting fast food because I am in a hurry and want something inherently portable.

Macdonalds wants to disassociate itself from the image of fast food and heat lamps for much the same reason that KFC no longer calls itself "Kentucky Fried Chicken."

Well, they still have a bunch of sullen workers standing around at the end of a conveyor belt waiting to dish out orders...

I think in Britain, the cashiers in McDonalds are noticeably better than most fast food places and I have more trouble with the kisosk. The Touchscreens are variable and for some reason, they don't detect when the receipt paper has run out so you are left hoping the order went through and not lost in the ether. I have waited a long time for food since the kiosks and have to go and ask if the order is on the system.

Since people pick it, I have still had order mistakes but hey, it usually means ordering quickly instead of waiting behind the person who wants to reconfigure the entire menu during their order.

My local McD's in the UK has also added table service alongside the kiosks. You place your order, and then pick up a table number sign and enter its number. Some time later someone comes over with your food.

The kiosk have been installed in McDonald restaurants in Denmark for over a year at this point. They haven't eliminated the cashiers, they,ve just reduced the number from four to one in most of the places I've visited. One cashier have been converted to just handing out orders.

For the most part it's actually a better experience, it's certainly faster. The touch screen kiosks could be more intuitive.

Perhaps I'm over sensitive but the idea of touching a screen that random other people have touched isn't exactly appetizing

You already opened the door to enter the McDonalds. I doubt that peoples hands got that much more dirty walking the 2 meters from the door to the touchscreen.

The doors at our local McDs are usually kept open.

You'd think McD's would've made an app by now, working with ibeacons and/or location systems to detect where you're placing the order at, and seamless integration with Apple Pay / Google Wallet. At least that way you wouldn't have to touch the screen.

I do hope (assume?) they clean those things several times a day, hygiene rules and such.

They do have an app, although it's based on GPS + selecting a location rather than iBeacons.

It's actually one of the more interesting challenges of beacon (and QR) adoption; most of the obvious/easy to implement use cases are already well supported by GPS

Literally everything in a city has been touched by random other people

On the plus-side at least people will be touching the screends before they've eaten the greasy food!

The computer system allows you to remove or add pretty much any ingredient. I haven't been able to stump it yet with a customisation request.

I love this system. I've had some pretty poor experiences with custom orders when dealing with an employee. The kiosks make the anxiety of ordering much more tolerable, as I can specify precisely what I want, rather than worrying about reducing the risk of an order being misinterpreted.

I found the kiosks much more approachable for customized orders. If I order a hamburger with fries I don't get asked if I wanted a menu and I can actually flick through some of the offers before deciding without having a impromptu mob forming behind me.

Unnormal orders are much easier and normal orders are quicker.

I can imagine the kiosks make it harde for McD's to upsell to e.g. a menu, now you mention it.

In my experience, it usually does suggest a Menu when possible but you can easily pick no menu and also suggest a sauce for frites or similar but you can always choose not to do that.

Looking at this in Australia, people avoid the counter and use these machines. There's something to avoiding human interaction these days.

There's still a cashier if you need one but there's hardly anyone at them, even if there's a queue to use the kiosks.

One of the local McDonalds here in Helsinki has a couple of these machines. I go there once every 6-8 weeks, but now I do visit I exclusively use the machines.

Ordering form the machine lets me choose English, and while most Finnish people understand English I feel bad when I have to use it.

(I'll be taking another round of language classes in a few months.)

The computer is aware of enough of the possible parameters such that the lost customization is vastly outweighted by the benefits.