Service with a Beep!

Hey…good to see you. Pour some delicious coffee in your mug and choose a dunker. See Madge’s smiling face behind the counter there? Well in Europe you soon won’t see the “service with a smile’ anymore if you stop by a McDonald’s. McDonald's restaurants in Europe will soon be swapping the chain's legendary "service with a smile" with "service with a beep." European McDonald's restaurants are preparing to replace cashiers with touch screen computers at terminals where customers will be able to order up their hamburgers and fries and pay with credit cards.

About 7,000 of the fast food franchise's locations in the United Kingdom will be fitted with the touch screen technology, which aims to make the McDonald's experience more convenient and accommodating. More convenient for whom…McDonald’s? One less salary to pay.

The touch screen method of ordering will improve efficiency and make the average transaction three to four seconds faster for each customer, Steve Easterbrook, president of the European branch of McDonald's, told the Financial Times. Easterbrook didn't provide a date for when the touch screens, which were inspired by a trip to Japan, will be introduced to UK McDonald's restaurants.

Wow! Three to four seconds, eh? How about all the time spent fumbling in handbags and wallets trying to find a bank card to use, dropping it, putting it in the swipe slot incorrectly, keying in the wrong items and having to start over, then time to decide…do I want fries with that? Presumably the Big Mac folks have done their homework – they usually do but I’m going to reserve judgment on this ‘act of efficiency and convenience’.

The new terminals will also phase out cash as an accepted payment method, as the machines will only take credit and debit cards. No word yet on whether McDonald's in the United States and Canada will be next in line to replace cashiers with computers, but the addition doesn't seem to be part of the ongoing $1-billion makeover of the company's U.S. restaurants.

We are on our way to becoming a cashless society. Well, it’s been talked about for years, hasn’t it? Still it is nice to see those high school kids behind the counter… or will we soon get Ronald McRobot? Wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

See ya!

Bob

Comment from Wayne in Valleyfield, Quebec:

And now we arrive at the ugly Bulldog. As you know fire fighting in the early days of the big cities New York, Philly, Boston etc were private companies competing for insurance money to put out the fire and the salvage fees. As the competition was very aggressive the, firefighters would station bulldogs at the hydrants to prevent interference by their competitors (cutting of hoses etc.)

Now the original Mack firetrucks used a similar Hood cover arrangement as the Renault trucks in France which gave the truck an ugly bulldog appearence. One day, David Mack one of the Mack brothers, was standing beside a fire hydrant and one of his new model firetrucks and he heard a remark in the crowd of bystanders "That Mack firetruck is as ugly as a bulldog". David Mack liked the comment and from that day on there has always been a chrome bulldog ornament on the radiator shell of every Mack truck.

Bones from Québec