Those things never seem to work properly, at least in the UK. Receipt printers are always broken. Also was a study a few years back pre-COVID about them being covered in faeces particles.
I do prefer them to ordering at the counter due to pretty bad eyesight and having more time and I usually pay by card anyway but they're not the best things.
pre-COVID about them being covered in faeces particles.
Gross. But somehow I doubt the POS credit card reader would be any different. Those types of studies find grossness everywhere (feces on movie seats, urine in the bar peanuts etc)
It was a ridiculous experience when I tried one recently.
I wanted a bag of ice, since they sell them cheaper than the Kwik-e-mart and I had some perishables I didn't want going bad on the way home.
Do I want to log in? No. Am I sure? But I could be earning bajillions of Rewards Points for my $1.75 purchase!
Now, where are bags of ice? It's not in an obvious category, there's no search, and finally, someone realizes I'm having trouble and looks herself, and then we finally find it at the bottom of the drinks menu, which has too many options to fit on the screen without scrolling randomly.
Now, I proceed to pay. Except I can't. I have a piece of crumpled paper issued by the central government I wish to exchange for my ice. But there's no note acceptor on the machine. The kiosk prints a receipt and I'm supposed to take it to the attended till to pay. Except there was nobody attending it. Again, try and flag down someone so I can finally complete my transaction.
Before, it was "Bag of ice, please." "$1.75", and I'm done in 1/4 the time. Of course, that was facilitated through labour, rather than $4000 worth of shiny touchscreen monitor and glorified Raspberry Pi.
No 'note acceptor'? Thank god, that shit is slow, finicky and ugly. Just PayPass with your plastic card and have the order number in 5 seconds. No, 99 of times from 100 I don't need any paper receipt with an order number, so I don't even click on "print the receipt" button in the first place.
And lastly, I don't buy bags of ice, shovels and dildos at McD.
> Do I want to log in? No. Am I sure? But I could be earning bajillions of Rewards Points for my $1.75 purchase!
Now this is what should bring a slightly boiling cauldrons and pitchforks made from chinesium to those who thought and designed that shit up.
Not to mention ordering via the app and collecting. QR code websites and tablet ordering machines are rapidly replacing humans taking your order across most restaurants, in the UK and Japan at least.
This is how I can tell neither of you have ever done gig delivery. I'll give you one guess as to how smoothly pick-up goes when there's no one at the cash register. We haven't gone full-automat yet, and I still need someone to actually hand me the order. Preferably, multiple someones, to service the multiple delivery drivers waiting for their pick-ups.
"Taking the order" means listening to their order, keying it in and taking payment. All of that is replaced by apps/kiosks, right? Of course somebody needs to pack it and send it to you.
Again, if you'd been in one of these establishments lately, you would know that all of those tasks are likely done by one person. Including the ones with kiosks (which are often broken or can't take special orders).
I do prefer them to ordering at the counter due to pretty bad eyesight and having more time and I usually pay by card anyway but they're not the best things.