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Minimum Wage Massacre: Wendy's Unleashes 1,000 Robots To Counter Higher Labor Costs


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In yet another awkwardly rational response to government intervention in deciding what's "fair", the blowback from minimum wage demanding fast food workers has struck again. Wendy's plans to install self-ordering kiosks in 1,000 of its stores - 16% of its locations nationwide.

 

Wendy's chief information officer, David Trimm, said the kiosks are intended to appeal to younger customers and reduce labor costs. Kiosks also allow customers of the fast food giant to circumvent long lines during peak dining hours while increasing kitchen production.

As Dispatch.com reports, the Dublin-based burger giant started offering kiosks last year, and demand for the technology has been high from both customers and franchise owners.

 

"There is a huge amount of pull from (franchisees) in order to get them,"
David Trimm, Wendy's chief information officer, said last week during the company's investors' day.

 

"With the demand we are seeing ... we can absolutely see our way to having 1,000 or more restaurants live with kiosks by the end of the year."

 

A typical store would get three kiosks for about $15,000.
Trimm estimated the payback on those machines would be less than two years, thanks to labor savings
and increased sales. Customers still could order at the counter.

 

Kiosks are where the industry is headed, but Wendy's is ahead of the curve, said Darren Tristano, vice president with Technomic, a food-service research and consulting firm.

 

"They are looking to improve their automation and their labor costs, and this is a good way to do it,"
he said.

 

Who could have seen that coming? As we noted previously, minimum wage laws - while advertised under the banner of social justice - do not live up to the claims made by those who tout them. They do not lift low wage earners to a so-called “social minimum”. Indeed, minimum wage laws — imposed at the levels employed in Europe — push a considerable number of people into unemployment. And, unless those newly unemployed qualify for government assistance (read: welfare), they will sink below, or further below, the social minimum.

 

As Nobelist Milton Friedman correctly quipped, “A minimum wage law is, in reality, a law that makes it illegal for an employer to hire a person with limited skills.”

 

Despite the piling up mountain of evidence on the harmful "unintended consequences" of artificially high minimum wages, we suspect we already know how this story ends. After all, it's much easier to win elections by promising people more stuff rather than less. And, as an added bonus, when it all goes horribly wrong it's very easy to lay the blame at the feet of the wealthy 1%'ers who are behind all the layoffs. Checkmate.

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-27/minimum-wage-massacre-wendys-unleashes-1000-robots-counter-higher-labor-costs

 

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In yet another awkwardly rational response to government intervention in deciding what's "fair", the blowback from minimum wage demanding fast food workers has struck again. Wendy's plans to install self-ordering kiosks in 1,000 of its stores - 16% of its locations nationwide.

 

Wendy's chief information officer, David Trimm, said the kiosks are intended to appeal to younger customers and reduce labor costs. Kiosks also allow customers of the fast food giant to circumvent long lines during peak dining hours while increasing kitchen production.

As Dispatch.com reports, the Dublin-based burger giant started offering kiosks last year, and demand for the technology has been high from both customers and franchise owners.

 

"There is a huge amount of pull from (franchisees) in order to get them,"
David Trimm, Wendy's chief information officer, said last week during the company's investors' day.

 

"With the demand we are seeing ... we can absolutely see our way to having 1,000 or more restaurants live with kiosks by the end of the year."

 

A typical store would get three kiosks for about $15,000.
Trimm estimated the payback on those machines would be less than two years, thanks to labor savings
and increased sales. Customers still could order at the counter.

 

Kiosks are where the industry is headed, but Wendy's is ahead of the curve, said Darren Tristano, vice president with Technomic, a food-service research and consulting firm.

 

"They are looking to improve their automation and their labor costs, and this is a good way to do it,"
he said.

 

Who could have seen that coming? As we noted previously, minimum wage laws - while advertised under the banner of social justice - do not live up to the claims made by those who tout them. They do not lift low wage earners to a so-called “social minimum”. Indeed, minimum wage laws — imposed at the levels employed in Europe — push a considerable number of people into unemployment. And, unless those newly unemployed qualify for government assistance (read: welfare), they will sink below, or further below, the social minimum.

 

As Nobelist Milton Friedman correctly quipped, “A minimum wage law is, in reality, a law that makes it illegal for an employer to hire a person with limited skills.”

 

Despite the piling up mountain of evidence on the harmful "unintended consequences" of artificially high minimum wages, we suspect we already know how this story ends. After all, it's much easier to win elections by promising people more stuff rather than less. And, as an added bonus, when it all goes horribly wrong it's very easy to lay the blame at the feet of the wealthy 1%'ers who are behind all the layoffs. Checkmate.

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-27/minimum-wage-massacre-wendys-unleashes-1000-robots-counter-higher-labor-costs

 

Oh oh ONE!

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Minimum wage jobs aren't meant to raise a family own. They are entry level low skill jobs most of us started out with but as we gained skills we move up the ladder and then we were replaced by young people who are just starting out in the work force. Because they are low skilled jobs the greater the chance they can be replaced by automation like we see here at Wendy's.

 

The low paying minimum wage starter jobs are better than no jobs.

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The push to pay fast food workers $15 an hour will have unintended consequences. It will be more profitable for fast food restaurant owners to go to automation and they will. Losing jobs to automation is happening anyway but higher labor costs only make it happen sooner rather than later.

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Yes, $15 is high labor cost to multi billion dollar companies. Not that I'm a fast food water but I will not eat at an automated restaurant, "ever". But if one of these companies does do the right thing and pay their people commensurate with their profitability, they have my business......my stomach might have words with me but they'll get my business

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Yes, $15 is high labor cost to multi billion dollar companies. Not that I'm a fast food water but I will not eat at an automated restaurant, "ever". But if one of these companies does do the right thing and pay their people commensurate with their profitability, they have my business......my stomach might have words with me but they'll get my business

Weren't you recently bragging that you ate nothing but the purest fare from Whole Foods et etcera? And you sneered at anyone that ate fast food or am I mistaken?

 

WSS

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Weren't you recently bragging that you ate nothing but the purest fare from Whole Foods et etcera? And you sneered at anyone that ate fast food or am I mistaken?

 

WSS

 

No ur right, but I'll eat it the pet food anyway if one of these companies finally does the right thing. But only when I'm desperate. I had Taco Bell for the first time in well over a decade the other week.......and I can go another decade or two without it, nothing in that industry has changed its still crap. But if I'm a proponent of those companies doing the right thing I have to contribute

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