Carl's Jr. investing in machines; can't pay workers

[summer]

www.businessinsider.de/carls-jr-wants-open-automated-location-2016-3?r=US&IR=T

The CEO of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's has visited the fully automated restaurant Eatsa — and it's given him some ideas on how to deal with rising minimum wages.


"I want to try it," CEO Andy Puzder told Business Insider of his automated restaurant plans. "We could have a restaurant that's focused on all-natural products and is much like an Eatsa, where you order on a kiosk, you pay with a credit or debit card, your order pops up, and you never see a person."



Puzder's interest in an employee-free restaurant, which he says would be possible only if the company found time as Hardee's works on its northeastern expansion, has been driven by rising minimum wages across the US.



"With government driving up the cost of labor, it's driving down the number of jobs," he says. "You're going to see automation not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants."



Puzder has been an outspoken advocate against raising the minimum wage, writing two op-eds for The Wall Street Journal on how a higher minimum wage would lead to reduced employment opportunities.



"This is the problem with Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton, and progressives who push very hard to raise the minimum wage," says Puzder. "Does it really help if Sally makes $3 more an hour if Suzie has no job?"


As a result, he and others in the fast-food business are investing big in automation.



"If you're making labor more expensive, and automation less expensive — this is not rocket science," says Puzder.



Despite the financial benefits, automating employee duties isn't an easy process.



First and foremost, the technology has to work every time. For the time being, Puzder doesn't think that it's likely that any machine could take over the more nuanced kitchen work of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's.



But for more rote tasks like grilling a burger or taking an order, technology may be even more precise than human employees.



"They're always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case," says Puzder of swapping employees for machines.


While there are bonuses of using machines, there is the secondary issue of customers becoming comfortable using the tech. Younger customers may already have a handle on technology, but many older customers could find themselves confused in a tech-heavy location.



But Puzder says that a restaurant that's 100% automated would have one big plus for millennials: no social interaction.



"Millennials like not seeing people," he says. "I've been inside restaurants where we've installed ordering kiosks ... and I've actually seen young people waiting in line to use the kiosk where there's a person standing behind the counter, waiting on nobody."

[Cicero]

Also at play is that you can get really cheap money right now for new machinery. I very much doubt anyone would loan you cheap cash to pay wages.

[nsl]

I stopped reading and started laughing at "the more nuanced kitchen work of Hardee's."

[tres3]

No one will be able to afford Hardees if they aren't working... because their jobs have been replaced by machines. Henry Ford knew this.

[fumbalina]

I know that this always comes up when people complain about raising the minimum wage but it is not a realistic solution. I worked the self check at a grocery store and it requires daily maintenance by someone and is really expensive to repair. Since these are more specialized jobs, you also have to pay the people with the knowledge more than minimum wage.

Of course this particular argument also ignores that higher minimum wage increases economic activity. I find the people who arguse against it because it is common sense also tend to use a lot of logical fallacies, because nuanced thought is harder.

[humpty]

Carl's Jr. Fuck you! I'm eating!

[ttt]

Boo hoo minimum wage is too high, says the guy making $2,500 an hour.

[isabel]

Are they a public company? I'd love to know what their profits were last year. Dick.

[isabel]

What ever happened to ethics in business?

[forreals]

What a fucker.

[YeahSure]

Oh. Another reason not to eat there.

[forreals]

Mar 17, 2016 7:22:04 GMT -5 YeahSure said:

Oh. Another reason not to eat there.

Right? I'd put them on my boycott list but there are none around here.

[ECB]

Mar 17, 2016 7:02:36 GMT -5 ttt said:

Boo hoo minimum wage is too high, says the guy making $2,500 an hour.

ALL these insanely overpaid CEOs need to think about this.  I'm not saying they shouldn't get a good, solid salary.  But (based on nothing/no one specific) do they really need to make $10 million a year when they could live a perfectly good, happy, solid life on $2 million?

CEOs making less money won't magically fix all the issues, obviously.  But it's a place to start. 

[msmerymac]

Leadership there has always been full of assholes. So much so that it turned me off from eating at Carl's Jr, even when I wasn't a vegetarian.

[tiramisu]

Mar 17, 2016 7:24:44 GMT -5 forreals said:

Mar 17, 2016 7:22:04 GMT -5 YeahSure said:

Oh. Another reason not to eat there.

Right? I'd put them on my boycott list but there are none around here.

They've been on mine for years because of their sexist advertising. Now they're just racking up more reasons I'll never go back.

[wise_rita]

Mar 17, 2016 7:18:49 GMT -5 isabel said:

What ever happened to ethics in business?

Clearly someone did not get the message that America is great again, or soon will be.

[DesertMoon]

Never eaten there. I never use automated machines, not at my McDonald's or self check out. I'd rather keep cashier relevant than stare at yet, another screen. Plus I like to hear people say "hi, good morning!" Or "aw your son is cute" and "have a great day"

[cayl]

I think it would be interesting to have a minimum corporate tax, but then have an additional corporate tax rate based on the difference between the CEO's overall compensation package (including bonuses, stock options, etc.) and the lowest paid employee's overall compensation package. I would imagine that most companies would try to avoid that extra tax (if it's big enough), so they would either raise the bottom tier, or lower top tier compensation. It would be interesting to see the impact of either change on employee morale and their bottom line.

[karinothing]

Mar 17, 2016 9:09:48 GMT -5 DesertMoon said:

Never eaten there. I never use automated machines, not at my McDonald's or self check out. I'd rather keep cashier relevant than stare at yet, another screen. Plus I like to hear people say "hi, good morning!" Or "aw your son is cute" and "have a great day"

I try to never use automatic checkout but our target only has one checker during the day and the line is a mile long

[pixy0stix]

DH is going to be sad that he can't eat there anymore.

[claudiajean]

You know, I went to Panera the other day and ordered from their new self-ordering kiosk. It didn't occur to me at the time that they're probably trying to lessen their staff. I just thought it was cool and that I liked not having someone give me a dirty look for customizing my sandwich.

Now I feel dirty.

[Deleted]

How long do people really expect we can keep the federal minimum wage under $10?

[jeaniebueller]

Mar 17, 2016 9:28:48 GMT -5 claudiajean said:

You know, I went to Panera the other day and ordered from their new self-ordering kiosk. It didn't occur to me at the time that they're probably trying to lessen their staff. I just thought it was cool and that I liked not having someone give me a dirty look for customizing my sandwich.

Now I feel dirty.

When we were at Kennedy Space Center last month, they had the self order kiosks in one of the restaurants and I really liked it. I didn't even think about it reducing employees.

[pantsparty]

Mar 17, 2016 7:02:36 GMT -5 ttt said:

Boo hoo minimum wage is too high, says the guy making $2,500 an hour.

[ttt]

Also, I didn't make that up, that's seriously what he makes an hour.

[pantsparty]

Mar 17, 2016 7:18:49 GMT -5 isabel said:

What ever happened to ethics in business?

I really get angry thinking of the new business model. Look at a fucking company like Uber. They essentially pit their employees AGAINST each other, and obviously the shareholders are the winner. It used to be the opposite - just find a good company, with good benefits and a pension. Ha! Good luck with that.

When did we really become sold on bending over backwards for these poor, poor companies? Someone posted this Roseanne sketch recently on Facebook. Pretty damn accurate.

[Deleted]

For me, I always want something different. No lettuce on my burger or yesterday, we were at McDs and my daughter wanted me to ask for the certain toy she wanted.
Sometimes you go back and mention the napkins are empty or you need an extra cup whatever. There needs to be people to help you.
And the whole 'millenials don't like to interact' is the Internet talking. I see millenials every day and serve them. They like to interact. They chat along with coworkers. Very few are buried in their phones.

[racegrrl714]

Isn't Carl's Jr the restaurant featured in Idiocracy where they have no employees/ just a kiosk you order at, and a cheeseburger is like a million dollars?

[Daria Morgandorffer]

Mar 17, 2016 9:55:25 GMT -5 racegrrl714 said:

Isn't Carl's Jr the restaurant featured in Idiocracy where they have no employees/ just a kiosk you order at, and a cheeseburger is like a million dollars?

Yes ma'am! 

The Hardees by my house just closed. So, easy to boycott! 

[Velar Fricative]

LOL at a humanless restaurant. Has he ever observed the use of self-checkout machines? Lots of people need lots of help with them. So yeah, he may do well with Millennials but old people will see those machines and not give them any business at all.

Also, while I'm sure a signal goes out to wherever the tech center is so tech support people can be dispatched to fix the machines, who knows how long the wait could be? No one likes to see a ton of broken machines. At least have *someone* in the restaurant to make sure things are going smoothly and make minor fixes to machines to get them running more often.