McDonald’s has announced it will roll out touch-screen ordering kiosks and table service at all its 14,000 U.S. locations over the coming year. Not that there’s a rush… McD’s says it has no hard-and-fast timetable for the conversion, but it does seem eager to make the change and scoop the opposition…
McDonald’s also tested its new Kiosk ordering system in Vancouver and selected
West Cost U.S. markets, too, along with customizable Burgers
and the new Big Mac Family…
McDonald’s has been playing with touch-screens and mulling over table service for about two years, now. Its cautious approach is seen by some as a gauge of how important this evolution in it’s service regime and business plan is to the Burger Giant. The institution of ordering kiosks is intended to do away with counter staff and save the company big-time in wages and the management hassles of staff scheduling. Even so, McD’s caution with the roll-out is echoed in its allowance that some counter staff will be retained, at least in the beginning, as the inevitable wrinkles are ironed out and everyone gets used to the new order in McOrdering.
With Kiosks comes table service. You’ll get a number after placing your order and paying and a McD’s runner will bring you your food as soon as it’s ready. And they’ll bring it to new real-furniture tables and chairs – another part of McD’s plan to go up-scale and retain its coveted leadership place in the Burger Chain pecking order.
A cautious approach to a crucial move…
The new McDonald’s premiered to the public earlier this year in St. Joseph, MO, where a new McDonald’s opened with all the new bells and whistles. And ‘Endless Fries’. Whether the Fries deal is still offered, I don’t know. But it was a great way to get folks out to experience the new McD’s.
As of now, table service is being offered at about 500 New York locations and we assume most of the aforementioned wrinkles have already been smoothed. I suspect that the real reason for keeping a few counter staff, at least in the beginning, may have hatched from the New York experience, as a comfort ‘lifeline’ for customers who have been reluctant to make the leap to kiosks all in one hop.
When the new regime (and more comfortable chairs) will come to Canada and other McD’s markets remains to be seen. But it can’t be far down the road. The change over, which (as we said earlier) lets McD’s operators reduce their staffs considerably and enjoy associated savings in overall operating costs is just what the company needs to left it out of the growth doldrums. McD’s reported basically flat sales numbers in the most recent fiscal quarter. That’s a far cry from the company’s heyday, when it could boast double-digit sales growth for similar periods.
‘Brand Transformation’ the new buzzword…
Of course, this is all part and parcel of the continuing squeeze on Burger Chains which seem to have reached the limits of growth within their large, but nevertheless finite, food service industry niche. For some time, now, the Burger market has been saturated, world-wide, and the players have tried a number of desperate measures to poach customers from their competitors to preserve the kind of growth demanded by the shareholders. Special, limited-time menu item offerings have no lasting effect on customer preferences and habits. Attempts to widen the range of menu offerings (copying menu items from other niches) have historically not worked. Remember McPizza and the McDonald’s Hot Dog?
The next ten years will be crucial for the Burger Giants, and operators in other saturated niches, who will literally have to re-imagine and recreate themselves to stay in the running…
~ Maggie J.