Fast Food Gets a Little Faster

Head over to Abir Majumdar's Flickr feed and you'll find four photos that point to the future of the food service industry: a Taco Bell/KFC in North Carolina has replaced its service staff with touchscreens. Make your order, pay the machine, wait for your food (which, for now, is still made by humans -- I think).

I can't say I'm surprised. Two of the larger grocery stores in my area installed touchscreen cashiers last year. After an adjustment period of a month or two (and, I'm sure, many hostile glares from existing staff), I've noticed that many people are opting for the for the new system. And why not? Ninety-nine percent of the work that cashiers do in supermarkets is automatic: scan, set aside, repeat. It's the same at fast-food counters: confirm order item, press button, repeat. Actual human interaction has been reduced to the upsell -- trying to convince you to bump up to a larger order of fries, for instance. As North Americans become increasingly concerned about what they put into their bodies, I'd bet upsell has been gradually declining.

Time for the paper-hat demographic to start looking over their shoulders.