Current Events > Encountered the self-service kiosk thing for the first time at McDonald's

(+) Yeah! (+)

I hadn't been to a McD's in about a year, and that was in midtown Manhattan, when/where it was still the usual "human behind a counter taking orders, giving you a receipt with a number, and then you wait to hear your number" dealio. (Which is a slight evolution from the model I grew up with, where you just waited at the register while the person behind the counter went and got your already-made food, unless you ordered something that had run out, in which case you just stood to the side waiting for the missing parts of your order as he/she started serving the next customer.)

The kiosk interaction was fine. I navigated the menu, made my food selection, took a little numbered plastic card, entered the number to the kiosk, and was told the food would be brought to me at any table where my number was visible.

Ten minutes later, no food. I went over to the counter people to ask what happened. I noticed my now cold order simply on a tray in some kind of order pickup place where they were calling out order numbers as they came out. They asked for my receipt to confirm the order number when I went to take the tray. Fortunately I'd kept it, I had almost thrown it out already.

Everybody else there ordering from the kiosk seemed to know they were still supposed to get their food themselves.

I asked, "The kiosk said the food would be brought to me at a table?" That earned me an eye-rolling shrug.

Then someone put on no-bleeped sex-and-vulgarity laden rap music over the intercom while kids played in the ball pit/jungle gym area. Until someone complained, and it got turned off. For five minutes. Then it came back on, I guess when the parent who'd complained left.

That sucked.
---

I hadn't been to a McD's in about a year, and that was in midtown Manhattan, when/where it was still the usual "human behind a counter taking orders, giving you a receipt with a number, and then you wait to hear your number" dealio. (Which is a slight evolution from the model I grew up with, where you just waited at the register while the person behind the counter went and got your already-made food, unless you ordered something that had run out, in which case you just stood to the side waiting for the missing parts of your order as he/she started serving the next customer.)

The kiosk interaction was fine. I navigated the menu, made my food selection, took a little numbered plastic card, entered the number to the kiosk, and was told the food would be brought to me at any table where my number was visible.

Ten minutes later, no food. I went over to the counter people to ask what happened. I noticed my now cold order simply on a tray in some kind of order pickup place where they were calling out order numbers as they came out. They asked for my receipt to confirm the order number when I went to take the tray. Fortunately I'd kept it, I had almost thrown it out already.

Everybody else there ordering from the kiosk seemed to know they were still supposed to get their food themselves.

I asked, "The kiosk said the food would be brought to me at a table?" That earned me an eye-rolling shrug.

Then someone put on no-bleeped sex-and-vulgarity laden rap music over the intercom while kids played in the ball pit/jungle gym area. Until someone complained, and it got turned off. For five minutes. Then it came back on, I guess when the parent who'd complained left.

That sucked.
---

Reminds me of the first time I encountered one.

I hadn't been to a McD's in about a year, and that was in midtown Manhattan, when/where it was still the usual "human behind a counter taking orders, giving you a receipt with a number, and then you wait to hear your number" dealio. (Which is a slight evolution from the model I grew up with, where you just waited at the register while the person behind the counter went and got your already-made food, unless you ordered something that had run out, in which case you just stood to the side waiting for the missing parts of your order as he/she started serving the next customer.)

The kiosk interaction was fine. I navigated the menu, made my food selection, took a little numbered plastic card, entered the number to the kiosk, and was told the food would be brought to me at any table where my number was visible.

Ten minutes later, no food. I went over to the counter people to ask what happened. I noticed my now cold order simply on a tray in some kind of order pickup place where they were calling out order numbers as they came out. They asked for my receipt to confirm the order number when I went to take the tray. Fortunately I'd kept it, I had almost thrown it out already.

Everybody else there ordering from the kiosk seemed to know they were still supposed to get their food themselves.

I asked, "The kiosk said the food would be brought to me at a table?" That earned me an eye-rolling shrug.

Then someone put on no-bleeped sex-and-vulgarity laden rap music over the intercom while kids played in the ball pit/jungle gym area. Until someone complained, and it got turned off. For five minutes. Then it came back on, I guess when the parent who'd complained left.

That sucked.
---