Carl’s Jr. to try automated restaurant where customers ‘never see a person’
kfor.com
kfor.com
This article, like many of this type, let's the business be in control of the content. When this happens, the article is much closer to a press release than an informative news report. But hey, what should I expect in this day of free^H^H^H^H advertiser-paid journalism?
Self-serve restaurants have been around for over a century. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat .
Thus, if a fast-food executive says that it's too expensive to pay employees, a perfectly reasonable question should be "if employees are too expensive, how is it that fast-food replaced automats in the US? And did so in an era when the effective minimum wage was higher than now?"
FEBO is a popular fast-food company in the Netherlands with an automat component. You'll note that the Netherlands has a national minimum wage of 1,508 € per month. The US national minimum wage is 1,155 € per month. (From http://countryeconomy.com/national-minimum-wage ). There are many non-automat fast food companies, including Burger King and McDonalds.
Thus, if a fast-food executive says the minimum wage is too high to pay employees, a perfectly reasonable question should be "if the minimum wage is too high, how come fast food restaurants are profitable and even in countries with a much higher minimum wage and competition from companies with automats?"