Just to push back against this view a bit with one anecdote -- I'm still in contact with an ex-colleague of mine, who I used to work with in retail. He now works for various delivery apps. And according to him it's vastly superior to any retail job he worked previously and whenever I mention any of the negative press these apps receive and query for his opinion he usually just rolls his eyes. He gets to control when and how long he works, he gets to ride his bike (which he loves) and pay is much better than any retail job he would get in london (and he would be looking at retail manager considering his experience). So in that picture of local McDonald's in London, consider that perhaps those guys are actually much happier than everyone else working in that store (including the McDonald's managers). Obviously that's just an anecdote of one person, I don't actually have a strong opinion on this.