
Carl’s Jr. to try automated restaurant where customers ‘never see a person’ - kevindeasis
http://kfor.com/2016/03/17/carls-jr-ceo-wants-to-try-automated-restaurant-where-customers-never-see-a-person/
======
dalke
I'll repeat my comment from yesterday regarding a different report of the same
announcement, from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11303318](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11303318)
:

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](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](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?"

