The State is legislating low-wage jobs out of existence

[Alan C.]

Panera Bread Will Replace Cashiers With Robots By 2016

 

Panera’s 1,800 nationwide locations are at the forefront of modernizing the way customers experience fast food restaurants. As soon as 2016, the bread and pasta joint will have replaced all of their cashiers with kiosks. . . . All of McDonald’s locations in France, for example, have installed kiosks to substitute and supplement human employees. The kiosks have  allowed McDonald’s to avoid some of the high payroll costs of dealing with France’s minimum wage, which currently sits at $12.22 an hour in U.S. dollars. The European country is also suffering from an unemployment rate of over 10 percent.

 

From 2011: McDonald's hires 7,000 touch-screen cashiers

 

What does all of this mean? It means that the State has increased the cost of labor to the point where it has become economical to use machines in lieu of people.

 

Lower taxes.

 

Lower expense from mandatory benefits.

 

Lower HR-related expenses.

 

Less risk of violating labor regulations.

 

Less litigation (fewer lawsuits for discrimination, special accommodations, slip-and-fall, etc.)

 

Fewer protests, union shenanigans.

[Alan C.]

Amazon to increase robot workforce from 1,000 to 10,000

 

[fractional slacker]

First off, thank you for posting. I find Panera interesting, and brilliant based on their stock price. They are the only national chain I know that has a voluntary pricing mechanism at two stores. It's called Panera Cares. It's the same as a typical Panera cafe, but you pay what you want to or can afford. You can also volunteer your labor in lieu of payment. We have a Panera Cares in here in Portland. It's an interesting place, and experiment.

 

As for automation. I am sure the unions would never use rhetoric and demagoguery to reignite the luddite movement. That would involve being dishonest and violent. Unions are honest and oppose violence

 

[tasmlab]

Amazon to increase robot workforce from 1,000 to 10,000

 

 

Jobs be damned, that's pretty neat!

[fractional slacker]

Just pass a law and get rid of low-wage jobs.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

Coming to a left coast near you.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/seattle-city-council-panel-oks-191035315.html

 

 

[Alan C.]

Summertime Blues: Teen Unemployment in Major U.S. Cities Tops 50 Percent

 

...unemployment among teens without a high school diploma is more than 50 percent in two of the largest U.S. cities.Using U.S. Census Bureau data from May 2013 to April 2014, the analysis reveals that in Riverside-San Bernardino area of Southern California, the unemployment rate for teens ages 16 to 19 years old who don’t have a high school diploma is 54.2 percent.In the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Ore., metropolitan area, the unemployment rate from that population is 53.8 percent.. . .Three other California metropolitan areas round out the Top 5 cities with the highest unemployment for the least skilled young people – Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana (39 percent), San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos (37.5 percent) and San Francisco-Oakland-Freemont (35.2 percent).

 

California is a stronghold of left-liberalism which has survived so long only because they're able to siphon wealth from the technology sector.

[fractional slacker]

Oregon is a close #2. Oregon is full of California lefties. Won't be long until the entire west coast is relegated to third world status.Downtown Portland is full of roach coaches and vacant (former restaurants) retail space.

[shirgall]

...and this month's Jobs numbers disappoint.

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-04/big-adp-miss-179k-jobs-far-below-expectations-lowest-print-jan

 

Most people realize that legislating away low-paying jobs doesn't mean people get higher paying jobs, but the people on top of the victimhood game sure know how to confuse an issue but giving everyone hope that they will be the winner.

[Rejon Munchausen]

All other factors aside I kinda like the sound of an automated fast food restaurant, the service (at least in rural English KFC's and McDonald's) is absolutely terrible...just pressing 'Burger' and 'no gherkin' on a machine and waiting for the meal to pop through a hatch sounds much more preferable to repeating my order 3 times to someone who doesn't seem to even know what planet they are on, let alone that they are working, waiting for ages, then receiving the wrong items, which you reluctantly eat because you are in a hurry...

[Alan C.]

The iPhone 6's Battery Will Be Built By 'Foxbot' Robots In China

 

Foxconn said its new “Foxbots” will cost roughly $20,000 to $25,000 to make, but individually be able to build an average of 30,000 devices. According to Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, the company will deploy 10,000 robots to its factories before expanding the rollout any further. He said the robots are currently in their “final testing phase.”The news doesn’t come as much of a surprise, considering Reuters in 2011 said Foxconn was planning on building as many as a million robots by 2014 to help assemble devices and cope with the rising cost of labor.

[cab21]

so then the government bans robots

[mthenke]

Hah!

 

It's the Second Renaissance!

[Alan C.]

[Minnesota] Twins debut self-serve beer machines at Target Field

 

To get the beer, fans buy a vending card after showing their ID to a cashier. The card is then used at the machine to fill a beer cup to their liking.. . .Nancy Goldman, president of the Local 17 Twin Cities Hospitality Union, has her doubts. Her union represents the vendors that sell beer, food and other items to fans in their seats, and she said the self-serve machines have union members talking."You'll never be able to compete with seat vendors because I'd rather sit and watch the game and have a beer brought to me, but I'd say from an employment standpoint, it's just another attack on workers being replaced by machines," Goldman said.

[Alan C.]

Fast food self-order kiosk:

 

[Alan C.]

Taco Bell unveils mobile ordering

 

Taco Bell went way outside the bun to unveil an advanced mobile app that lets folks order and pay on their smartphones and then walk or drive in and pick up their food.

 

. . .

 

McDonald's and Starbucks both are spending huge sums on new technologies. So are Pizza Hut, Papa John's and Domino's. Most are aimed at Millennial consumers who would much rather interact quickly with their smartphones than stand in line waiting to order or to be seated. Chili's has technology that lets folks pay, order more food or play games on table-top tablets.

 

I was recently at McDonald's and saw one of their new Build Your Burger kiosks.

[Alan C.]

Obama Administration Now Has 1,000 Government Investigators Targeting Businesses for Minimum Wage Violations

 

According to the government's own statistics, less than 5% of American workers earn at or below the federal minimum wage.

 

As a result of this rampage against businesses by the self-righteous crusaders, there will eventually be no minimum-wage workers at all because they will be replaced with automation.

[luxfelix]

This could be good, no?

 

(Maybe not on its own, but in combination with other factors like wealth emigration?)

[Naer]

This is the doing of technology, not the freemarket in terms of the advancement

[shirgall]

This is the doing of technology, not the freemarket in terms of the advancement

 

The technology is being developed because of the cost of labor. The usual result is a higher standard of living as the really boring jobs get automated or at least there are better tools so fewer people have to do them, but it does raise the bar for people to do more complex things.

[cab21]

wouldn't there always be interest in technology even without any laws on labor costs?

[shirgall]

wouldn't there always be interest in technology even without any laws on labor costs?

 

Sure, but when you artificially raise the price of labor, what automation was cost-prohibitive might not be any longer.

[luxfelix]

Kinda like how lighter-than-air travel may become cost effective again if gas prices prohibit many from purchasing plane tickets. 

[Alan C.]

Although society largely benefits from the innovation of labor-saving devices which liberate people from tedious, repetitive work, the pernicious aspect of this that many adolescents and young adults have been deprived of the opportunity to get their first job. There are actually people in their mid-twenties who have never had a job. This is a relatively recent phenomenon. I don't blame the market for this; I blame the State.

[cab21]

would state welfare also lower labor costs artificially ( at least for some)? i mean if people are getting paid 10$ an hour by their employee, and then getting 5$ an hour in welfare, hasn't the welfare just drove down how much the person would charge the employer for that persons labor?

 

but then put in something like companies immigrating new people to drive up supply and drive labor costs down. that would make any countries immigration policy that does not allow a company to do that artificially raising labor costs. 

 

i think the state manipulates labor costs in both ways as political favors

 

as for teens with and jobs, i think there are teens/families out there taking welfare instead of jobs. so is it that they can't get the jobs, or that they don't search for the jobs because of welfare factors?even in families where the family is middle class or above, is there a entitlement mentality that these teens are having that is putting them as better than having to search for or perform such jobs and thus go unemployed rather than have a job?

[Naer]

would state welfare also lower labor costs artificially ( at least for some)? i mean if people are getting paid 10$ an hour by their employee, and then getting 5$ an hour in welfare, hasn't the welfare just drove down how much the person would charge the employer for that persons labor?

 

but then put in something like companies immigrating new people to drive up supply and drive labor costs down. that would make any countries immigration policy that does not allow a company to do that artificially raising labor costs. 

 

i think the state manipulates labor costs in both ways as political favors

 

as for teens with and jobs, i think there are teens/families out there taking welfare instead of jobs. so is it that they can't get the jobs, or that they don't search for the jobs because of welfare factors?even in families where the family is middle class or above, is there a entitlement mentality that these teens are having that is putting them as better than having to search for or perform such jobs and thus go unemployed rather than have a job?

Welfare is good for ensuring some form of equality between people. It is wrong to say that when someone receives welfare that they stop becoming productive. I think people become more productive when they receive state benefits cause they have the security of a safty net

[AccuTron]

The Inevitability Of Robot Dominance [VIDEO]

[Alan C.]

It is wrong to say that when someone receives welfare that they stop becoming productive. I think people become more productive when they receive state benefits cause they have the security of a safty net

 

Doesn't the fact that somebody receives welfare mean that they're not productive? Afterall, if they were productive then they wouldn't need welfare, right?

 

What does it mean to be productive? It means that somebody is producing something. What do people on welfare produce?

 

Where does welfare come from? Welfare comes from other people who produce something and then get expropriated by the State.

[cab21]

the state gives welfare to people that are productive, from corporate welfare to welfare of people whose pay is below a level the state sets.

 

a fast food workers job is to produce, but the state sets a poverty line and puts them below it and then say the state needs to give them more.

 

if the min wage job was not productive, why would a person hire someone at min wage? the employer still has to think they are getting a profit from hiring the person at min wage. welfare for these people is just a state deciding that min wage people should get more.

 

government is even giving welfare to people making well above the min wage, so it's really just a level the state is deciding.

 

someone can be productive on the job, but end up not productive to the state simply because the state choose to spend more money on the person than the state took from the person.

[Alan C.]

This is at a McDonald's in San Francisco, which now has a $12.25 minimum wage.

 

[Alan C.]

I live in a faily affluent area, and recently stopped at a McDonald's which now has these self-order kiosks. They weren't there a few months ago. They still have people working point-of-sale registers, but there are fewer people.

 

I don't know how much the kiosks cost, but I'd be surprised if they're more than $10K ea. We have touch-screen directories in our office building, and they only cost a few grand. The self-order kiosks are basically all-in-one computers with touch capacitance LCDs and simple point-of-sale software like one might see on an Internet store.

 

With minimum wages increasing to $15 in some places over the next few years, you're likely to see kiosks like this appear in more places.

 

They don't show up late to work. They don't call in sick. They don't have poor communication (eg. poor grammar, comprehension). There is no change to count because it's all electronic. They ameliorate he-said-she-said. They don't require benefits. They don't require special work accomodations. They don't sue for discrimination. They don't go on strike. Employers don't have to pay 7.5% Social Security tax.

 

The ultimate effect of this will be that the least skilled individuals in society will be priced our of the market entirely because it will be illegal to hire them without incurring a loss.

[davehag5]

So being a loyal card carrying Panera member, after so many visits I get discounts. They are generally listed on the the receipt with an expiration date. Nominal amounts on specific items which are not too difficult to redeem.

 

However, their somewhat new feature of ordering online was promoted with a fairly substantial discount. I guess you log into their site, order and then come in and go directly to the pick up area bypassing the front counter completely. I was not able to go the restraunt during the incredibly short offer period so I can't tell if it is good or not.

 

I don't mind going to the counter since I generally go in "off times" and lines are short and I get the feedback as to what is new, in stock and discounted by talking to a cashier. I have been there in busy times and while it is somewhat set up as a fast food place the counter and menu has too much going on to be too quick. You can get behind a couple of older biddies "discussing their options" and really lose your enthusiasm for a timely lunch. So what I'm saying is that Panera seems quite receptive to their customers by offering an "on line" order system to cater to people wanting to get in quicker and the old way for people with more time.

 

An example to my liking of a quick response to customer feedback was when they attempted to make the b'gat roll an option with a soup order. I noticed shortly thereafter that it was the "default" again when I asked recently.

 

My point being that the $15 (or whatever) minimum wage is only a factor in setting up options for replacing workers. I believe that Panera is responsive to it's customers and in my experience quite good at it. The government imposing anything on a business is "something to deal with" for the adaptable company. Of course the "death by a 1000 cuts" is coming and I am by no means defending the imposing of a minimum wage by a well meaning (or whatever) government. 

 

I predict that the replacing of certain people in a restaurant setting is similar to the replacement of live phone assistance. It is somewhat inevitable and is only partially driven by government wage mandates.   

[Alan C.]

Robot grocery store gives high-tech upgrade to food shopping

 

...the robotic system “works on a conveyor belt system, with an extractor that retrieves the product from the racks and places it on the conveyor for delivery to the customer.”

. . .

The stores are roughly 260-square-foot and are equipped with a sizeable front window so users can view the available products. “Our stores can be anywhere from 200 to 800 items, it’s fully refrigerated, the product can be anywhere from one ounce to ten pounds,” said Maurer.

Customers can pick and choose their items via a touchscreen ordering system that lists all the available products.

[Alan C.]

Minimum-wage offensive could speed arrival of robot-powered restaurants
 

 

Many chains are already at work looking for ingenious ways to take humans out of the picture, threatening workers in an industry that employs 2.4 million wait staffers, nearly 3 million cooks and food preparers and many of the nation’s 3.3 million cashiers.

. . .

The avalanche of rising costs is why franchisers are aggressively looking for technology that can allow them to produce more food faster with higher quality and lower waste. Dave Brewer is chief operating officer with Middleby Corp., which owns dozens of kitchen equipment brands, and is constantly developing new ways to optimize performance and minimize cost.

“The miracle is, the wage increase is driving the interest,” Brewer said. “But the innovation and the automation, they’re going after it even before the wages go up. Why wait?”

 

$19-an-Hour Waiters Are One of the Hurdles to Growth in Australia

 

...faced with a A$25.94 ($19.12)-an-hour wage bill even for trainee waiters under Australia’s complex system of pay rates, he says it makes no financial sense to open.

“These restrictions to business are so out of date,” said Willis, 40, of the so-called penalty rates that double wages for Sunday shifts in some service industries. “It’s a changing market place and a changing society.”

The issue is coming to the fore in an economy experiencing its weakest run of growth since the 1991 recession and with unemployment matching an almost 13-year high.

 

Minimum wage effect? January to June job losses for Seattle area restaurants (-1,300) largest since Great Recession
 

Ready for $30 pizza?

[Alan C.]

Step inside a restaurant where no one takes your order or serves you

 

Customers place their orders on touch-screen iPads or iPhones. No humans take your order or serve you; a half-a-dozen or so people are preparing orders on an automated assembly line behind the scenes.

 

San Francisco

[Alan C.]

Wal-Mart Cuts Some Workers’ Hours After Pay Raise Boosts Costs