Anyway, this is a true story that happened just the other day.
Hope you like it:
Would You Like Change With That?
Have you been to a MacDonalds lately? I know, nobody really wants to admit that they ever go there but we know, we all do. It's one of our guilty pleasures.
Yesterday, my wife and myself popped into one for a quick late breakfast. You know, a quick cheeseburger and fries with a diet pop. They've got these newfangled gadgets there now. It's a big touchscreen kiosk like affair. You just go up to it and touch the picture of whatever you want, pay with your card in the machine and it spits out a receipt with a big number printed on it. If you strain your neck and look way way up you'll see another tv. Up in the rafters near I think where the Mac Angels play if you wait a bit, you number will come up. Is this some kind of a hint of whats to come? When you've already lived most of your allotted time these thoughts do tend to pop into your noggin now and then.
Well, after a short bit somebody calls out your number and reads to you your order to confirm what you ordered. It's probably right, that is if you can remember just what you came there for.
They seem to have a young pretty faced smiling girl there to assist in the operation of this digital server. It's not that hard to figure out but right away I knew something was wrong when my wife, after the young girl said, you just have to tap it” and my wife said under her breath ,”I did tap it” and then proceeded to order a cheese burger with a knockout punch to the screen that would have decked Hulk Hogen. After our ordeal, the girl asks what we thought of this new idea. I told her that I preferred talking to person. She brightly replied, “I'm a person!” I said, “Yes, but how long do you think you'll be working here for?” She didn't look happy as the thought of reality hit her. But of course as soon as we had left she was back up to her sunny ways explaining this marvellous new technology to the next unhappy soul.
While I was waiting for my number to come up I was reminded of the Jetsons. Remember that old futuristic cartoon? I just envisioned long shiny metal robot arms wearing 3 fingered white gloves in the back hastily preparing food for the unsuspecting masses. Eventually your order would be popping out of a little slot onto a conveyor belt out of a little sliding door. Nary a human in sight. If you had a complaint, Alice the robot would come rolling out to deal with you.
I hate to say it but I really do think that in our future, people at MacDonalds may be served this way and the staff had better be prepared for when the robots want a union.
Or say, “Hello Dave. Would you like fries with that?”.
