Applebees and Chili's replacing waiters with Tablet PCs

[fhdz]

...although someone still has to bring you the food

And bus the table. And cook.

But given the ridiculous pay structure wait staff has to endure (LOL U MAKE 3 PIECES OF LINT AND A PAPER CLIP, NOW GO DANCE A JIG FOR TIPS) maybe they are better off in other service jobs where they still make at least minimum wage when business is slow.

[Ideologue]

I'd take you all to Golden Corral. Ide would likely insert his penis into the Chocolate wonderfall.

You better be taking us somewhere nicer, moneybags.

Denny's then.

Not sure they'd let garbon through the door.

I thought that was Cracker Barrel?  I suppose it could be both.

[Razgovory]

The Denny's thing happened like 20 years ago.  Funny how you remember stories like that long, long afterword.  Hard to make up bad press I suppose.

[Ed Anger]

I'd take you all to Golden Corral. Ide would likely insert his penis into the Chocolate wonderfall.

You better be taking us somewhere nicer, moneybags.

Denny's then.

Not sure they'd let garbon through the door.

I thought that was Cracker Barrel?  I suppose it could be both.

I love Cracker Barrel. Chicken and dumplings. 

[Syt]

Some McD's here have started introducing those consoles where you can order (and pay? not sure, haven't tried them) your "food" and then only get in line to pick it up.

[Monoriu]

I find it really troublesome to have to go through a waiter for anything.  Most of the time, the customers wait for the waiters.  And I can read the menu myself.  Tablets for ordering are long overdue.  Heck, I don't mind picking up food from the kitchen myself.  Waiters are for people who are too lazy to read the menu or can't decide anything for themselves. 

[Camerus]

I hate having to crane my neck at restaurants looking around for someone, *anyone*, to get me another beer.  So yeah, this approach will have some advantages.

[grumbler]

For the last few years, two of my favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor have used tablets rather than menus.  I rather suspect that Will Oremus (who is already so far into his career decline that he is reduced to writing for Slate) has simply mistaken the replacement of menus with the replacement of waiters (even though his sources told him that that was the case).  The menu replacement actually works pretty well; you can get all kinds of additional information about each item offered, if you have special dietary needs or hazards, and you can order when you are ready, rather than when the waiter is ready (though the order doesn't go to the kitchen until everyone at the table has ordered). 

It is a win-win that only Slate, and the losers that quote from it, would see as a lose-lose.

[jimmy olsen]

I hate having to crane my neck at restaurants looking around for someone, *anyone*, to get me another beer.  So yeah, this approach will have some advantages.

In Korea every table in a restaurant has a red button you can push to summon a waitress.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Applebees is disgusting.  This won't make it any less so.

[KRonn]

Truly the world is fucked with no way out.

...although someone still has to bring you the food; but I guess one person can do the work of three or four.

For now. Strikes me that one is pretty easy to replicate with robots. The trouble is the current stores are built for human delivery. If they really wanted to get rid of waiters though then all it would take would be a refit...

Hell, with these mass production chain restaurants even the cooking can be automated. I recall reading not too long ago about McDonalds looking into that.

Aside from Applebee's and Chili's and the discussion of the quality of their food, the issue is that they and likely more restaurants, could be going the same way with automation, with lots of lost jobs. Lately there's a lot of  protests from fast food workers for higher pay, or calls to unionize. But the reason for being for MacDonalds and other fast food places are to sell cheap food, not to compete with more expensive restaurants. To do that they need cheap overhead, salaries, etc. So it stands to reason that eventually fast food places will also go with some kind of automated devices, same as these other two restaurants, if it keeps costs down even if they pay higher wages to remaining workers.

[garbon]

For the last few years, two of my favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor have used tablets rather than menus.  I rather suspect that Will Oremus (who is already so far into his career decline that he is reduced to writing for Slate) has simply mistaken the replacement of menus with the replacement of waiters (even though his sources told him that that was the case).  The menu replacement actually works pretty well; you can get all kinds of additional information about each item offered, if you have special dietary needs or hazards, and you can order when you are ready, rather than when the waiter is ready (though the order doesn't go to the kitchen until everyone at the table has ordered). 

It is a win-win that only Slate, and the losers that quote from it, would see as a lose-lose.

I've only been to one restaurant lately that had made the switch. I could see how it would be useful but at this restaurant it mostly felt gimmicky as the menus weren't intuitive / it had a system for everyone to mark their order on the same tablet but still had to be taken away by the waiter. I was like let me just tell the waiter what I want.

[CountDeMoney]

I for one applaud the initiative, foresight and true effort to reduce the work force.

[Capetan Mihali]

the losers that quote from it

  An ad-hom!

[Scipio]

What sane person eats at Applebee's?

Folks in suburbs and exurbs.

I mentioned before the epiphany I had on my road trip this summer: whenever i saw one of the ubiquitous Buffalo Wild Wings commercials I wondered to myself who the hell goes to these places?  But there are thousands of identical communities across the US, next to the interstate, with a big mall and cookie-cutter subdivisions, where THERE IS NO PLACE TO GET A DRINK.  So Buffalo Wild Wings.

Buffalo Wild Wings has one major difference from Crapplebees and Chili's. They sell local craft beer on draft. In most communities, they can be the cheapest place to get local craft beer.