Applebees and Chili's replacing waiters with Tablet PCs

[Barrister]

Neither, actually.  I'm just a very DIY-minded person.  As long as the system works, I always prefer inputting my own order (as in ordering pizza or other food online for pickup), doing the self-checkout at the grocery store, shopping online, etc. 

About the only thing I can think of that I don't like doing is the kiosk at Kroger where you can enter your deli order and pick it up in a few minutes.  The interface itself is excellent, but it seems that these orders never get filled by the time promised, or at all.  Sadly, taking a number & waiting in line is still the lesser of two evils.

I think you have it right with the qualifier "as long as the system works".

Local pizza place has an online order that seems to work really well.  AS a result we never phone them up, always online, and it always comes just as ordered.

I could imagine tablet ordering working very well in a restaurant.  Heck there's a local chain (Famoso Pizza - does Italian-style pizzas in a wood burning oven) that is almost there - you have to order your food up at the cashier, but servers still come by to bring your meal (and come by to ask if you want anything else).

But if you do it wrong, it would be absolutely painful I imagine.

[derspiess]

I think you have it right with the qualifier "as long as the system works".

Local pizza place has an online order that seems to work really well.  AS a result we never phone them up, always online, and it always comes just as ordered.

I could imagine tablet ordering working very well in a restaurant.  Heck there's a local chain (Famoso Pizza - does Italian-style pizzas in a wood burning oven) that is almost there - you have to order your food up at the cashier, but servers still come by to bring your meal (and come by to ask if you want anything else).

Ordering pizza online is so much easier than over the phone.  Online I can specify all kinds of customized options-- light sauce for one of the pizzas, extra bake on the other.  Three toppings on one half & three totally different toppings on the other.  If I phone in the order, I feel like I'm rushed, there's a chance I'll forget something, and there's an increased chance of them forgetting something I request.  And a lot of times I have to wait on hold while they take someone else's order.

But if you do it wrong, it would be absolutely painful I imagine.

Yep.  But if I get it wrong, I only have myself to blame.

[The Minsky Moment]

Very beautiful and moving Joan.

Now tell me what any of that has to do with Seedy's post.

That would require that I understand his post.

More seriously, to the extent his point is that businesses are cutting jobs to preserve profit, that fits the facts.
the facts also suggest a broader point that collectively speaking the US business sector is not pursuing growth in output.
Given cheap financing rates and low risk-free interest rates across the term structure, this suggests one or more of the following are true:

1)  Total lack of profitable investment projects,
2)  Very high risk premia associated with potential investment projects,
3)  Some kind of market failure leading to underinvestment.

(1) and (2) are hard to gauge but don't seem that compelling.
As for (3) what could be the culprit?  The age-old principal-agent problem leaps to mind given the lack of significant movement on reforming exec comp structures.  Are company execs sacrificing future growth opportunities to keep current costs down and EPS up?  Not impossible.

[garbon]

I dont think I would like to eat at a place where I need to input the data myself.

That's cause you're old. 

The modern age and I have grown apart.  Its not the modern age, its me.

Yeah, I think there is definitely something to the generational thing.  I like good service when I go out to eat.

FWIW, I agree with CC on this.

Only tangentially related, but I also dislike when stores try to make me do self-checkout.

[crazy canuck]

Are company execs sacrificing future growth opportunities to keep current costs down and EPS up?  Not impossible.

So, generally speaking, if companies are not using these low interest rates to build up their capacity - what is going to happen when interest rates increase....

[derspiess]

Only tangentially related, but I also dislike when stores try to make me do self-checkout.

I prefer them unless there is a line for them and there's a standard checkout lane open.  Only snag I run into is if I have to walk over to the attendant and show ID for beer or wine.  Or if I can't find the right code for produce.

[Barrister]

Only tangentially related, but I also dislike when stores try to make me do self-checkout.

I prefer them unless there is a line for them and there's a standard checkout lane open.  Only snag I run into is if I have to walk over to the attendant and show ID for beer or wine.  Or if I can't find the right code for produce.

I don't care for self-check outs, but the line up for the self check-out is invariably shorter...

[Admiral Yi]

That would require that I understand his post.

There's nothing particularly confusing about hs post: companies maximize profits by eliminating all labor.

More seriously, to the extent his point is that businesses are cutting jobs to preserve profit, that fits the facts.

The extent is that they both use the words "businesses," "cutting," "jobs," and "profits."

[Ed Anger]

I invest in me.

[The Minsky Moment]

He didn't say ALL jobs have to go.

[Admiral Yi]

He didn't say ALL jobs have to go.

You're right: according to Seedy the optimal amount of labor is a single employee. 

"Yup...not too much longer, and before you know it, technology and profit maximization will ensure that the entire McDonald's corporate landscape will be reduced to the point that it will only be CEO Donald Thompson and a single employee at each restaurant.  Subcontractor, of course."

Your Jew kung fu is very powerful but I think my Jesuit kung fu can defeat it. 

[Valmy]

There's nothing particularly confusing about hs post: companies maximize profits by eliminating all labor.

I thought he was saying labor gets dumped to meet the demands of short term stock price needs.  You have to remember shareholder value.  He only mentions it at least once a sentence.

[Admiral Yi]

I thought he was saying labor gets dumped to meet the demands of short term stock price needs.  You have to remember shareholder value.  He only mentions it at least once a sentence.

That's a relatively non-controversial claim.  Seedy's problem is that he is unwilling to qualify his statement in any way, he makes a blanket statement. 

"Jobs cost money and negatively impact the potential of profits.  Therefore, in order to maximize profits, jobs have to go.  Maybe not until every other alternative is exhausted, but in the end, they need to go."

This is not taking about cases in which jobs do get cut, it is an absolute: in all cases, regardless of profitability, regardless of demand growth, regardless of the cost of labor, regardless of productivity, regardless of anything, it is always better to cut jobs.

[The Brain]

With employees that whine about shareholder value it is.

[Razgovory]

He's either trolling or just bitter.  Either way he's irrational & shouldn't be taken seriously.

He's repeated the same troll a dozen times.  That says to me that whereas no one else takes him seriously, he takes himself seriously.

If you didn't stalk him so much, you wouldn't notice it so much.