A couple years ago McDonald's launched a remote ordering system at certain drive thrus where your order was taken not by the pimply high school kid working the window, but by someone in another state.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?
Say you're at a McDonald's in Hawaii, and you swing by for a Big Mac and an apple pie. You (unknowingly) give your order to someone in Texas, who then plugs in your request and transmits it back to Maui via the Internet. While it seems like you'd probably end up with a bag of nuggets instead more often than not—apparently the system is not only working, but gaining in popularity. Over half the MickyD's in Hawaii are now operating via the remote ordering system.
What I can't figure out is why this system is more efficient (translation: cheaper) for McDonald's. Doesn't a call taker at the window do the exact same thing? While my first hunch was that it had something to do with the minimum wage in Hawaii, it's only slightly higher than in Texas. And McDonald's has implemented this program in Missouri and Illinois as well. While we defer to McDonald's when it comes to figuring out ways to make fast food cheaper and, well, faster—can anyone figure out why this business model makes sense?
KITV in Honolulu via Consumerist.
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Somewhat related, if you wanted to, you could order and track the delivery of a pizza from Domino's via your computer's command line. Why they allow this is a good question. Why you would want to, though, is a better one.
—richard
14:56, June 20th, 2008
Off the top of my head I would say that it has something to do with efficiency. So, at any given location, during a slow time in the drive through, one person at the call center can service many locations.
My other thought is that this is a preliminary move before outsourcing drive through calls to somewhere else, like India.
—brentbutler
11:29, June 19th, 2008
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