07-18-2003, 07:00 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 3,060
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More PDA Use At McDonald's
I've seen some stories lately about some McDonald's restaraunts toying with the idea of providing WiFi access for their patrons. However, here's an article about how McDonald's employees will soon be using PDAs to help streamline serving customers.
"McDonald's is hoping to speed up fast food by equipping staff at its 1,250 UK restaurants with queue-busting handheld devices. Staff will take customer orders as they wait, making for a happier Happy Meal...The devices will be in place at all restaurants by the end of the year. This will cut queues so, by the time [they've] taken the order and the customer gets to the till, the food should be waiting and they just have to pay."
I've seen a few U.S. fast-food restaraunts try something like this, and it seems to benefit both the customer and the business because wait time is cut by 30-40%. Customers get through the queues more quickly, and the restaraunt can serve more customers per hour by using PDAs to expedite the process.
I think it's a great idea, but I'd probably be so interested in the tools and applications being used that I'd forget what I wanted to order!
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07-18-2003, 07:21 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 47
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So do they give you a number or is the system just smart enough.
I think this would be perfect combined with a Carls Jr. table flag type system, or some other intelligent, reusable, recyclable smart system. (Mag strip cards? Sim cards? Advanced punch cards??)
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07-18-2003, 08:37 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 17
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They've been using this kind of system in my local McDonalds for over a year to cut down the waiting times in the drive through section. It does make a big difference to how long it takes to recive your food. It's nice to see that for once that the UK is a little ahead 
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07-18-2003, 11:25 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 9
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Funny, I was just about to comment on the UK McDonald's using Mobile Devices to take orders when queues are large. I don' think they are Windows CE based though and using something like Symbian operating system - I might be wrong !! Someone correct me if I'm wrong ?
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07-18-2003, 12:31 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 813
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My local drive has been using a pocket pc for many months now to take advance orders in the queue when busy. It's definitely a Pocket PC, I've seen the branding when I was making an order and was obviously curious however it's a ruggedised model, from who I have no idea.
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07-18-2003, 12:35 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 6
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I had my order taken with an iPAQ 3900 series at McDonald's in Yokohama, Japan back in February. They tapped my order into the iPAQ and then wrote a number on a piece of paper with a pencil for me to claim my food and pay the bill.
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07-18-2003, 01:33 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 361
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How hard would it be for Mickey Ds to take it to the next level? Why not release the app they're using to the public so we could place our own orders? And while they're at it, why not incorporate some kind of payment system? I'm so sick of carrying around cash. When will we have a secure, standardized means of making electronic P2P/P2B payments in person? At least they're heading in the right directions.
- Drew
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07-18-2003, 01:50 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 76
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There's a good IEEE article about handheld restaurant software here:
http://www.actionsystems.com/press_c...ecomputing.pdf
It highlights the software by this company (see handheld links from the main page, and there's some quicktime video of the handheld in action):
http://www.actionsystems.com/
p.s. Yes, I work for that company. My apologies if it is inappropriate to post this, but I thought it would be of interest to readers of this thread.
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07-18-2003, 01:54 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 813
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by trachy
I'm so sick of carrying around cash. When will we have a secure, standardized means of making electronic P2P/P2B payments in person?
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You can kind of do this already. All you need is a wireless connection and a PayPal account or similar. Not quite what you mean but no far off it!
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07-18-2003, 02:11 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 361
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Andy Whiteford
Quote:
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Originally Posted by trachy
I'm so sick of carrying around cash. When will we have a secure, standardized means of making electronic P2P/P2B payments in person?
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You can kind of do this already. All you need is a wireless connection and a PayPal account or similar. Not quite what you mean but no far off it! |
Can you do PayPal transactions with a PDA any more? They used to have a Palm app back when I had a Visor, but I thought the discontinued it. Did they bring it back?
I know you were j/k, but I made a point to include 'standardized' in my vision statement above. Maybe McDonalds will get a PayPal account? Their email address could be something like ' [email protected]'. :-)
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