More PDA Use At McDonald's

[Brad Adrian]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/21915.html' target='_blank'>http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/p...tory/21915.html</a><br /><br /></div>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.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/mcdonalds.gif" /><br /><br />"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."<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!

[Saaby]

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??)

[srbarts]

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 :D

[paulevs]

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 ?

[Andy Whiteford]

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.

[bogey]

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.

[trachy]

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

[david291]

There's a good IEEE article about handheld restaurant software here:
http://www.actionsystems.com/press_coverage_pdfs/pervasivecomputing.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.

[Andy Whiteford]

I'm so sick of carrying around cash. When will we have a secure, standardized means of making electronic P2P/P2B payments in person?


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!

[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?

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]'. :-)

[lurch]

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.
One day, before too long, everybody will have a chip of some sort embedded in their hand, and they can just run their hand over a scanner and it will automatically withdraw from their account.....


of course when that happens I'll be fleeing for my life, but hey, that's okay :mrgreen:
:lol:

[Jacob]

I know Mobil has this thing that you can put on your keychain and just swipe it across something and it ties into a credit card.

The McDonalds in my area all support this form of payment.


I've seen McDonalds and other fast food places take orders in the drive through beforehand and send them back to be processed - they even let you pay for it when you order and then you don't even have to pay at the window. I do feel sorry for them when it's raining though...

[lurch]

I do think it would be cool for McDonalds (and other resturants that have wifi) to allow you to place an order while you're on their local network, BUT, there's obvious problems with that:

"362 Big Macs, ORDER UP!"
:)

unless they rigged it so you'd pay when you placed your order, that might work...

[Brad Adrian]

I know Mobil has this thing that you can put on your keychain and just swipe it across something and it ties into a credit card...
The McDonalds in my area all support this form of payment.
Of course, the biggest challenge with creating an effective mobile payments method is in making it universal enough that merchants and consmers will use it. It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, though, because consumers won't adopt it until a critical mass of merchants has been reached, and most merchants won't invest in a mobile payments solution until a large enough consumer following exists.

[trachy]

Of course, the biggest challenge with creating an effective mobile payments method is in making it universal enough that merchants and consmers will use it. It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, though, because consumers won't adopt it until a critical mass of merchants has been reached, and most merchants won't invest in a mobile payments solution until a large enough consumer following exists.

I agree, Brad. I wonder though why the infrastucture we have in use already can't be put to better use. Wasn't it back at the Atlanta Olympics they tested out some kind of rechargeable cash card? Surely something like that could be implmented in the form of a Visa or Mastercard. It's not a perfect solution, but it would be a start.

BTW, IMHO the chip-in-the-hand idea is a good one, but not one likely to take off until there's a way for individuals to exchange funds. Most people aren't likely to lug around a PDA, so a receiver would likely have to be in the form of a watch or some other small accessory.

[gorkon280]

I remember a few years ago reading a article in Antic, a magazine for the Atari 8 bit computers, that a restaurant had a Atari 800 (or maybe a 400) at each table and you ordered using the computer. After you were done ordering, you'd be able to insert a few chained down game carts and play games while waiting for your food. They even designed their own networking type hardware as network technology was not commonly available back then. Seems neat that they did this back then and now are just starting to do it again. I imagine that they could put a PPC on every table or just buy one for each waitress and it coudl use VPN'd WiFi for doing the orders and they could even hook up a USB or serial Credit Card Reader and a BT printer (I think there was a small one featured on this site a month or so back) for pritning the receipt. They could even put the device down infront of the customer and have them sign that and then the only paper would be the customer receipt.

At a local Donatos Pizza, we were sat down and no waitress came. There was a phone at the table but I thought it was just a decoration until I noticed all the tables had phones. They basically had one or two order takers and they took orders not just for the dining room, but for delivery also. You picked up the phone, order your food, hung up and just a bit later your pizza would come to your table complete with a receipt. Signed it and once you ate you could just get up and leave. Nice. Be better if they had a sign to tell you what to do! :)

[trachy]

At a local Donatos Pizza, we were sat down and no waitress came. There was a phone at the table but I thought it was just a decoration until I noticed all the tables had phones. They basically had one or two order takers and they took orders not just for the dining room, but for delivery also. You picked up the phone, order your food, hung up and just a bit later your pizza would come to your table complete with a receipt. Signed it and once you ate you could just get up and leave. Nice. Be better if they had a sign to tell you what to do! :)

That sounds cool, but at the same time a little scarey. What's the sense in going out to a sit-down meal if there's no human contact? Might as well just order in...

[Howard2k]

They did something like that for a while but with notepads and pens. Worked pretty well. Nice to see them get into this century.

[ghostppc]

One day, before too long, everybody will have a chip of some sort embedded in their hand, and they can just run their hand over a scanner and it will automatically withdraw from their account.....


of course when that happens I'll be fleeing for my life, but hey, that's okay :mrgreen:
:lol:

I'll be two feet ahead of you! :byebye: :D

[Andy Whiteford]

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?

hehe. I was meaning through the PPC web browser. Not peer to peer but still a fairly quick solution. Not quite was you were meaning but a viable alternative.

[lurch]

At a local Donatos Pizza, we were sat down and no waitress came. There was a phone at the table but I thought it was just a decoration until I noticed all the tables had phones. They basically had one or two order takers and they took orders not just for the dining room, but for delivery also. You picked up the phone, order your food, hung up and just a bit later your pizza would come to your table complete with a receipt. Signed it and once you ate you could just get up and leave. Nice. Be better if they had a sign to tell you what to do! :)
They do this at our local Sonic whatever place... it was kinda wierd, I don't think I liked it a ton (especially since the person taking my order was about as excited to talk to me as an Ameritech customer service rep after a 10 hour day......)
So now I can be abused by support people on the phone even when I go out to eat??? SWEET!!! :roll:

[gpatel]

While I'm sure we all like the PocketPC solution to this problem, wouldn't it just be easier to get faster order-taking employees? And what's going to happen with the back-room operations when the orders are coming so fast and the burgers become the bottleneck. :?

[Jacob]

While I'm sure we all like the PocketPC solution to this problem, wouldn't it just be easier to get faster order-taking employees? And what's going to happen with the back-room operations when the orders are coming so fast and the burgers become the bottleneck. :?

In the cases I've seen it's usually when the wireless factor is the real benefit.

Like when there's a long line in the drivethrough and someone takes the order and then sends it wirelessly to the kitchen.

Even the fastest order taker can't keep up with a hectic lunch hour at times...especially when some patrons can't make up their mind :mrgreen:

[Pat Logsdon]

One day, before too long, everybody will have a chip of some sort embedded in their hand, and they can just run their hand over a scanner and it will automatically withdraw from their account.....
I can see it now - gangs of thugs armed with scanners hooked up to Pocket PC's roaming shadowy parks at night...

"Hold still, yous'! Yer throwin' the scanner off! Shoot, hang on a sec...ActiveSync is hangin' again, gotta do a soft reset...Guido! Why'd you put the AP in a freakin' tree? Da squirrels stole it last week and now some punk is tryin' ta crack my WEP and steal my passwords! What is tha woild comin' to? I miss the good old days when you could crack someone in da head and steal their wallet..."

:mrgreen:

[reydiodj]

In-N-Out Burger already does something similar to this at their drive-thrus - as opposed to ordering through the common speaker box, an employee has a wireless enabled slate-style device (similar to that of a smart display/tablet) that sends the order to the cashier window. This allows the worker to go from car-to-car to get the orders so the patrons don't have to wait to get to the speaker box...plus they're a lot easier to understand in person :roll:

[GoldKey]

One day, before too long, everybody will have a chip of some sort embedded in their hand, and they can just run their hand over a scanner and it will automatically withdraw from their account.....


of course when that happens I'll be fleeing for my life, but hey, that's okay :mrgreen:
:lol:

I'll be two feet ahead of you! :byebye: :D

Remember...Resistance is Futile. You will be Assimilated!

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