The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

IDEA: No-speak ordering at McDonald's etc.

Idea threads

Threenuc

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
40%
Oct 3, 2014
40
16
26
Poland
I recently was at a McDonald's with a friend. He told me what he wanted and went to get a seat. I told the cashier what my friend wanted, it was a burger+fries bundle (more expensive when bought separately).

When I got sat down at the table with my friend, I started reading the receipt - not only did the cashier bill me for fries and the burger separately, she also gave me the wrong burger. Well, I'm not going to get mad over $0.50 and a piece of cow in my burger instead of a piece of chicken, but it got me thinking.

McDonald's is a franchise - they sell systems that just work. Wouldn't McD want the cashier job be more of a no-brainer than it already is? Instead of actually talking to people AND giving them stuff, you just give people stuff. Plus checkout is that tiny bit faster.

How would it work:
1. Pick what you want to eat in a smartphone app
2. Use your phone's NFC to transfer what you want to eat from the app to a scanning device (I'd have to manufacture that device)
3. Device puts the data in the cash register
4. Pay, get your food, go away

What do you think?

and most importantly, how do I validate this in less than a month/week?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Metabaron

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Feb 16, 2015
59
60
38
Indiana
They are already testing touchscreen ordering (with pictures) in some McDonalds locations. No cashier, just punch in and order, swipe card. Taco bell also has an app that lets you order from it. Not trying to discourage you, just giving info on whats already in the market.
 

tafy

Gold Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
116%
Aug 21, 2013
1,647
1,912
UK
They are already testing ipad ordering in busy places, where you order on one of their devices and pay when you pick up your order. It is a good idea, but I think a lot of places will roll out their own versions initially to see what works.

Restaurant industry has all sorts of remote ordering, or pay your bill with your mobile stuff. Your gonna have to come up with something for independent restaurants if you want traction
 

Threenuc

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
40%
Oct 3, 2014
40
16
26
Poland
Hm, good on McD for doing something like this for their customers then. Sorry for not researching first. Poland isn't exactly McD's frontier, too, ha.

As for independent restaurants, I don't know. McD isn't exactly the place where you create relationships with your cashier (as opposed to your local cafe) + indepentent restaurants are probably less likely to have any complex bundles. That's just assumptions though.

Feels kinda good to come up with the same idea as McD, which is more likely to know what they're doing than I do, though. Haha.

I was also thinking about cashierless, waiting line-less general stores (WalMart etc.), but that's kind of an undeveloped idea. Basically people would get a bracelet that would save what do they have in their cart. If you have eg. bread, you go to a scanning station (many placed in every section of the store), scan your bracelet, scan the bread. Then when exiting the store, you scan your bracelet again, you get shown the end price and pay.

Obviously this is more vulnerable to shoplifting, the anti-shoplifting gates would still be in place (they could also be placed around the store to detect unpaid for items before actual checkout so you don't create chokepoints). I could later branch out to a system where you could make your shopping faster by providing your shopping list and you'd recieve the shortest path to get the things you need. I know Target in the US does something really similar.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

tafy

Gold Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
116%
Aug 21, 2013
1,647
1,912
UK
Basically people would get a bracelet that would save what do they have in their cart. If you have eg. bread, you go to a scanning station (many placed in every section of the store), scan your bracelet, scan the bread. Then when exiting the store, you scan your bracelet again, you get shown the end price and pay.

Oh man... thats the best you can think of?

Tesco in UK already give anyone who wants one a scanning gun to scan anything you want, then you pay on checkout.

They are already talking about rfid tags on each item and you wont even need to scan. But thats kinda science fiction atm.
 

csalvato

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
297%
May 5, 2014
2,058
6,106
39
Rocky Mountain West
Oh man... thats the best you can think of?

Tesco in UK already give anyone who wants one a scanning gun to scan anything you want, then you pay on checkout.

They are already talking about rfid tags on each item and you wont even need to scan. But thats kinda science fiction atm.
That's also orders of magnitude more expensive than printing a barcode and completely unrealistic.
 

Phones

Break your boundaries
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
202%
Aug 13, 2011
610
1,234
29
Praia da Areia Branca, Portugal
They are already implementing Touchscreen order screens.

Much much better than waiting in line. And you can customize what you want your burger with (something the cashiers always mess on). The interface could be better tho, the average joe wouldn't find how to customize the order.

I've seen it in at least 273 different McDonalds here in Lisbon.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Metabaron

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Feb 16, 2015
59
60
38
Indiana

csalvato

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
297%
May 5, 2014
2,058
6,106
39
Rocky Mountain West
http://www.rfidarena.com/2014/5/15/...-with-technology-that-is-available-today.aspx

Just leaving this here. Rfid is here to stay. There are places that already have implemented this. They can also do real time inventory and tracking with a reader area over a given area. Also, rfid tags are a few cents each. Hope this helps those looking into this tech :)
"Cost effective" means something different to engineers and to business people.

Even if it's 0.1¢ to put an RFID tag into packaging, thats 0.1¢ more than it costs to print a barcode (which is already included in the cost of printing on packaging...so it's essentially free).

Sure 0.1¢ sounds "cost effective" to an engineer making $100k/year.

But when you have to ship out 100M units/year that's an extra $100K expense for little to no benefit.

And I haven't researched the cost specifically, but I would put $100 down that the cost of adding RFID to packaging is not going to be 0.1¢. It would be at least 1¢/unit...at LEAST.

The cost of adding RFID to every single package in the world would create tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in costs that are just simply not necessary.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Mattie

Platinum Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
129%
May 28, 2014
3,485
4,490
53
U.S.
Everything can become technology, but I think when it comes to food, they still can mess up orders. lol
 

ZeroExile

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
158%
Sep 10, 2014
38
60
Florida
I've seen this in restaurants too, some people get confused on how to work it though such as the elderly. It's like an iPad for ordering food and such.
 

Metabaron

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Feb 16, 2015
59
60
38
Indiana
"Cost effective" means something different to engineers and to business people.

Even if it's 0.1¢ to put an RFID tag into packaging, thats 0.1¢ more than it costs to print a barcode (which is already included in the cost of printing on packaging...so it's essentially free).

Sure 0.1¢ sounds "cost effective" to an engineer making $100k/year.

But when you have to ship out 100M units/year that's an extra $100K expense for little to no benefit.

And I haven't researched the cost specifically, but I would put $100 down that the cost of adding RFID to packaging is not going to be 0.1¢. It would be at least 1¢/unit...at LEAST.

The cost of adding RFID to every single package in the world would create tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in costs that are just simply not necessary.

Playing devils advocate here, but they are already phasing out normal UPCs. The improved inventory accuracy (real time), with less labor needed to track with make up the cost difference. More info on RFID.
EPC is the new Electronic Product Code that replaces the older UPC (Universal Product Code) found on many item labels and is a set of numbers plus a bar code. Since UPC first started in 1963 it became out of date with today's global economies and EPC is the Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) modern day equivalent of the older UPC.

EPCglobal is the organization(s) that lead the development of industry global wide standards for the EPC to support the use ofRFID in today's global, information hungry trading networks. EPCglobal organizations are in every country that is working towards making the EPC the end to end supply chain standard.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

csalvato

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
297%
May 5, 2014
2,058
6,106
39
Rocky Mountain West
Playing devils advocate here, but they are already phasing out normal UPCs. The improved inventory accuracy (real time), with less labor needed to track with make up the cost difference. More info on RFID.
EPC is the new Electronic Product Code that replaces the older UPC (Universal Product Code) found on many item labels and is a set of numbers plus a bar code. Since UPC first started in 1963 it became out of date with today's global economies and EPC is the Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) modern day equivalent of the older UPC.

EPCglobal is the organization(s) that lead the development of industry global wide standards for the EPC to support the use ofRFID in today's global, information hungry trading networks. EPCglobal organizations are in every country that is working towards making the EPC the end to end supply chain standard.
They mentioned this in the article above. The cost savings would be on the back end, but those costs are for the stores, not for the people who put the UPCs on the products...the manufacturers.

There is no value-add to the manufacturer unless the stores pass the savings onto the manufacturer by increasing their margins. Seems like a lot of moving parts to make a change.

Maybe it will happen one day, but I don't really see how scanning with Barcodes is THAT inefficient to cause such a major technological shift.

Maybe I am missing something...? I could just not know the industry well enough.
 

hestati

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
61%
Jan 14, 2014
140
85
38
San Diego, Cali
This could be great for a drive through. Prepare order on your phone, drive to the scanner, scan the screen, order given, drive and pick up your food...
 

SlowlaneJay

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
273%
Oct 25, 2014
270
738
Bogotá, Colombia
Why are you thinking fast food? In a normal restaurant, would be great to order from your phone without waiting for the waitress to finish flirting with the bartender. Could have a QR code on the table so it gets sent to the right spot too.

So package it up.

A done-for-you system that connects the cooks, servers, and patrons. Import the menu, install the system overnight, and brand the whole thing to match the restaurant— how big would you like the logo, sir?

Seems like it would be easier to chase independent restaurant owners, than franchisees who are bound to the McDos and McDon'ts of the franchise world.

…But all this spitballing aside, why not ask the restaurant owners what they actually need?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

hestati

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
61%
Jan 14, 2014
140
85
38
San Diego, Cali
In ideal world yes. I worked at and managed restaurants. Never gonna work in real life. We would get regular orders once in a while, but then it goes "no onions, more cheese, first bring this then that, bring all at the same time". Then cooks... they never read. You have to repeat 25 times "no onions, more sauce". And yeah, good luck convincing restaurant owners. Most of them live in 20th century, they hate POS, consider it necessary evil, they hate credit-debit machines...

I am not saying there will not be 1-2-10 smart owners out there wanting to adapt this system, but there are very few of hem
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top