Another Reason to Hate McDonalds

I was traveling from Illinois back to Georgia and decided I needed a little time out of the car. If there is a plus to McDonalds it is the fact they almost always have clean restrooms. I needed one and something to drink. The McDonalds was in Forsyth, Georgia just north of Macon. It is the county seat of Monroe County and has a population of about 4,000. We are not talking about a big city. I was surprised to see these for the first time at this McDonalds. 

No need to talk to one of their minimum wage employees. Just walk up to this kiosk, enter your order, pay with your card and wait for your number to be called. Want to be old fashioned? 

If you look at the sign above the woman it shows you where to order if you want some human contact, or you are interested in paying with cash. Oh you throwback rebel. Cash? Really! There is really only one reason to do that. You enjoy watching the slack jawed, mouth breathing help try to make change. I'm reasonably sure that if the computer did not dive them the amount the couldn't figure it out. Count it back to you? Dream on. They just wad the coins and bills together and shove them at you. You wait a few minutes and someone else calls out your ticket number and hands you a bag that should have the right food in it. You open it up and look at a sandwich that was clearly put together by someone who didn't give a shit about how it looked or take any pride in their job. My problems with this go beyond stupid employees and carelessly prepared food. 

Are we so unable to deal with human contact that we would prefer to order our food from a computer screen? The only contact you had with an employee was when they yelled out your order number. You would hear "171" called out, as an example, and a tray or bag of food put on the pickup area of the counter. To my ears it sounded like this. "171, take your shitty happy meal and your Chinese made toy and get the hell out of here." 

So, if this is the future of McDonalds, I will go there even less than I do now. I want to walk up to a real person, preferably one who is not drooling and say something. You know like: "May I please have a fish sandwich, medium fries and a medium drink?" My parents did teach me to be polite. They tell me how much I owe, perhaps trying to up sell me an apple pie. They make change for my payment, thank me for my order. When the order is ready they hand it to me, thank me for my business and suggest I have a nice day. I fear those days are over. Faceless, nameless, kiosk, robotic employees, bland, tasteless, poorly prepared food. Hopefully the restrooms remain clean. Way more McDonalds than interstate highway rest stops.