Fast food joint Wendy's to implement "Surge Pricing"
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I have to imagine the purpose behind this is twofold: sucker investors/execs who don't understand AI into thinking it's a panacea for their woes, and an attempt to do something to survive while inflation and stagnating wages are killing their market.
So, no, not "profit".
There's another step that's being talked about, but isn't publicly known. Every single company wants and has an expectation for an automated place. One guy fixes problems and maintains equipment and that's it. The initial cost is steep, but once you enter all the workers not being there it evens out and becomes a profit in a few years.
But if we can automate the food, do we need the restaurant? Do we need the chain? What comes after? That's what they're really scared of as they charge forward to their own Doom.
Agreed.
They're all looking to roll back Henry Ford's plan of paying the workers enough to become customers. They expect the market to continue unchanged even as they strip out employees and paychecks from it, like climbing a rope into the sky and pulling it up after yourself.
Since most fast food places are owned by the same company, and work the same way, having several restaurants in one small area makes sense.