The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order

[LiberalHeart]

Like many American teenagers, Julissa Vargas, 17, has a minimum-wage job in the fast-food industry — but hers has an unusual geographic reach.

"Would you like your Coke and orange juice medium or large?" Ms. Vargas said into her headset to an unseen woman who was ordering breakfast from a drive-through line. She did not neglect the small details —"You Must Ask for Condiments," a sign next to her computer terminal instructs — and wished the woman a wonderful day.

What made the $12.08 transaction remarkable was that the customer was not just outside Ms. Vargas's workplace here on California's central coast. She was at a McDonald's in Honolulu. And within a two-minute span Ms. Vargas had also taken orders from drive-through windows in Gulfport, Miss., and Gillette, Wyo.

More (link goes to NY Times):
http://tinyurl.com/qp7x2

[kestrel91316]

1. I wonder when Ms. Vargas' job will get outsourced to India?

[NYC]

2. As soon as they decide it works.

Then on to the Phillipines where labor is even cheaper.

[Javaman]

7. It already has....

There was a post on here about a month ago stating just that fact.

[unblock]

3. i think the entire job could be replaced by a touch screen

if they could replace bank tellers with atms, they can replace fast food tellers with atms.

besides, they're going to screw up your order anyway, so what does it matter?

[LibDemAlways]

5. If the fast food touch screens were as

reliable as the Diebold touchscreens, the customer would request a burger and get chicken nuggets every time. Bad idea.

[ChoralScholar]

8. hmmm....

burger equals democratic vote?

butt nuggets... ahem... CHICKEN nuggets equals republican vote?

[pepperbear]

4. the last vestige of face to face customer service...

the salesperson...replaced by a wireless voice in a shopping cart.

who'da thunk?

:wtf:

[OneBlueSky]

6. bottom line: this is insane . . . n/t

.

[MadHound]

9. Here we go,

Now that we've outsourced manufacturing jobs and our hi tech sector, service jobs are going to be the next sector to go, at least at the big chain stores.

We're already seeing this with call centers and graphic arts, they've all gone overseas. Now we're going to be placing our orders with somebody across the world in India. And machines are starting to replace cashiers at grocery stores across the country. Within twenty years I imagine that we will have entire stores that employ only stockers and security guards. It is conceivible that we will have convience stores where our only interaction will be nodding to the security guard at the door, everything else will be automated.

I just don't know what people will live on, wear they're going to earn a decent salary in order to survive. Our society is now a consumer based economy, and if people don't have the money with which to purchase things our economy will collapse. The only possible explanation I have for this is simply more short term thinking, profits now and to hell with the future. The rich and well off will have enough money to ride out the economic storm, and in fact will consider it a buying opportunity.

Sadly, I think that the only job that is going to be secure in this brave new world is going to be in security. There will always be a job out there protecting the wealth of the haves from incursion by the have nots.