Sorry but only an idiot would buy a hamburger from a machine. Self checkouts are a failure, and many retailers have been quietly 'removing' them. Costco started testing them then realized they actually had to pay additional people to re-check items, fix errors, debug the machines, and at times, manually enter bar codes. You can still find these 'unused' Costco automated checkouts at the Auburn Hills location - pushed off to the side like some arcane relic... The vast majority of chains are removing them - as quickly as they can....

http://www.businessinsider.com/costco-is-eliminating-self-checkout-2013-6

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/story/2011-09-15/self-service-checkout/50411994/1

http://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/albertsons-llc-removes-self-checkouts

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2012/06/03/19832081.html

Why is it so bad people are demanding fair wages? Frankly, the rest of the civilized world has much higher minimum wages, and the US is quit a ways behind. If you want to stimulate the economy the best way is to raise wages because a significant number of those making minimum pump their money back into the economy. 

What I have noticed is local economies are trumping federal wages. Orlando for example bases minimums on what Disney pays.. In my city the minimum wage is around $9 an hour. Nobody DARES pay anyone less than that or they will never find anyone to work for them. Businesses in poor areas can't be trusted to set wages so the govt. has to step in and do it. In higher end areas the market determines wage.

Sorry bud, robots aren't replacing anything. Well.. Maybe they will replace CEO's, and we'd all benefit. 

Hmmm....seems 60 years ago there were these new fangle things called Automats.

Not a thing!  That is the beauty of a free country.  THey can always get another job.  And they will - when their labor is worth it to another employer.

Wage 'worth' is too relative, it's an 'opinion' of a business, often not based on the market. For example my friend owns a popular bar. They do between $25,000-$30,000 on a Friday or Saturday night in booze. Shouldn't that merit a bunch of $20-$40 an hour employees? Surely it should, however the majority of his workforce are under $10 an hour. Pathetic. So employers often cannot be trusted to make rational labor decisions, that's why the govt needs to set minimum standards. It's also why our govt' needs to ditch the 1980's rubbish $7.25 an hour and immediately bump it to at least $12 an hour, maybe $15.. I have yet to meet a business owner that was entirely fair about wages. Most just want the cheapest people they can find, and with large populations of 'desperate' workers they sure as hell can find those cheap people. Sad really.

Also, why is Joeuser still fail after all of these years? I click on quote to reply, and it doesn't even take me down to reply, or quote anything.. What a horrid site.

Sad, indeed.  But not quite in the way you think it is.

So what is to prevent these employees from opening their own bar, and paying those wages?  They surely would skim off the cream of the crop (who would not want to work for 2x-4x as much)?

And therein lies your answer.  There is nothing stopping them, they just have not risked a thing.  Your friend did.  And he has to pay those people $20-40/hour when he only does a few hundred dollars on a night.

Good luck getting credit for that, and with their slave wages, they can't save enough to even get enough to start their own business.  This is why income inequality is bad- it's a snowballing effect- poverty is one of the most expensive things out there.

Also, your "friend" can pass some of those increased costs onto his customers, especially if his competition also has to pay those increased costs.

That's the American, 'Can Do' spirit.  All those other bars just sprang up from nothing when Magic Greedy Rich Dude tapped his Wealth Wand on the ground, so 'not fair'.

Where do you think the friend got the money from?  The bar fairy?  Most people do not win the lottery and open a bar.  They create a business plan, sell it to money backers, and borrow the money for it.  But they have to pay that money back.  And the investors want a return on their investment.

That friend is just a $10/hour bartender who had a plan.  And sacrificed for it.  He is not Bill Gates,

Good luck with that.

I like the bar fairy better.

You need a certain amount of capital/collateral to get the loan.   Nowadays many folks can't even get that collateral from the service sector.

You need money to make money.  Poverty's expensive.

It definitely does help, But is not a requirement.  And there are ways to save even on the "slave wages" of $10/hour.  I know, I have.

$10/hr is high for slave wages, it's usually 8 at most.

Good luck getting credit for that, and with their slave wages, they can't save enough to even get enough to start their own business.  This is why income inequality is bad- it's a snowballing effect- poverty is one of the most expensive things out there.

 

Exactly. The entire system is rigged to keep people from doing exactly that. They are so busy working 50 hours a week, barely paying their living expenses, and they are supposed to magically find 4 million in financing?

The fact is most business owners want to pay as little as possible so they can keep the biggest chunk possible. If they find 'suckers' to pay bottom dollar for, they will hire them. This is why we need govt. regulation to keep the wages reasonable, a base line. $7.25 is ludicrous, and needs to be doubled immediately.

I read a story of a worker that worked at a place for 12 years, and over that 12 years he never got a single wage other than the federally mandated minimum wage increases.  The owner of that company should be shot for paying the guy the same for 12 years, that's inhumane. But these owners/ceos will continue to do this, which is why we need regulation.

Automation is largely a failure, and will continue to be a failure. I am laughing at all of the money these companies wasted to automate, and then they have to scrap these expensive machines after a few years.

For a pub?  Damn.  I know permits & whatnot are a tough nut in some places, but...

Not necessarily.  Demand/satisfaction with self-checkout was overestimated/oversold but it won't go away.  One employee can manage 4 kiosks, maybe more, and I still prefer self-checkout about 15-20% of the time, especially when I have only a few items - almost always get out of Dodge quicker.  Most of the time, I'll use a conventional checkout lane but that doesn't mean self-checkout has zero appeal.  It will remain one of your checkout options for some time to come for many retailers.