Technology can improve your restaurant experience when used correctly. Many casual sit down chains, for example, have added those little kiosks to your table where you can add onto your order and pay your bill.
Some companies offer QR codes that allow you to bring up and pay your bill.
These are conveniences that actually improve your dining experience, but you don’t have to use them.
If you’d like to be waited on by an actual waiter or waitress and pay your bill, the old-fashioned way, you can absolutely do that.
McDonald’s has embraced technology as part of its massive Experience of the Future restaurant remodeling campaign. That brought most of the chain’s U.S. locations ordering kiosks.
Those kiosks could be a positive, but the way they are being used makes it very unpleasant to order inside a McDonald’s.
Image source: McDonald's
What it’s like to visit McDonald’s
While I have used the drive-through to buy my son dinner, I have not been inside of McDonald’s in a number of years. I stopped at one recently, along with some friends to get some coffee and breakfast.
The front half of the store had no employees working. You had to order via a kiosk, and those kiosks were very confusing.
One of my friends, wanted to take the small coffee included in the value meal and upgrade it to a large coffee. It took us multiple tries to figure out the very non-intuitive way to make that happen.
Nothing about the kiosk was easy and there was no person floating around to help with any questions. When it actually came time to pay, the kiosk told us it did not accept payment, and to go to the counter to pay
There was no actual person at the counter, and our order number was not added to the progress list. We eventually flagged someone down who is working drive-through and she took our payment.
This was not a pleasant or easy experience and my friends, who regularly stop at McDonald’s during their extensive travels told me this was fairly typical.
They had experienced the no staff and no payment accepted issue multiple times across different locations in multiple states.
McDonald’s made a huge investment
Ostensibly, McDonald’s invested in EOF in order to improve its ordering process and to save money on employees. No company ever comes out and says that saving money is the reason behind automating, but in the early days of the transition, McDonald’s stores did not completely eliminate traditional ordering, and a staff member with stations near the kiosks.
At some, likely many McDonald’s locations that staffing has gone away, and there are no personnel in the front half of the store except when they are calling out order numbers.
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Back in 2018, the McDonald’s Chief financial officer Kevin Ozan said in a statement that the fast-food company planned to invest about $2.4 billion of capital in 2018, the majority of which will go to deploying the “Experience of the Future” design at U.S. locations.
“Our development plans also include the opening of about 1,000 new McDonald’s restaurants, 75 percent of which will be funded by our expanded network of developmental licensees and affiliates around the world,” he said, QSR Magazine reported
McDonald’s U.S. EOF timeline
- 2017: Launch in U.S.; 2,500 restaurants upgraded, Mobile Order & Pay rolls out nationwide.
- 2018: McDonald’s invests $2.4 billion, mostly for U.S. EOF remodels.
- 2019: Nearly 2,000 upgrades; ~50% of U.S. restaurants converted, goal set for full transformation by 2022.
- 2020 – COVID shifts focus to drive-thru, digital, and curbside; remodel pace slows.
- 2021–2022: Majority of U.S. restaurants modernized; digital loyalty layered in.
- 2023–2024: EOF becomes standard, with AI drive-thru and app integration expanding.
Consumers struggle with fast-food kiosks
Canopy, a provider of remote monitoring and management (RMM) software for connected products, recenttly released a report on what customers think about restaurant technology at quick-service restaurants. Fast-Food Friction: The 2025 Restaurant Tech Report is based on a national survey of Americans who eat at quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and highlights how technology influences customers’ experiences and brand loyalty.
Key findings include:
- Self-service kiosks often cause problems: 60% of customers reported using kiosks occasionally or often, and 80% say they’ve run into issues. The most aggravating problems include frozen screens, broken printers, and card readers that don’t work.
- Payments rarely work as expected: More than 75% reported having trouble paying across tap-to-pay, chip readers, and mobile wallets. Unresponsive tap devices, chip readers that fail, and slow payment processing were all common grievances, which point to misbehaving point-of-sale (POS) systems.
A McDonald’s employee shared an experience from his store when it went all kiosk on the Reddit McDonald’s employee forum.
I’m in the US, for reference. We’ve had kiosks for years obviously. But I was told about a week ago that our location was being pushed to move away from counter orders and move into kiosk orders. Even having me take someone’s order on the kiosks. We have a LOT of older folx in my area, and I have had at least 3 act like it’s my fault, and be nasty-and way more just leave. And go “I’ll just go somewhere else then”. I was told to say “HI! I can take your order over here!” And just do it for them.
A lady literally went “So do I just not exist?!” When, clearly a party of 2, only one followed me over. And I said “No, I was talking to both of you. I can do it for you, we’re just being encouraged to do it on the Kiosks now.”
And she huffed at me and said “if you’re not taking my order up here I’m just gonna leave!” And all I could do was help the lady who was willing to be helped.
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The poster, who identified as SpaceEnbee also shared other issues with the kiosks.
“They’re telling us our main objective now is to create an environment that encourages people to want to come back. These 2 things are extremely counter productive,” they wrote. “Also; you can’t order a Senior Coffee (90% of our open-to-lunch patronage), or a cheeseburger happy meal on the kiosk.”
McDonald’s did not mean to be kiosk-only
McDonald’s did not plan on having stores where no workers were customer facing. At least that’s what a company spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC where former CEO Steve Easterbrook was referenced.
“Our CEO, Steve Easterbrook, has said on many occasions that self-order kiosks in McDonald’s restaurants are not a labor replacement. They provide an opportunity to transition back-of-the-house positions to more customer service roles such as concierges and table service where they are able to truly engage with guests and enhance the dining experience.”
The chain, however is almost entirely franchise operated which gives the parent company limited opportunity to enforce staffing levels.
McDonald’s reiterated those comments in a 2024 media statement.
“These changes allow franchisees to meet our customers’ increased desire for digital options, while improving speed and accuracy,” a spokesperson for McDonald’s told The New York Post.
Aris Gysel, a McDonald’s franchise owner, admitted to HiTec.org that there were learning curve issues.
“The change in customer experience has been dramatic for our guests. It was also challenging for them to learn how to use new tools and understand the benefits of digitalisation. Especially in the beginning, there was notable concern that we would replace our workers with machines. Quite a few guests refused to use our self-ordering kiosks,” they shared.
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