I agree that some people would want the "personal touch". Unfortunately, that personal touch where they remember you is very rare these days. I have wondered why the restaurants havent recorded email addresses and your favorites, and greet you on your phone or on a tableside ipad with well done commercials about the specials of the day with pictures, and make it a really informative and pleasant experience (not to mention accurate).

A bar is somewhat different in that people have favorite bars and bartenders.

I would love to ask SIRI where the baking soda is in the market I have walked into, or where the light bulbs are in a huge Walmart without having to ask an employee who usually doesnt know either.

These are great ideas that can be translated into money both for the store and the people who figure out the technology. The customers will definitely like these ideas if they are done well. "well" means better than the solutions out there now. Doesnt mean perfect right off the bat.

People think they are entitled.

Lots of people like the personal touch of a waitress reciting the specials and describing and making recommendations from the menu.
For those people it's worth a tip.
I used to eat at restaurants all the time and enjoyed the food with service being very hit-or-miss imo. I enjoyed sitting at the bar in my favorite restaurant and the bar tender really did earn the tips because she remembered names and preferences. I must have tipped her 100+ silver rounds over time until she asked me to stop. She didn't want to spend her silver for the rent.
I rarely eat at restaurants now. The food is overpriced, (often) marginally prepared by illegal immigrants, and ingredients are suspect. I get indigestion about half the time when I eat at restaurants and that never happens when I cook at home.

My guess is that Applebee's doesn't want the confrontation when ordering mistakes are made by customers. Eventually the cost of staff will force most restaurants to use an electronic ordering system and people will get accustomed to it. Students will have to find another way to make spending money- like an apprenticeship.

Big box stores should have phone apps written to guide customers to the right aisle and shelf within the stores and to call an employee for help when needed, too.

I say it a good opportunity to take advantage of. When I go to subway, I usually get the same thing and instead of having to repeat my order every time I go there to a clerk who isnt listening to me the first time anyway, I could have a QR code on my phone that the reader there checks out and gives the details to the sandwich maker without a word being spoken. Much faster and more accurate

Applebees is using ipads (or the equivalent) at each table and you can order only desserts and drink refills currently and pay the bill. They are afraid to let people order the rest of the food on the menu, but how hard could that really be?

Heck, the system could be set up to remember specific customers favorites and preferences easily today, so if you were a frequent customer you could flash your card or smart phone and your preference could appear instead of the menu. If you could count on being there at a specific time you could order before leaving or on the way.
Surely some of this is already happening at some restaurants (like takeout pizza orders.)

You essentially did the "shrugging" as in Atlas Shrugged, and I think this is HOW it happens- one at a time without a John Galt. I left the medical device business after the FDA came in and required their approval before any new product could be offered to the public. It would take up to a year to get that approval, after I went through hell providing all the information they needed to fresh out of college people who decided my fate. It was insulting as I knew my customers far better than they did, and my niche was in inventing new ways to satisfy them that the big companies couldnt do. I didnt need a John Galt to get me to shrug.

If the system was planned out to include common order variations so it was what I would call user friendly, I would love it. Today, people are using "chat" on their website to handle special situations efficiently. Hopefully, the usage of chat would be very limited if the software was written well, but even so, ONE server person could manage the orders and the chat for the whole restaurant.

It's the word "delayed" that is the key. We live in a society that has impatience and a short attention span. The reason many people with good income save nothing for retirement is because they can't cope with the idea of having to wait to get their money.

Years ago I wrote a point of sale system for a friend's restaurant. At the time the hardware was a big cost, but today any restaurant that wanted to do so could let diners place their orders themselves easily, (as long as children or practical jokers are kept in check.) It's as easy to do as scanning items at the self checkout at Kroger or Wal-mart. Yes, there would be a small minority who needed help with anything technical but ticking off boxes on a screen is easier than using a VCR (Remember VCR's?) and the order prints immediately in the kitchen.

Hard to explain, but I really dont want to talk to wait staff when I go out to dinner. I am there with friends to enjoy being with them.. I dont want to chit chat with random entitled people who work there.

Applebees recently has ipads at the tables where you can order some things, request drink refills, and pay for the meal. Its a great idea, and I hope they expand it so you can order anything and have no need at all for a server. The busboy quietly brings the food to the right person and takes away the dishes.

I had a similar experience. We had a mail order and a publishing firm. The mail order people wanted to unionize and set wages and hours according to the union. We closed the mail order and focused 100% on the publishing..

They Must talk to you in order to take your ordeer. A pleasant bit of cheery small talk might enhance the experience or are you a "Bah! Humbug!" type?

It saddens me that people lack the drive to do any minimal thing beyond what is required of them. I used to be a roofing contractor and developed a system of roofing that sped up the process. Young men that I hired were trained then paid by the square (amount of work completed) not hourly. This was 30 years ago and young men fresh out of high school were earning $25 ($100 an hour now) and hour. They were paid bonuses based on amount of work completed in a day. They realized the value of staying a little later on a job so we would not have to return to complete it the next day then spend unpaid time moving to another. They were always anxious to work and I sometimes sent them home early to have time to do other things of interest.
One day they came to me and said they wanted to work for an hourly wage of $25 and get overtime if they worked after hours (I pointed out that the bonuses achieved by extra production was overtime) and be able to take breaks. They complained the work was difficult (I was working on the roof with them) and sometimes they wanted to take breaks. I told them to take breaks if they were tired. I wanted them to rest. They pointed out that if they took breaks they were no longer earning money! No kidding! Neither was I! I told them that if they were paid by the hour I was cutting their wage to $9 per hour because I knew their productivity would drop. They chose to continue because they liked the pay but eventually the state was called in, I was told I was being unfair and I closed my business. They no longer made $25 an hour, went to work for other contractors earning $7-$8.

Fortunately, the free market lets us all have what we want. I dont really want to converse with a random waiter or waitress. I go there to eat and enjoy the company that I went with, not some random person I really dont even know

I dont consider wait staff to be part of the family. All they need to do is take the order and bring the food. I dont really need to converse with them.

Layaway is simply a cash purchase with a delayed ownership factor. The advantage of cash is that there's no enormous debt all at once that has been deferred. Plus an interest rate if payment is deferred that is unreasonable. the cost of which should be added to the price increasing the debt load. The USA owes so much that it can barely pay the interest let alone the primary cost.

It all depends on the kind of experience you're looking for.

It all depends on the class of restaurant. Mickey D virtually created the self-serve hamburger joint, but a restaurant with waitresses is an entirely different class of establishment.it is a sit-down, and part of the experience is human interaction.being waited on by an efficient and cheerful person makes the eating out experience something to look forward to.It's the difference between a car wash and detailing.

Since I'm in charge of the credit cards, I play one against the other in terms of deals.

I could never go into business today, the same way I did it in '69.

It's all about immediate gratification. I don't get the item I want until it's paid for with layaway, while I can take immediate possession of a credit card purchase.

That sounds attractive, but I world suggest that those things can be done more efficiently and more universally using robot technology without costing 20%.

Today, in my experience, most wait staff are entitled people who give mediocre service most of the time and expect at least 10% for it. Nearly all fast food order takers are terrible- don’t listen to what you want, force you to repeat yourself instead of listening and can easily be replaced by robot technology available today.

Absolutely the market fixes pretty much everything on its own. Political correctness, and fear of left wing reprisals slow down market responses, and government regulations forbids market responses.

I would prefer to order restaurant food and fast food from an iPad and have it served by a robot if possible, or a busboy if that’s not possible - and save the tip. Restaurants should be free to set their policies as they want, and customers should decide whether to eat there or not

I would suggest a better way is for a restaurant owner to set the level of service he wants for his restaurant, insist his wait staff give that level of service universally, and pay the wait staff what he needs to in order to keep the wait staff.

By making their wage dependent on how much of a tip they get encourages preferential levels of service rather than a universal level of service. And now the wait staff EXPECTS at least 10% from everyone regardless of service.

The wait staff seems to be is a sales organization instructed to push the “specials” and increase the size of the orders by suggesting profitable items- for the benefit of the restaurant. Often they no longer even bring the food. Just what do we get from the tip that a kiosk or table side robot could not do with user friendly programming?

In a short time I realised that I must tell my story to someone or break down completely. I had already decided not to abandon the quest for the lurking fear, for in my rash ignorance it seemed to me that uncertainty was worse than enlightenment, however terrible the latter might prove to be. Accordingly I resolved in my mind the best course to pursue; whom to select for my confidences, and how to track down the thing which had obliterated two men and cast a nightmare shadow.