No, I won’t be using the app today

If you’ve been to a McDonald’s drive-thru in the past several months, chances are you were greeted with a friendly question. “Will you be using your mobile app today?” I don’t know what happens if you answer “yes,” but my answer is always “no.” Most of the time, another voice comes on and takes my order, which means that the greeting is automated.

Occasionally, though, it is a real person asking the question. Lest any employee forget about this important question, there is normally a large display visible through the first drive-up window reminding them to greet each customer with something like “Welcome to McDonald’s, will you be using your mobile app today?”
My guess is that there is a huge push at the McDonald’s headquarters to convert as many customers as possible to “order with the app.” The idea is that if they can get the majority of their customers to order with the app, even if it takes a couple of years and millions or billions of annoying robotic greetings, then that’s one less employee needed at the restaurant.

I get it. Employees are expensive. Especially with demands to increase wages coming along every time the wind changes direction. Forward-thinking executives can see the writing on the wall and know that they need to adapt to a more robot-oriented workforce if they want to maintain their profit margins in the future.
They’ve already replaced the order takers inside with touch-screen kiosks. The last time I went inside to order (so my daughter could play in the play-place), I had to have a senior citizen help me navigate the humanless order process. Of course someone still has to assemble the order and deliver it to the counter. For now.

But it's not just McDonald's. It's everywhere.

I’ve noticed at Starbucks now there are basically two lines: one to order and one to pick up your order. But while you're standing there waiting in line like a regular person, people start walking in from seemingly nowhere and grab their drinks off the counter without ever waiting in either line. They ordered through the app. No hello, no interaction, no experience — just in and out like a transaction at an ATM.

Even at Sonic — a place built around the idea of a carhop personally bringing your order — I recently pulled in to a sonic on my way home from Nashville, only to be greeted over the speaker by a question: had I already ordered with the app or was I planning to order in person? When I said I wanted to order in person, I was told there would be a 10-minute wait. I left. Message received loud and clear: if you’re not part of the new app-based herd, you’re an inconvenience.

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but part of the fun of eating out, especially at drive-thrus, is the human interaction. It’s the small jokes at the window, the “have a great day,” the quick connection that reminds you that you’re not just a number on a screen. When you take that away, part of the experience is gone.

I know they think they’re making things "more efficient," but at what cost? A world where everything is done through an app might be more streamlined, but it’s also colder, lonelier, and frankly, less fun.

So no, I won’t be using the app today. Or tomorrow. Or any day that I can still find a real person to talk to.