Taco Bell gaining inspiration from airlines or McDonald’s?

Taco Bell is installing kiosks for customers. It claims this inspiration from airlines, but didn’t McDonald’s do this first?

If you’ve ever walked into McDonald’s, you’ll likely see the huge kiosks encouraging you to order there instead of at the counter. Taco Bell is now installing their own but claims the inspiration comes from the airlines. It seems there’s one spot of inspiration that does come from the airlines.

The idea is to have kiosks in all Taco Bell locations in the States by the end of next year. That means 6,000 chains will have self-ordering kiosks. You just quickly put in what you want, pop it in the basket, and then pay by card. You can also choose to pay at the counter if you wanted to pay by cash.

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Machines are certainly taking over. You’ll see them in grocery stores, at airports, at movie theaters, and at McDonald’s. In fact, it’s the latter this idea of kiosks seems to actually come from.

So, where do the airlines factor into this? It’s all linked to what not to do. Taco Bell took a look at the mistakes the airports had made and one of the biggest issues was not having someone to ask for help. The machines are great, but if you don’t quite know what you’re doing or you have a question about something that comes up on screen, you need a member of staff to help.

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Granted, checking yourself into a flight is certainly far more baffling than placing your Taco Bell order, but the chain isn’t going to take anything to chance. The good news if Taco Bell wants staff to help is that the robots aren’t just going to take jobs. There’s still something for people to do.

What do you think about more kiosks in stores? Do you prefer using kiosks to ordering at the counter? Share your thoughts in the comments below.