Applebee's Will Install 100K Intel-Backed Tablets Next Year

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

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When you go out to eat at Applebee’s next year, don’t wait around for a waiter to bring you a menu, Applebee’s will provide you an Intel-Backed E la Carte Presto tablet on your table that will give you instant ordering as soon as you are seated. The chain restaurant will install 100K units in 1800 locations next year.

“Very clearly, our intention is not to replace servers, who provide a personal connection that is invaluable in our restaurants and to our ‘See You Tomorrow’ experience,” Archer says. “This is about building on to the experience for the guest, not saving on labor.”
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Should we reduce the default tip from 20% to 10% now that both the billing and ordering will be automated?

lol I like the way they say they will not replace servers, OH but I bet $1000 they will do exactly that. On a side not in this country (USA) very few people know about how to discretely call in a waiter, and on top of that most of the waiters wouldn't know the clues anyway so maybe its best that we move to something Americans are more familiar with, now you will text your waiter that way none of that silly face to face communication is needed.
 
Oh I forgot to say what I meant to, I don't get why their is this huge push to put tablets on tables instead of just making some push for getting the smart phones and tablets people are already carrying to do the job for them. Then they don't have to worry about theft or vandalism. Like imagine you just go into the restaurant and a QR code is sitting in that stupid thing that holds the advertisement for desert and you scan it and it takes you to an intranet website on their wifi that presents you with the menu and the QR code you scanned has all the information in it so the wait staff knows, which table you are at.
 
In theory menus are either replaced or washed. I doubt that will happen for these tablets. Yum. I'll have some e. coli with those fries.
 
rudy said:
Should we reduce the default tip from 20% to 10% now that both the billing and ordering will be automated?
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I like that, less tip considering no one actually waits on us, they simply bring us our food! Ok and then they may occasionally ask for a refill on a $3 soda, that ought to be worth at least 2% of the total bill :D
 
jpm100 said:
In theory menus are either replaced or washed. I doubt that will happen for these tablets. Yum. I'll have some e. coli with those fries.
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"Food poisoning" cases on the rise at Applebees for some unexplained reason... actually it's easily explainable on average people are fucking gross, the number of times I've seen people not wash their hands after using the bathroom or run them under water thinking that will do anything.... ugh.
 
rudy said:
Oh I forgot to say what I meant to, I don't get why their is this huge push to put tablets on tables instead of just making some push for getting the smart phones and tablets people are already carrying to do the job for them. Then they don't have to worry about theft or vandalism. Like imagine you just go into the restaurant and a QR code is sitting in that stupid thing that holds the advertisement for desert and you scan it and it takes you to an intranet website on their wifi that presents you with the menu and the QR code you scanned has all the information in it so the wait staff knows, which table you are at.
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Ahhh, why aren't they doing this? That is a great idea! Why spend $300,000+ on tablets when at least one person on any table will have a smart phone or tablet?
 
I got really bad food poisoning from Applebees. I also slaved their a brief time after high school and knew they didn't even make their food(Microwaved Frozen Crap). It was the only option at late night after work and I was so hesitant to go in the first place. 6 to 8 hours later and......

Fever 102+
Stomach Ache
Etc..

I was diagnosed with salmonella in my stomach from their food and that was the only thing I had to eat. I HATE APPLEBEES.
 
Wave of the future. Lenscrafters just bought a shit ton of ipads for use in their stores.
 
Too bad I avoid public touch devices like the fucking plague. I am convinced that you should never touch demo units of iPads, game controllers, etc.
 
^ Uh yeah dude, carry a lysol wipe everywhere.



Of course it is, just like self checkout is used to replace cashiers.
 
“Very clearly, our intention is not to replace servers, who provide a personal connection that is invaluable in our restaurants and to our ‘See You Tomorrow’ experience,” Archer says. “This is about building on to the experience for the guest, not saving on labor.”
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LOL bullcrap. Who goes to Applebee's for the 'guest experience'? let alone their horrible food :confused:
 
Meh, I still think these things should just be integrated into the actual table with a glass top. No theft, easy to wipe clean between customers, etc. Or the idea above about using my own device to order.

In the end, I could care less about the "waiter experience". Most times they are more annoying then helpful anyways since they all seem to be trained to come back and ask if everything is good just as you put a big bite of steak in your mouth. The less interaction the better. Order from the table, press a button when you need a refill, pay from the table. That way the only interaction is when they bring the food... or I actually need something.

As for Applebees... I made the mistake of going when we visited family for Thanksgiving. Got in late, needed someplace quick and the kids had been cooped up in the car all day so they weren't going to sit still for dinner. Dropped the family at the hotel room, ordered pick up and brought it back, and it was just nasty. Should of known better....
 
Yes, that is gross considering that they say 75% of grocery shopping carts have traces of fecal matter on them.
 
Why the hell do some of you think this should devoid you of a tip? If you dont consider someone bringing your food to you in a timely manner, then what exactly do you consider "waiting" to be? You place some sort of value on someones ability to jot down your request on a notepad in english? The whole premise of tipping is for the service of the waiter, how quickly they respond, how long you wait for your food, if they are on the spot with refills, etc. It has nothing to do with their ability to write down an order. Besides, I imagine any of you complaining about a tip this quickly probably only left 10% if that anyway.
 
aquabusa said:
Ahhh, why aren't they doing this? That is a great idea! Why spend $300,000+ on tablets when at least one person on any table will have a smart phone or tablet?
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Because there's no way to know where the order came from.
 
McFry said:
Why the hell do some of you think this should devoid you of a tip? If you dont consider someone bringing your food to you in a timely manner, then what exactly do you consider "waiting" to be? You place some sort of value on someones ability to jot down your request on a notepad in english? The whole premise of tipping is for the service of the waiter, how quickly they respond, how long you wait for your food, if they are on the spot with refills, etc. It has nothing to do with their ability to write down an order. Besides, I imagine any of you complaining about a tip this quickly probably only left 10% if that anyway.
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I take it you tip at McD's, BK, TacoBell?
 
McFry said:
Why the hell do some of you think this should devoid you of a tip? If you dont consider someone bringing your food to you in a timely manner, then what exactly do you consider "waiting" to be? You place some sort of value on someones ability to jot down your request on a notepad in english? The whole premise of tipping is for the service of the waiter, how quickly they respond, how long you wait for your food, if they are on the spot with refills, etc. It has nothing to do with their ability to write down an order. Besides, I imagine any of you complaining about a tip this quickly probably only left 10% if that anyway.
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Well, part of their "service" is also to be quickly make an appearance, with a good attitude, to take your drink order promptly after sitting down. If I'm sitting their 5-10 minutes before someone ever shows up to ask me what I want to drink, then yeah, that counts against their tip. Also, you'd probably be amazed how many times I've had english speaking wait staff get my order wrong, so apparently tipping does need to take that into account (how I end up with broccoli instead of the baked potato I ordered is beyond me).

As for tipping for service in general... how we let our tipping service become what it is now is a shame. You are right, it is supposed to be a tip for service.... service that is beyond standard. Instead, we now seem to think we need to tip 20% for basic service :rolleyes: Personally, I set my base tip at 15% and adjust depending. For exceptional service, I'll pay more.

For example, we usually go out with our kids. I've given a waiter a $20 tip on a $60 meal because he took the time to ask us if we wanted to place the kids food order first and put a rush on it so it would come out earlier and have time to cool off when we got ours. And by putting a rush on it... it didn't mean that they waited to start making ours, just delaying our food. That's the kind of touch that gets noticed by me. Most places just bring everything out at the same time and the kids either get to watch us start eating or we have to sit there and blow on their food to try to cool it fast enough :rolleyes: He had a great attitude and even talked to the kids (letting them order for themselves, at least pretending to laugh at their stupid jokes, and even playing a quick game of tic-tac-toe with one of them), where most wait staff seem to avoid eye contact with children if at all possible. Considering this was Outback, not exactly your normal wait staff experience.
 
the-one1 said:
I take it you tip at McD's, BK, TacoBell?
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Dont be stupid.

farscapesg1 said:
As for tipping for service in general... how we let our tipping service become what it is now is a shame. You are right, it is supposed to be a tip for service.... service that is beyond standard. Instead, we now seem to think we need to tip 20% for basic service :rolleyes: Personally, I set my base tip at 15% and adjust depending. For exceptional service, I'll pay more.
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Well you can thank lobbyists for that since it's legal to pay someone $2.15/hr because "they'll make up the rest in tips". Without a tip a waiter is basically making 3rd world living income.
 
I quit going to Applebee's a long time ago. Horrible service IMO. I don't see this leading to any type of success.
 
McFry said:
Why the hell do some of you think this should devoid you of a tip? If you dont consider someone bringing your food to you in a timely manner, then what exactly do you consider "waiting" to be? You place some sort of value on someones ability to jot down your request on a notepad in english? The whole premise of tipping is for the service of the waiter, how quickly they respond, how long you wait for your food, if they are on the spot with refills, etc. It has nothing to do with their ability to write down an order. Besides, I imagine any of you complaining about a tip this quickly probably only left 10% if that anyway.
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Considering that quite often a large part of the good or bad service I receive from a restaurant comes down to did I actually get the food I ordered and how freaking long do I need to wait for my waiter to bring my bill back to me and pick it up I would say yes. Should I place that much more weight in the waiters ability to pick up some plates and bring them to my table? Honestly I think carrying food to the table is easier than writing and remembering what options to ask me about. The majority of what I would consider skill is the wait staffs knowledge of the menu they use to accurately write down and make sure that I select all the right options as well as making suggestions if I am indecisive. The speed at which the food gets to me and how good it tastes is mostly on the cook, who may or may not receive a portion of the tip since every restaurant is run differently.
 
rudy said:
Should we reduce the default tip from 20% to 10% now that both the billing and ordering will be automated?

lol I like the way they say they will not replace servers, OH but I bet $1000 they will do exactly that. On a side not in this country (USA) very few people know about how to discretely call in a waiter, and on top of that most of the waiters wouldn't know the clues anyway so maybe its best that we move to something Americans are more familiar with, now you will text your waiter that way none of that silly face to face communication is needed.
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Normally you hear the default being 15% not 20%, although for larger parties some places just add 18% for it.


jpm100 said:
In theory menus are either replaced or washed. I doubt that will happen for these tablets. Yum. I'll have some e. coli with those fries.
Click to expand...

What? Where have you ever been that they wash or replace the menus? they give them to you, you use them, you had them back and they go into a pile. This is no worse than a normal menu. Actually it could be cleaner as they can wipe them off when cleaning off the table.

sfsuphysics said:
I like that, less tip considering no one actually waits on us, they simply bring us our food! Ok and then they may occasionally ask for a refill on a $3 soda, that ought to be worth at least 2% of the total bill :D
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Makes sense, that is how it is at most buffet places. Normally you don't leave a 15%+ percent tip if you are getting your own food and they only bring you drinks and take away your plates. Normally I leave $1 or $2 at a buffet place for their service, which is about 1% or 2% of the cost. Only exception was going to one once with a party of 9 people, one of which was a baby. I gave the "waitress" $20 as a tip. But yeah, I normally base my tips on how much they do as part of their job and the level of service. At the same time I have had such horrible service that I only left 25 cents and they are lucky they even got that. What they should have gotten was the manager called on them and fired.

Fooshnik said:
^ Uh yeah dude, carry a lysol wipe everywhere.



Of course it is, just like self checkout is used to replace cashiers.
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That is one that I haven't really noticed anywhere around me though. Most places turned what was 2 lanes into 4 self checkout devices and still have a person watching over them. where as before only 1 of those 2 lanes would have normally been open at most times. So at least around me they really didn't replace cashiers as much as they did speed up the process of checking out with the same number of people.

McFry said:
Why the hell do some of you think this should devoid you of a tip? If you dont consider someone bringing your food to you in a timely manner, then what exactly do you consider "waiting" to be? You place some sort of value on someones ability to jot down your request on a notepad in english? The whole premise of tipping is for the service of the waiter, how quickly they respond, how long you wait for your food, if they are on the spot with refills, etc. It has nothing to do with their ability to write down an order. Besides, I imagine any of you complaining about a tip this quickly probably only left 10% if that anyway.
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I wouldn't tip as much as they aren't doing as much. I actually have deducted from a tip based on how long it took for them to take my order, how long I had to wait to pay when ready, and how long it took them to get my card and process it. I however don't tip 10% as you said. I consider myself to be a decent tipper. How much I normally leave depends on 2 things, how much my bill is and the entire level of service. Anything under $15 I normally leave $2 or $3. Most I left was $8 for extremely great service. for anything above that normally start about 20% and adjust. Now above I brought up only leaving a 25 cent tip once. That was on a $20 meal, and service was HORRIBLE. Place wasn't that busy, waitress was maybe in charge of 3 tables. Took her 15 minutes to come ask me about what I wanted to drink, another 15 to come back and give me said drink and take my order. during that 15 minutes she was sitting at a table talking to some friends. She went back to talking to them and somebody had to come get her later to tell her my food was ready. she kept taking for another 5 or 10 minutes and then finally went to get it. At no point during my meal was I ever given a refill of my drink even though I had asked for one when she brought me my food. When done eating, I sat there for about 20 minutes waiting for my check. I had gotten her attention a few times trying to wave her over but she just rolled her eyes and kept talking to her friends. When I finally did get my check she left even though I was trying to just hand her my card. I then had to wait another 15+ minutes for her to come get the card to process it.
 
Now I see why waiters hate their customers so much. You're all a bunch of scumbagsteve's lol
 
McFry said:
Now I see why waiters hate their customers so much. You're all a bunch of scumbagsteve's lol
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So you are saying that you pay 20% or higher every time no matter what the level of service is?
 
Exavior said:
So you are saying that you pay 20% or higher every time no matter what the level of service is?
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I pay 20% unless something goes horribly wrong like the waiter just completely forgets I'm their customer, or they leave and I get a new waiter but the new waiter forgets I'm their customer. Or they delivered my food and then I never saw them again until the bill was due. Other than that 9/10 the waiter has done their job. I eat out 2-3x a week at so many places that I keep a google docs spreadsheet of them all just so I know what my options are and favorite places. I think I've been brought the wrong food maybe 2 or 3 times in the last 10 years. Most of the gripes I see in this thread are simply not common and sound like nothing more than feeble attempts to justify one's own cheapness. It sounds like most of you are just looking for excuses NOT to tip 20%, for dollar amounts that probably equal the gas ride home.
 
A restaurant that focuses on entertaining their guests rather than fixing their terrible food items. No wonder they are failing.
 
They better start putting lysol wipes at the tables. Ain't no way I am going to order from a tablet anyway.

I try to avoid Applebee's anyway. Used to eat there multiple times a week years ago. We usually got a server we knew, so it was pretty decent.

Since then, they have just gone downhill and they are not even really on my list of places I want to eat at.

As for them being paid mostly in tips.... Well, what do you all think would happen if they made a higher wage no matter how crappy their service was. Yep, they would have no reason to try and give good service.

The good waiters and waitresses tend to get quite high tips. I have known some who have made far more in tips doing part time waiting than I make in 40+ hours.
 
The paranoia about how these will not get washed or you need Lysol is hilarious here.
 
jpm100 said:
In theory menus are either replaced or washed. I doubt that will happen for these tablets. Yum. I'll have some e. coli with those fries.
Click to expand...

You think menus are washed? at the most they are wiped with a damp towel. What will happen is that the screens for these things will look like crap within six months due to being wiped down constantly with window cleaner or towels dipped in bleach.
 
So there's a restaurant here in Thousand Oaks CA called Stacks that does exactly this. You sit down at the table, and the menu is an Ipad. You basically custom build anything you want (think making burgers, I want lettuce, this bun, that sauce, bacon, extra cheese, etc.)

1st, It feels very gimmicky, and lame. 2nd, they are filthy. Clearly they are cleaned, but there's a case around them to keep them from getting stolen - ya... Think about how funky it gets in those cracks with ketchup squirted on it - gross. 3rd, they still need waitresses and waiters. Maybe even more so - because we all know grandma can't handle the damn thing - so they need help.

It's a bad idea IMO and will hurt their business. One of those things that's better on paper than reality.

my 2 cents...
 
Kongar said:
It's a bad idea IMO and will hurt their business. One of those things that's better on paper than reality.

my 2 cents...
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It's hard fathom that it is even better on paper.

Except as a last resort, I will not eat at a restaurant that has any gimmick or focus other than high quality food, competent service and a clean environment. I am not Applebee's customer type but there is no way I'd want to dick around with a tablet to order food.

I might reconsider if they made a high definition live video stream available on the tablet of the storage, prep, and cooking areas in the back. A spreadsheet with the source of the food items and manufacture / delivery dates would be nice. And a folder with .pdf's of all the health inspection reports. Maybe the staff's employment, criminal and immigration histories too. Use the tablets for what they are capable of.

If they're just to push buttons to order stuff they should just run food extrusion tubes right to your stall that instantly splooge your order right out on the table.
 
McFry said:
Now I see why waiters hate their customers so much. You're all a bunch of scumbagsteve's lol
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It's funny how people have different views of "entitled" people.

Service staff: Tip 20% (when the fuck did 15% become cheapskate?) or you're an ass, they get paid less than minimum wage, forced to walk in the kitchen barefoot ontop of cactus leaves, and then get half of their tips paid to the owner.
Union workers: God damn entitled pricks wanting health care, they're ruining this country wanting some sort of living wage.
Company executives: Fucking golden parachute silver spoon fucktards! Why do they get their severance package when everyone else gets a pink slip!
 
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