ordering on phones / kiosks is far far better in every way - no awkward interactions, you can see the price of everything, take as long as you need, see the ingredients in everything, see what you can modify / at what price, you know you've entered it accurately, etc.

only people against it are technology-reticent boomers whose only joy comes from bossing around underpaid workers. unfortunately we have a lot of those in the US; they also think seeing people being humiliated like this is actually smart business and a blessing unto the workers. and this particular chain heavily caters to those sorts of people

Providing jobs is very much in alignment with their professed political beliefs... Spending the kind of money they did on these ridiculous rain suits also is, to a degree. Not speaking for or against it, just sayin that's the professed beliefs.

Conservatives don't like anything that threatens entry level jobs. It's the basis of their approach to immigration (incorrect logic IMHO) and they apply the same to automation (correct logic, but there's better answers for that problem).

The kiosks in our area rarely work, usually because they aren't plugged in. The kids working there make well over twice the minimum wage though, because there's a LOT of competition for jobs since COVID (lots of folks jumped on the work from home train), so it's a good thing. Walmart didn't replace anyone at all after COVID, they went full self checkout/kiosk. There's less than half the pre-covid workforce, and I doubt the ones remaining are seeing any of the money Walmart saves on payroll from it. I'm certainly not getting any of those lost wages when I scan my entire grocery cart for them...

Robots are more expensive than human labor I guess...

I don't think you understand the throughput these places are moving lol.