Comment and reporting by Mathew Carr

April 14-16, 2024 — I’m at Ciampino Airport in Rome, with the family, and there is a McDonald’s with one customer-facing employee.

There’s no counter (even though there’s an option to pay at the counter from the touchscreen kiosk — the software can’t be overridden, apparently).

You order at the machine and, after some minutes, from somewhere in the depths of the airport (this outlet is behind the security barrier), your order arrives in one of two maroon plastic boxes, pulled on a trolly by the single employee.

She then hands out the orders.

The employee confirmed she was the only customer facing worker (she emptied the trash from the Maccas seating area, too …into a door behind a non-Maccas coffee counter).

It’s something new that McDonald’s is trying, she said. She was super nice about it.

BTW you can order with your phone app and the finished product is delivered to you after you scan this barcode…linked to a seat number in the McDonald’s seating area:

The finished product (fries in our case) arrived only after 24 minutes and tasted a little stale….it has to be said.

If this is the future of fast food, it’s virtually humanless and in our case not that fast … or yummy…I’m sure it’s cost efficient, though…and profitable…

….Sorta like Uber Eats at the airport.…without the Uber middle man/person taking a good portion of the revenue.

The burgers were mainly above €10. Highly profitable!

Sustainability wise…there is a LOT of packaging and this packaging subtracts from taste … eg enclosed fries lose their crispy loveliness — if you like that sort of thing.

As for the future of employment … this seems pretty scary indeed …because so few humans are needed. (There would have been some people cooking behind the scenes.)