your McD's order might be outsourced

Fascinating (at least to a labor economist)!

Here's Kelly House and Chris Ott in the C-J...

Instead of getting the usual greeting from a restaurant worker shouting over the din of a noisy kitchen, customers who drive through the McDonald's in Sellersburg, Ind., might have their orders taken by a stay-at-home mom in North Dakota.

That McDonald's is the first in the Louisville area to experiment with off-site order takers. The drive-through speakers are operated mainly by home workers in rural states like North Dakota and Montana. They punch in orders on home computers and transmit them to screens in the Sellersburg restaurant's kitchen.

The store has been running the system since December.

John Yelenosky, manager of 30 corporate-owned McDonald's in Kentucky and Indiana, said the Sellersburg store and one in Columbus, Ind., are among about 100 nationwide testing the idea.

Rather than saving money, the goal is to improve order accuracy and free up workers to fill orders faster...

Very cool!

Wendy's ranked first last year in QSR Magazine's survey of fastest drive-throughs with an average time of 131.08 seconds; McDonald's was fourth at 158.77 seconds.

Funny story: We went to Taco Bell once, gave our order, pulled to the window, and paid our moolah. With no one in line behind us, the employee asked us to pull around! And it occurred to me, through no fault of hers, we were killing her drive-through time. They could be as efficient as possible, but it would look like they were slow-- since we would sit at the window, waiting for them to make our food. Hilarious!