Speaker
Whalen Wong
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
Airport concession companies often run their own point-of-sale systems that are incompatible with individual fast food chains' loyalty program technology.
McDonald's told Whalen Wong that participation in its rewards program is at the discretion of individual owner-operators (franchisees).
Dunkin' Donuts' director of public relations promised Whalen Wong details on airport loyalty program exclusions 'ASAP' but never followed up despite multiple emails.
More than 170,000 US restaurant locations now use Toast's handheld payment devices as of March. The technology lets servers close out tabs at the table in one step — and with competitors also in the market, the four-step checkout ordeal may soon be a relic.
US restaurant menus don't show tax-inclusive prices — not out of malice, but because it's a collective action problem. Any single restaurant that adds tax to listed prices will look more expensive than competitors. Add overlapping state, city, and county taxes, and you start to understand why menus stay the way they are.
Airport fast food isn't just a regular franchise — it's a franchise within a franchise. Large concession companies run airport locations with their own POS systems, and those systems often can't talk to the chain's loyalty platform. The result: your points vanish at the gate.
Server Miguel Aguilar tried both systems. The old way: constant trips back and forth, everything taking forever. The new way: four to six tables at once, service time nearly cut in half. The change wasn't optional — it was transformational.
In New Zealand, there's one nationwide sales tax — simple, transparent, on the menu. In the US, you have state, city, and county taxes all layered on top of each other. Darian Woods grew up expecting price transparency; America still hasn't delivered it.
Whalen Wong emailed Dunkin' asking why airports don't honor loyalty rewards. PR promised details 'ASAP.' Weeks of follow-up emails later: silence. It's a small grievance with a surprisingly telling corporate non-answer.
Getting restaurants past the inertia of traditional checkout is genuinely hard. The familiar system works — barely — and new handheld devices cost hundreds of dollars each. Toast says the investment pays off, but the upfront cost keeps many restaurants on the sidelines.
McDonald's told Whalen Wong that loyalty program participation is at the discretion of owner-operators. It's a corporate way of saying: don't blame us if your local franchisee opted out. And at airports, that opt-out is nearly universal.
Airport fast food locations often don't participate in chain loyalty programs because airport concession franchisees run their own point-of-sale systems — and those systems aren't compatible with the chain's rewards tech. You gave them your data. You just can't have the free donut.
Traditional restaurant checkout forces customers through four separate waiting steps — flag the server, wait for the check, wait for card pickup, wait for card return. Handheld payment devices like Toast's are cutting that down dramatically, with one server reporting his service time nearly halved.
Analysis
What they talk about
- Business 75%
- Comedy 25%
Connections
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