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A Japanese restaurant chain in Queens took the concept of working from home and ran with it—all the way to the Philippines.
Sansan Ramen and Sansan Chicken, both located a block away from Queensboro Plaza in Long Island City, are the subject of some controversy after employing virtual cashiers that greet customers via Zoom while working from the Southeast Asian country.
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While some find the semi-virtual experience to be uniquely delightful, others seem uncomfortable by the implications: it’s much cheaper to pay a cashier in the Philippines, where the minimum wage is $186.97 per month, as opposed to abiding by New York City's $16/hour minimum wage law. Needless to say, the Zoom system also takes away jobs from folks who actually live in New York.
Here's how it works: would-be customers walk into the restaurants and are immediately greeted by a flat-screen monitor plastered with the face of the "cashier" on a Zoom call. You supposedly order as you would at any standard eatery, albeit looking at the screen directly.
According to some reporters who have been to the restaurant, the experience can feel a bit disjointed—a New York Times writer pointed out that it was difficult to hear the cashier because the connection was spotty, while another journalist from the New York Post tried to order something that was on the menu, but the cashier seemed not to know what the fish was. As far as tipping, the virtual cashiers split them with the on-site cooks and manager, per the New York Post.
According to news sources, it is not yet clear whether the cashiers are being hired directly by the restaurants or by a third-party company, and how much they are getting paid, exactly.
According to the Times, the virtual phenomenon is growing in New York largely thanks to Happy Cashier, a company that specializes in the virtual cashier business and already has clients throughout Queens, Manhattan and Jersey City. Many restaurants in the city have been struggling since COVID because of rising rent prices and soaring inflation rates, and virtual cashiers could be a good way for them to cut some significant costs.
While this may be a good way for some businesses to stay afloat, the practice remains controversial and feels impersonal to some.
Whatever your opinion on these virtual cashiers might be, it seems like we might start seeing more of them around.