Navi Mumbai, March 2021: McDonald’s India has struck an unusual tripartite collaboration with Reliance Jio and Vaastav: The Virtual Pvt. Ltd. in order to allow some of their kitchen employees to work from home. State-of-the-art Virtual Reality and Robotics technology will be used to enable the cooks to control the robots in the kitchen from the comfort of their homes.
“In order for the technology to work, we need humongous internet bandwidths both at our outlets and the employees’ homes,” said Mr. Raj “Burger Raja” Bargu, CEO of McDonald’s India. “We approached Jio for the internet, but they offered to be a collaborator for free publicity instead of a vendor.” Rumours have sprung up that Jio is in talks to acquire Vastav: The Virtual Pvt. Ltd.
McDonald’s move to virtual comes at the wake of a spring of new COVID19 cases in Maharashtra, which news outlets have dubbed the Second Wave. Maharashtra’s State Task Force and the State Surveillance Officer, Dr. Satish Power have said: “No.” Dr. Power added, “This is not the second wave. That happened during Ganesh Chaturthi. We’re likely in the fourth wave now.”
This also caused a bout of frenzy on Dalal Street. Stock prices of Swiggy and Zomato dropped immediately after news of the Virtual Move spread. After a few hours of heated discussions and explanations of the new technology, the market breathed a sigh of relief. Swiggy and Zomato stock prices have slowly returned to pre-frenzy levels.
The first phase of the virtual trials are set to begin next Monday in 5 outlets in Navi Mumbai. “We have already trained over 30 cooks,” said Burger Raja. “It is really simple to operate. It’s just like playing ‘Papa’s Burgeria’.”
News of now dubbed “Virtual Burgers” has spread through Navi Mumbai. Navi Mumbaikars appear excited about something new coming in their city. But experts refrain from optimism. “This might have the opposite effect,” says, Dr. Sonu Sodabottleopenerwala, popular food enthusiast and blogger. “People will flock there and COVID19 spread will only increase.”
Technology enthusiasts have also hurrahed at the move. Healthy eating advocates have had mixed reactions. “We want to see the machines rise,” said Mr. Goli Pav, a former foodie, “but no sugar please.”