Meet Percy: Freshii’s new outsourced ‘virtual cashier’

Guest: Jacob Lorinc, business reporter

Want a smoothie with a side of outsourcing? That’s what customers are seeing at several Freshii locations in Ontario. Instead of a regular cashier, a virtual customer service agent takes your order before actual staff in the restaurant prepare it. Called Percy, a virtual cashier is based in other countries, like Nicaragua or Pakistan, where they earn much less than Ontario’s minimum wage. This is a new customer-facing approach that could be a disruptive force in this sector in the coming years.

This episode was produced by Alexis Green, Matt Hearn and Raju Mudhar.