McDonald's used to have a hamburger called the "McDLT." The peculiar selling point of this burger was that it was served in a two-compartment Styrofoam container that "kept the warm side warm and the cool side cool." The diner would then put the two halves together.
I was blissfully unaware that warm tomatoes and lettuce were causing a crisis in the hamburger world. I can remember venting to friends: "Hey, look! They've figured out a way to charge you more for the honor of putting together your own hamburger!"
That's still the way I see a lot of customer self-service efforts. All too often, they aren't conceived with the customer in mind -- they're done not as a cheesy gimmick, as in the McDLT, but as a way of cutting the cost of customer service.
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