What The Heck Is A Kiosk?

Discussion in 'Evolution of Language' started by Mary Stetler, Jan 21, 2023.

  1. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    Go to the information kiosk at the mall and it was a large framed bulletin board type thing with info on all sides. Free standing.
    An arrow with the prompt "to check in, go to the kiosk". Look around the desk...Nothing.
    Well, there happens to be a metal thing standing to the side, looking like you could hang coats on it. And in the middle is a box.
    Hanging my coat on it would cause it to fall over. I pack for bear and don't use a bag of any kind.
    I look a little closer and there is a spot on the box saying 'start'.
    I touch it and all hell breaks loose. It is like reading a contract after giving my name. Another screen pops up and says 'Are you still there?'
    Doesn't mention where there is so I touch yes.
    Goes back to instructions.
    These things are going to be everywhere.
    Good thing I don't get fast food often.
    I guess I am not fast enough.:rolleyes:
     
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  2. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    We haven't eaten out in a while, I sure don't know what a Kiosk is.
     
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  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Those are startling to be in a lot of places now. When we go to the heart center, they have one for people to check in, and then you just sit down and wait to be called in for the appointment. The VA offices have those, too.
    I think that it is probably better than standing in line and then telling someone that you are here, once you get used to the idea of using it. Most of us have some device (phone or tablet) that uses a touchscreen; so it is not that difficult to use the kiosk.
    I have never seen one to order for food, but that would work for me , too, if we went somewhere and had to order that way .
     
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  4. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Back in the day, all those little junk shops in the middle of the shopping mall were called kiosks (sunglass hut, Orange Julius, etc.) I didn't realize they were referring to the computerized check-in stations as kiosks now.

    At MD Anderson, they use those computerized check-in stations for the lab testing areas. I haven't been inside a fast food place in years but I have heard they use them now.
     
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  5. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    We have lots of kiosk in Aussie land .,.it may be lotto kiosk or an information kiosk.

    a park or swimming pool had a shop in it ……it was called a kiosk .
    It’s normally in the middle of a busy shopping mall / centre like @Beth Gallagher mentioned
     
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  6. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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  7. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    From Wiki:

    Historically, a kiosk (from Persian kūshk) was a small garden pavilion open on some or all sides common in Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and in the Ottoman Empire from the 13th century onward. Today, several examples of this type of kiosk still exist in and around the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, and they can be seen in Balkan countries.

    [​IMG]
    The word is used in English-speaking countries for small booths offering goods and services. In Australia they usually offer food service. Freestanding computer terminals dispensing information are called interactive kiosks.

    Any doctor's office I've been in has handed me a touch pad that's tied into their computer system via WiFi. I've not encountered one with a kiosk yet. The McDonald's in my area has free-standing touch screens where you enter your order and pay for it. Since they are just tall screens you stand in front of, I'm not sure I'd glorify them as being "kiosks," since they ain't booths.

    As @Beth Gallagher said, the first time I encountered the word was in reference to all those small independent merchant booths set up in shopping malls.

    @Mary Stetler Exactly what were you doing? Were you buying food, or were you having the battery in your watch replaced?
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    We stopped at a restaurant during our last trip where they had kiosks at each table for placing orders. We waited for someone to come and take our order instead because my wife always has questions. After we had eaten, rather than taking our payment, the waitress asked us to pay via the kiosk, so I didn't tip. Like the self-checkouts at the grocery store, I ain't gonna do it for free. I have never aspired to be either a grocery checker or a waitress, so I am surely not going to do it for free.
     
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    Last edited: Jan 21, 2023
  9. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    I wasn't doing anything naughty. :eek:
    First I ran into one in West Virginia of all places, at a Wendy's. This latest one was at that lab I went to with daughter. It really was that flimsy. They called it a kiosk and I hadn't even noticed it was there.:confused:
     
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  10. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I did not think you were doing anything naughty, unless that "kiosk" took quarters and had a curtain you could pull around it (in which case, what happens in the dairy state stays in the dairy state.)

    So, Lab Corp was in a mall????? That's interesting. And now that you mention it, I had blood drawn at my local Lab Corp recently and checked in on their "kiosk," but I still maintain that not everything you walk up to and interact with is really a kiosk. These idiots have no right taking liberties with our language the Persian tongue.
     
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  11. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    Sorry. It was in a medical building with a central entrance like a mall. I try not to say so much because my posts would just go on forever. But instead of what I used to know as an informational kiosk in the main hall, there was just a written sign, to Lab Corp, with an arrow.
    Next to what used to be the reception desk in the office was the coat rack that I didn't see as a kiosk.:confused:
     
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  12. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I had to smile at that.

    Personally, I don't ramble...I just like people to be well-informed.
     
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  13. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    I see alternate definitions of 'kiosk'. One claims a kiosk is A small open gazebo or pavilion. This can't be right because both the gazebos and the pavillions went extinct thousands of years ago.

    The true meaning is simpler. The Kiosks are a Polish family. I went to school with a Tony Kiosk.
     
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  14. Bert Davies

    Bert Davies Very Well-Known Member
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    The red public telephone boxes (booths) are slowly disappearing from the streets of the UK, but lots of the posh people used to call them 'kiosks'. :)
     
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  15. Lois Winters

    Lois Winters Veteran Member
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    Nearly all public areas have a kiosk of one type or another. They've been around for eons.
     
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