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Roboburger won't be a flop because the majority of Americans don't know or care where their food comes from. Ever pass by a fast food joint at lunch? The people buying in there pay little or no attention to who's fixing the food. They're staring at the menu to order, and after they give it they're staring at the best looking person of the opposite sex (or the same, depending) in the restaurant.
If there are robots making food in the back they'll never know.
Roboburger won't be a flop because the majority of Americans don't know or care where their food comes from. Ever pass by a fast food joint at lunch? The people buying in there pay little or no attention to who's fixing the food. They're staring at the menu to order, and after they give it they're staring at the best looking person of the opposite sex (or the same, depending) in the restaurant.
If there are robots making food in the back they'll never know.
If people didn't care, they wouldn't pay high prices for premium burgers when they could get a burger at the local AM/PM gas station for less than a buck. The premium burger joints around me attract huge crowds.
If people didn't care, they wouldn't pay high prices for premium burgers when they could get a burger at the local AM/PM gas station for less than a buck. The premium burger joints around me attract huge crowds.
The premium burger places are premium because they market their ingredients not their workers.
Just about any McDonalds (and maybe all of them) in the US have automated drink machines filling soft drink orders in the drive through.
The problem is we are still several generations from the human population being low enough to still have jobs for most people once the robots come in, but they're going to come in in the next generation or two. What are all the out of work folks going to do? It will be a major cultural problem.
The premium burger places are premium because they market their ingredients not their workers.
Just about any McDonalds (and maybe all of them) in the US have automated drink machines filling soft drink orders in the drive through.
The problem is we are still several generations from the human population being low enough to still have jobs for most people once the robots come in, but they're going to come in in the next generation or two. What are all the out of work folks going to do? It will be a major cultural problem.
I see a few thousand unemployed burger flippers starting riots and burning RoboBurger restaurants.
The pizza automation is stuff I saw first hand at a couple of the theatre trade shows back in the late 1990s. Showest and Showeast. Don't remember the vendor offhand.
I believe that there was an article on the hamburger automation in an old Pop Science or Pop Mechanics (available for free on Google books) Sometime in the 1950s, 1960s?
The drinks automation was something I saw being tested at a local McDonalds. It looked to be a variation of the old vending machines that post mixed soda in a cup. I remember a couple of those were still in use in some theatres in the 1980s. I had to exchange the syrup bottles and do some basic maintenance on them. The insides were roach heaven and once I had seen what the interior workings were, I NEVER got a drink from one again. Disgusting doesn't begin to cover it.
One of the food or cooking channels had a program on automated food, and there was a Canadian program I used to watch "How Is It Made" or something like that, that regularly covered various portion control apparatus, automated baggers, and food automation.
After you have disassembled jet-sprays, popcorn machines, and other stuff, automation doesn't seem as tasty. Without constant proper supervision, food prep gets ugly. There were some concession areas where I knew to bag the computers and bug bomb them before working on them.
When you said you've written about it before, I was under the impression you had something published.
When you said you've written about it before, I was under the impression you had something published.
No, just meant that I had written a few posts on the subject. I have written an article or two on concession management and reporting, but that was years ago in a trade publication.
No, just meant that I had written a few posts on the subject. I have written an article or two on concession management and reporting, but that was years ago in a trade publication.
The only way to tell is wait a year or so and open the back of one of them up. Another cause for concern - "The traditional ice cube dispenser remains" Ever watch the bucket brigade to fill those dispensers from the on-site ice maker? Most places TRY to do it right, but ice remains a major source of disease organisms in fast food operations, stadiums and theatres. If you totally melt the ice in about 1 in 10 of those ice makers, you'll find sack lunches, beer, old scoops, and other treasures.
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