Many articles out there in recent months about restaurants investing in robots.

What's funny (or sad) is the common political wisdom was that robots would displace workers, thus requiring generous social benefits to the unemployed.

When in reality, it's been increasingly generous social benefits (covid put it on steroids) that reduced the pool of people willing to work, thereby driving up the cost of labor and justifying the investment in robots.

Liberals will blame it on the former of course, but it's been their own policies that led to it.

Just like letting criminals go leads to more crime. And so many other lib policies where government intervention in the name of fairness, equity, diversity, climate, etc. lead to an outcome worse than the original condition.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/27/restaurant-chains-are-investing-in-robots-bringing-change-for-workers.html

first "mostly" automated mcdonalds in fort worth

https://globalnews.ca/news/9370313/mcdonalds-robots-automated-restaurant-texas/

Robots only need to sell 1.5 teas more per hour.

they don't demand a minimum wage increase & show up to work

I'll never forget when Chilis first rolled out those tablets on the tables. I was living in a smaller South Texas town, and I had a mens group that would meet at least once a week for lunch. So that particular week we met at Chilis. When it came time to pay up we asked the waiter to split the check. He pointed to the little tablet and said we could split the check ourselves and pay on the tablet on the table.

There was some grumbling and muttering as he almost giddily showed us how to navigate the menu and select the items we wished to be on our individual checks. I remarked, "You think you're showing us how to use this device. You don't even realize you're training your replacement."

Alice, perhaps??

Beeville

Kenneth_2003 said:

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I'll never forget when Chilis first rolled out those tablets on the tables. I was living in a smaller South Texas town, and I had a mens group that would meet at least once a week for lunch. So that particular week we met at Chilis. When it came time to pay up we asked the waiter to split the check. He pointed to the little tablet and said we could split the check ourselves and pay on the tablet on the table.

There was some grumbling and muttering as he almost giddily showed us how to navigate the menu and select the items we wished to be on our individual checks. I remarked, "You think you're showing us how to use this device. You don't even realize you're training your replacement."

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Why would he give a crap? I doubt he thought "dang, what am I gonna do in 20 years but work at Chilis"

Traveling thru a Central Texas town recently, I stopped at their newer Walmart. It had all self-checkouts. One worker watched and assisted a pod of 6 self-checkout. I believe there were 4 pods for a total of 24 checkouts. It's all headed that way, folks!

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At this point, it's unclear if or when any cost savings will materialize.

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Factor in a robot head tax and there might not be much, if any, cost savings.

Advocates have already floated that as an offset to fewer workers in the workforce if/when robots take off.

I'll say those tablets are a massive W. Not many things annoy me, but your server disappearing for 10-15 minutes right when you want to pay out is one of them.

I need to look into switching careers to a robot repairman. Hmmm.

Government has never seen an idea or concept they couldn't find a way to tax.

Buy something? Tax it
Sell something? Tex it
Hire someone? Tax employer and employee, woohoo Double whammy!!!
Use automation? Tax it

Cen-Tex said:

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they don't demand a minimum wage increase & show up to work

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But they do require maintenance, cleaning, power and software upgrades. These things don't operate for free.

There are trade offs to automation.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Government has never seen an idea or concept they couldn't find a way to tax.

Buy something? Tax it
Sell something? Tex it
Hire someone? Tax employer and employee, woohoo Double whammy!!!
Use automation? Tax it

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Buy a used car? Who knows how many times big daddy govt cashed in.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Government has never seen an idea or concept they couldn't find a way to tax.

Buy something? Tax it
Sell something? Tex it
Hire someone? Tax employer and employee, woohoo Double whammy!!!
Use automation? Tax it

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"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -Ronald Reagan

TefIon Don said:

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I'll say those tablets are a massive W. Not many things annoy me, but your server disappearing for 10-15 minutes right when you want to pay out is one of them.

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Or taking your order wrong in the first place because "they don't need to write anything down".

MuchosPollos said:

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Cen-Tex said:

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they don't demand a minimum wage increase & show up to work

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But they do require maintenance, cleaning, power and software upgrades. These things don't operate for free.

There are trade offs to automation.

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Cleaning is done by everyone at every restaurant, regardless. Net zero at best, but the robot probably makes less mess.

Maintenance? One technician will likely easily handle 30 or more locations, where a single robot is easily doing the work of 3-4 or more when accounting for all schedules across all shifts.

Software upgrades or electricity/ energy costs? How much HR is required on the back end to support the dozens of employees at every location? Job postings, interviews, uniforms, training, drug testing, OT, discipline, tardiness, retention. These all cost money.

If you gave some names, I would probably know some of them. Definitely a Beeville comment. If you said DQ, I would be related to them.

Cromagnum said:

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TefIon Don said:

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I'll say those tablets are a massive W. Not many things annoy me, but your server disappearing for 10-15 minutes right when you want to pay out is one of them.

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Or taking your order wrong in the first place because "they don't need to write anything down".

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Certainly not arguing those points. I agree entirely. Prior to the tablets, my chief complaint about that location was that waitstaff wouldn't bring the check in a timely manner for the lunch crowd.

The broader point though is that at full implementation you could run a casual dining operation on essentially a Skelton crew. Most folks, unless they want a specialty bar drink, could tell the host/hostess their drink order when they're seated. All other ordering on the tablet, with a photo attached. Bar orders confirmed by scanning ID.

1 bartende
1 barback/ runner
3-6 kitchen runners to deliver food, refill drinks, AND bus tables

No assigned tables.

I am old and I love the automation. I tend to have trouble hearing and/or understanding waitstaff. And they have the same problem with me.

Give me the tablet. You can take your time, figure it all out, double check your order, order when ready, and pay.

The sports bar in Choctaw casino has a robot to bring food from the kitchen. Seems like a gimic, its too slow to replace even 1/4 of a human doing the same job. It's always in the way and humans are always having to move around it.

If it makes prices go down, I'm all for it. If it also removes wait staff so I don't have to leave a tip, even better. Here's to the future, it can't get here soon enough.

I sell factory automation. One robot I sold this year has a list price of $108k including the metal racks that go on it.

Sole purpose of this robot is they put a trash can on it and the line workers put their trash in the robot. Thats it.

will save three shifts X the hourly rate of employee that would be going around with a trash can. no benefits, no union rules for robots......yet.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Cromagnum said:

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TefIon Don said:

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I'll say those tablets are a massive W. Not many things annoy me, but your server disappearing for 10-15 minutes right when you want to pay out is one of them.

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Or taking your order wrong in the first place because "they don't need to write anything down".

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Certainly not arguing those points. I agree entirely. Prior to the tablets, my chief complaint about that location was that waitstaff wouldn't bring the check in a timely manner for the lunch crowd.

The broader point though is that at full implementation you could run a casual dining operation on essentially a Skelton crew. Most folks, unless they want a specialty bar drink, could tell the host/hostess their drink order when they're seated. All other ordering on the tablet, with a photo attached. Bar orders confirmed by scanning ID.

1 bartende
1 barback/ runner
3-6 kitchen runners to deliver food, refill drinks, AND bus tables

No assigned tables.

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Love the tablets and the QR code ordering. It's been a good way to overcome labour shortages.

I didn't read the article but it wouldn't surprise me if tbe robots have a SW subscription that will ratchet up and up over time.

Good news hopefully will be higher accuracy on order fulfillment.

Used one of these automated perfect pour machines last time I had an Asahi in the ANA Lounge at Narita in Feb 2020 as the war was breaking out.

I don't think we'll be seeing them at Northgate anytime soon but, LA, SF, probably. A bartender will become a automatic pour manager.

I scan and bag my own items as I put them in my cart at HEB and Sams.

I bag the items how I want, in heavy ikea bags. I skip the lines. Payment is through the app. At HEB I hit a kiosk on the way out where an employee scans a couple of items to make sure I'm honest. At Sams they scan a couple of items before I head out the door.

There are countless business cases for investing in robot labor. Here's mine.

https://streamable.com/h95bnj

Most of the upgrades can be done remotely during down time

HollywoodBQ said:

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Used one of these automated perfect pour machines last time I had an Asahi in the ANA Lounge at Narita in Feb 2020 as the war was breaking out.

I don't think we'll be seeing them at Northgate anytime soon but, LA, SF, probably. A bartender will become a automatic pour manager.

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Had many a Asahi at that ANA lounge...love the automation

i like shooting the sheet with bartenders. hard pass on automation there for me.

also, at a nice restaurant people have questions for the waiter and like the personal service. I don't see automation taking off for nice places.

but for a chilis or fast food, probably standard within a couple of years

Food was delivered to me via robot last week. Came right to the table, we grabbed it, it went back to kitchen.