[jpao79]

I think what's kind of interesting is if this actually makes it easier to start a restaurant. Assuming at some point, some food robot maker steps up and starts selling the robot itself to independent restauranteurs, instead of selling hamburgers to end consumers, do these robots put the power back into the hands of the small business/restaurant owner?

I have to imagine a big complication in starting an independent restaurant is the overhead of hiring/managing/supporting employees (i.e. wait staff, cooks, dishwashers, etc.). A large employee base probably requires a large franchise with economies of scale to distribute the cost of centralized HR over many restaurants.

Without that overhead, entrepreneurial restauranteurs can focus on differentiating the food, the location(s) of the restaurant and the ambiance.

[notahacker]

I think getting the location right has always been the biggest obstacle to being a successful restaurant. And there's only so much you can change the menu and "ambience" when you're supplying self-service burgers.

Plus the article does hint the robo-restaurant still has employees to manage customers, clean, load the machine and presumably sort out issues with it on a not-infrequent basis...

[greedo]

Restaurants fail because of 1) poor location, 2) undercapitalization 3) poor QSC (quality/service/cleanliness).

[rm_-rf_slash]

I kinda see what you’re saying, but I think for the economics to work at scale (another person mentioned location) then the device should be small enough to fit in a food truck or a street vendor stand.

Once you have the size down to where you just need one person at a time operating it, I bet the big fast food companies will swarm all over the opportunity to create tens of thousands of micro-franchises.

Why drive for Uber when you could set up a mini McDonalds wherever the health department lets you get away with it?

[jpao79]

Yeah kind like a super duper high end vending machine at locations where there might be a person that normally is tasked with doing other stuff could do minimal burger robot maintenance (i.e. refill, clean at the end of the day, etc.). Like at a gas station, corner mom and pop grocery store, wework office lobby, etc.

Japanese Vending Machine Unboxing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Z80J3jOao

[s73v3r_]

In what world is the power not already in the hands of the restaurant owner?