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At any tachigui (standing-only) soba shop in Tokyo, you can get a bowl of noodles made to order and customized to your liking from around 200 yen ($2) and deliv

At any tachigui (standing-only) soba shop in Tokyo, you can get a bowl of noodles made to order and customized to your liking from around 200 yen ($2) and delivered in approx 30 seconds: https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=11660 https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=11660 There are many opportunities for disruption in Japan; this does not seem like the easiest or most profitable one.

contingencies 8y ago
Sure, there are high volume, low cost, single dish restaurants out there. Obviously that's not our focus, even though if they can do it at $2 we can do it cheaper and closer to the consumer, in their language, with full support for personalization, 24x7x365. Traditional food retail suffers from the following limitations: relatively high startup cost (real estate location, rental, renovation, fit-out, licensing), relatively high recurring overheads (staff, management, inventory management) and internal processes unsuitable for specific requirements (religious, medical, lifestyle or other specialist diets, plus other forms of personalization), typically limited hours due to reliance on staff, limited languages of service staff, food safety issues due to human preparation. In short we have enough USPs in enough areas that we don't have to compete on cost - the industry is vast - and if a single location fails to grow adequately we can literally move it within an hour or two.
- jpatokal 8y ago
  I'm looking forward to your Show HN and wish you luck -- you'll need it.
  - contingencies 8y ago
    Sincere thanks. All manner of support for our amazing team's dogged persistence - from digital well-wishing to hard currency - are most gratefully accepted. :)
- UncleEntity 8y ago
  > ...and if a single location fails to grow adequately we can literally move it within an hour or two. And one would imagine there'd already be a noodle stand sitting there since they've had ~80 years to find the optimum spots (going by TFA). Brings back memories of when they opened a Taco Bell close to the Humboldt State campus and then had to hire 24/7 security to protect it from the anti-corporate vandals who didn't appreciate having tasty tacos within walking distance from campus. I can certainly imagine the mobile robonoodle stands will suffer many an unexplained breakdown when they try to displace another noodle stand.
  - contingencies 8y ago
    As an outsider it is easy to severely underestimate the dynamism of mainland Chinese urban environments. Also, according to a recent international study by HSBC mainland Chinese consumer enthusiasm for technology adoption is off the charts versus all other countries surveyed. While resistance to vandalism is a design consideration with any public facility, mainland China has extremely small rates of petty street crime relative to, say, the US or UK. Besides, our business model is not "displace another noodle stand" but "serve frustrated demand wherever it exists" which is typically somewhere else.

contingencies 8y ago

Sure, there are high volume, low cost, single dish restaurants out there. Obviously that's not our focus, even though if they can do it at $2 we can do it cheaper and closer to the consumer, in their language, with full support for personalization, 24x7x365. Traditional food retail suffers from the following limitations: relatively high startup cost (real estate location, rental, renovation, fit-out, licensing), relatively high recurring overheads (staff, management, inventory management) and internal processes unsuitable for specific requirements (religious, medical, lifestyle or other specialist diets, plus other forms of personalization), typically limited hours due to reliance on staff, limited languages of service staff, food safety issues due to human preparation. In short we have enough USPs in enough areas that we don't have to compete on cost - the industry is vast - and if a single location fails to grow adequately we can literally move it within an hour or two.

jpatokal 8y ago
I'm looking forward to your Show HN and wish you luck -- you'll need it.
- contingencies 8y ago
  Sincere thanks. All manner of support for our amazing team's dogged persistence - from digital well-wishing to hard currency - are most gratefully accepted. :)
UncleEntity 8y ago
> ...and if a single location fails to grow adequately we can literally move it within an hour or two. And one would imagine there'd already be a noodle stand sitting there since they've had ~80 years to find the optimum spots (going by TFA). Brings back memories of when they opened a Taco Bell close to the Humboldt State campus and then had to hire 24/7 security to protect it from the anti-corporate vandals who didn't appreciate having tasty tacos within walking distance from campus. I can certainly imagine the mobile robonoodle stands will suffer many an unexplained breakdown when they try to displace another noodle stand.
- contingencies 8y ago
  As an outsider it is easy to severely underestimate the dynamism of mainland Chinese urban environments. Also, according to a recent international study by HSBC mainland Chinese consumer enthusiasm for technology adoption is off the charts versus all other countries surveyed. While resistance to vandalism is a design consideration with any public facility, mainland China has extremely small rates of petty street crime relative to, say, the US or UK. Besides, our business model is not "displace another noodle stand" but "serve frustrated demand wherever it exists" which is typically somewhere else.