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A coffee shop is 33% drinks and snacks, 33% theatre and experience and 33% location and/or pleasant lounging space and such. Maybe at the best end, a barista
by dalbasal 8y ago
A coffee shop is 33% drinks and snacks, 33% theatre and experience and 33% location and/or pleasant lounging space and such.
Maybe at the best end, a barista makes a better cuppa than a good machine but most of the places near where I am now wouldn't pass a blind test Vs the automated coffee machine at my office.
Automated coffee-making exist, and works just fine.
Still, €1 vending machines haven't killed the €3 coffee shops/stands/trucks. Empirically, people want the (subjective) experience, not cheap coffee.
This is a novel, theatrical way of doing the experience.
Besides those relatively banal points... it's kind of cool that they're putting robotic arms into public-facing consumer land. Not sure it leads anywhere, but I'd get a cuppa and watch it work as I sip.
- LanceH 8y agoI think the robot might improve on the experience by not correcting me when I order a large.
- Liquid_Fire 8y agoIn my experience, most vending machines produce far inferior drinks to most coffee shops. If they could match the quality I would happily get my drinks from them, whether they're in a coffee shop or not.
- notahacker 8y agoThis. I keep making the point every time it gets raised in a "the robots are coming for our jobs" thread, but we had the technology to vend fast food to people putting coins in slots before we had McDonalds etc, whose laser focus on margins proved the business case for counter staff and killed off most of the Automats. Needless to say, the perception of a pleasant coffee shop offering good service worth paying extra for and superior quality coffee is more intrinsically linked to its staff than the fast food industry. In terms of theatrics and novelty this super-expensive machine is a massive improvement on the vending machine and can probably justify a $3 coffee instead of a $1 coffee, but it isn't going to kill the traditional coffee shop either, because the novelty is directly proportional to how rare they are....
- MagnumOpus 8y ago> McDonalds etc, whose laser focus on margins proved the business case for counter staff and killed off most of the Automats McDonalds is returning to vending machines - not for the burger manufacturing, but for the order generation and payment: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/06/07/mcdonalds-add-kiosks-citing-better-sales-over-face-face-orders/681196002/ https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/06/07/mc...
- notahacker 8y agoin selected stores, in addition to the staff, some of whom McDonalds has concluded it makes financial sense to redeploy providing table service. And this despite McDonalds being pretty much the extreme outlier in the food industry for perceptions of its staff being charmless! Your article also points to a poll that suggests the majority of people are substantially less likely to buy from a kiosk-only restaurant, which I'm sure McDonalds has more scientific data on...
- personjerry 8y agoActually, in Japan vending machine coffee is extremely popular, moreso than served coffee.
- magduf 8y agoYou can buy all kinds of weird things in vending machines in Japan: hot food, underwear, etc.
- liberte82 8y agoWhat's the other 1%?