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Is this the way to turn services like Uber Eats profitable? Instead of small restaurants, you could have ala carte factories cranking dishes under different br

Is this the way to turn services like Uber Eats profitable? Instead of small restaurants, you could have ala carte factories cranking dishes under different brands. At scale investment in automation makes more sense.

wenc 6y ago
If you mean online-only ghost kitchens, they sure do work (even without automation). They already exist today (I believe former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has a ghost kitchen venture). Right now, most ghost kitchens have one major shortcoming: they lack a compelling narrative. Restaurants don't just sell food -- they sell a story, a distinction. They sell a distinct style of ramen or pizza or pasta because the chef brings their culture and training to the product. Standard markup gets you margins, but a compelling story coupled with good execution adds a premium. In this regard, pure-play ghost kitchen food feels empty and generic. There's no story or flair behind it, just a factory production line. For the "food as fuel" demographic -- this doesn't matter. Food is food, pizza or pasta is the same anywhere. For people who believe "food is culture" -- this matters a lot. I'm not going to order pizza from a generic Grubhub place named "Sam's Pizza". One way around this is perhaps to have restaurants with pre-existing narratives to lend their name/brand and process to a ghost kitchen operation. The Filipino chicken chain Jollibees -- which has name recognition -- is trying this out, so we'll see.
- yoshyosh 6y ago
  Honestly I think if the "robot" food is truly incredible and delicious, I don't buy that the story will matter much at all. That paired with high value relative to cost, likely leads to a world where only the edges survive, "fine dining" like experiences and cheap but good options. Agreed with the power of ghost kitchens leveraging brand, this is what sweetgreen does to help with their distribution
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

wenc 6y ago

If you mean online-only ghost kitchens, they sure do work (even without automation). They already exist today (I believe former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has a ghost kitchen venture). Right now, most ghost kitchens have one major shortcoming: they lack a compelling narrative. Restaurants don't just sell food -- they sell a story, a distinction. They sell a distinct style of ramen or pizza or pasta because the chef brings their culture and training to the product. Standard markup gets you margins, but a compelling story coupled with good execution adds a premium. In this regard, pure-play ghost kitchen food feels empty and generic. There's no story or flair behind it, just a factory production line. For the "food as fuel" demographic -- this doesn't matter. Food is food, pizza or pasta is the same anywhere. For people who believe "food is culture" -- this matters a lot. I'm not going to order pizza from a generic Grubhub place named "Sam's Pizza". One way around this is perhaps to have restaurants with pre-existing narratives to lend their name/brand and process to a ghost kitchen operation. The Filipino chicken chain Jollibees -- which has name recognition -- is trying this out, so we'll see.

yoshyosh 6y ago
Honestly I think if the "robot" food is truly incredible and delicious, I don't buy that the story will matter much at all. That paired with high value relative to cost, likely leads to a world where only the edges survive, "fine dining" like experiences and cheap but good options. Agreed with the power of ghost kitchens leveraging brand, this is what sweetgreen does to help with their distribution
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]