>The holy grail here though I think is a cheeseburger or a pizza or a pasta bowl, which are so ubiquitous due to their immense popularity. Totally logical, but

>The holy grail here though I think is a cheeseburger or a pizza or a pasta bowl, which are so ubiquitous due to their immense popularity. Totally logical, but it doesn't play out in the US market. Pizza vending machines are already a thing, but they're not prevalent. Take and bake pizzas are common though. Hell, there are some chain stores where they act like a pizza shop, but they don't bake the pizza, you still have to at home. We're just not that into the concept as consumers right now. If it's going to be automated/mass manufactured, then the convenience needs to be right at my hand/freezer/fridge. I'll wait for human made food. The closer to grandma level cooking, the more I'm willing to wait. I don't value the experience of waiting for a soulless robot. Next part too, if you're into healthy eating, chances are high that you figured out cooking it yourself if far cheaper, no matter what, and you control the ingredients. For about $15 you can easily make 10+ portions of a veggie rice dish one day, meal prep it for lunches or what have you, maybe freeze for later. Add another $5 to that total for chicken or pork. It's $2-3 a portion with one night's 45min to an hour of cooking for half a weeks worth of food. I do this about once a month. The economics to prepared/restaurant healthy eating isn't as good as junk food. Fresh foods spoil. Most of these places see a lot of waste because of it. The consumer pays for that indirectly.