4 ms·

I think this is a major revolution coming. The entire service industry is built off people having to drive to stores, interact with humans, and buy things there

by zanny 14y ago

I think this is a major revolution coming. The entire service industry is built off people having to drive to stores, interact with humans, and buy things there. It is much more demand reactive and inventory efficient to ship from the source the things we want, planning them in advance, and delivering them directly. I mean, I would personally never have a waiter at a restaurant. Put a touchscreen on the table, let me pick what I want, and either I'll go to the kitchen and pick it up (and why can't a robot do the cooking?) and take it back, or even better, have it delivered to the table. Why am I in a restaurant ordering? Why can't I just order take out and have an automated car delivery service drop it off?

VLM 14y ago
Its much more expensive to have human restaurant staff, and fundamentally doesn't matter if you're willing to admit it or not but dating and "conspicuous consumption" already drives those expenses. Unless you've never gone on a date fancier than a picnic or perhaps McDonalds and then bragged about it to friends... The startup lesson for today is the first SUCCESSFUL game changing industry altering automated restaurant is going to sell $500 steaks out of a vending machine not $0.50 hamburgers. And its not solely because of simple marketing buzz either. It needs to be the most expensive place in the market. Look at peapod, by far the most expensive possible way to get a bag of cheetos in my cabinet, even though its probably the cheapest to supply (aka the most profitable way). The ipod did not succeed because it was the cheapest player on the shelf at walmart.
muxxa 14y ago
Re. Restaurants (rather than fast food places): They will always exist because the presence and demeanour of staff on the restaurant floor sets the expectation for social interaction in the immediate environment. One function of the waiting staff is to provide a degree of protection from unwanted interactions from other patrons in the restaurant. One of the reasons you go to a restaurant (rather than eating at home) is to experience the pleasantness of being part of a communal group without the risks of eating beside random strangers. The staff provide that mediation (and contribute to the milieu) and are not going to be replaced by robots any time soon. Why can't a robot do the cooking? Because cooking is an art and we continually demand novelty.

by zanny 14y ago

VLM 14y ago

Its much more expensive to have human restaurant staff, and fundamentally doesn't matter if you're willing to admit it or not but dating and "conspicuous consumption" already drives those expenses. Unless you've never gone on a date fancier than a picnic or perhaps McDonalds and then bragged about it to friends... The startup lesson for today is the first SUCCESSFUL game changing industry altering automated restaurant is going to sell $500 steaks out of a vending machine not $0.50 hamburgers. And its not solely because of simple marketing buzz either. It needs to be the most expensive place in the market. Look at peapod, by far the most expensive possible way to get a bag of cheetos in my cabinet, even though its probably the cheapest to supply (aka the most profitable way). The ipod did not succeed because it was the cheapest player on the shelf at walmart.

muxxa 14y ago

Re. Restaurants (rather than fast food places): They will always exist because the presence and demeanour of staff on the restaurant floor sets the expectation for social interaction in the immediate environment. One function of the waiting staff is to provide a degree of protection from unwanted interactions from other patrons in the restaurant. One of the reasons you go to a restaurant (rather than eating at home) is to experience the pleasantness of being part of a communal group without the risks of eating beside random strangers. The staff provide that mediation (and contribute to the milieu) and are not going to be replaced by robots any time soon. Why can't a robot do the cooking? Because cooking is an art and we continually demand novelty.