Restaurant Technology Disruption Continues

At the intersection of consumers increasing desire for food discovery, technology, and meal time Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® wonders will a ‘robot that runs food to customers drive customer into the restaurant or just save the restaurant money on employee wages and benefits?

The simple fact is technology is replacing workers a bit faster than more legacy restaurant operators will admit, albeit a touch screen ordering inside your favorite fast food restaurant, online ordering, or food delivery to your office or home. 

Now Bear Robotics hopes to mass produce Penny, the robot food runner, after raising $32 million in Series A funding led by Softbank.  The Japanese conglomerate runs the $100 billion Vision Fund. Its restaurant investments, to date, have included robot pizza restaurant Zume; hamburger robotic startup Creator; lab-grown meat maker Memphis Meats; third-party delivery company DoorDash; and ghost kitchen facility Reef Kitchens. So, you just might want to take this one serious

Many of you remember that we told you about Bear Robotics last year at our industry event Friday night before the 2018 National Restaurant Association trade show in Chicago. The self-driving robot is engineered to easily navigate a busy dining room, helping servers deliver everything from pizzas to beverages.

Consider the footprint Bear Robotics has carved out so fat as Penny is currently being used at Amici's Pizza in Mountain View, Calif., in banquet rooms in Sunnyvale, Calif., a casino in Los Angeles, a senior living center in Cupertino, Calif., and restaurants and cafés in Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea.

“Penny has increased servers’ time with customers by an average of 40 percent, and received customer satisfaction reviews of 95 percent. We are working diligently toward mass production of our robots for global chains,” company CEO and founder John Ha wrote . 

Integrating technology into your legacy operation will add relevance for customers, can drive down your labor cost, all while driving top line sales and bottom line profits. 

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869