White Castle @ 100 Still Innovating with Technology

 

First our team just wants to say unanimously that we like White Castle. That said White Castle has been around over 100 years and is still driving top-line growth and bottom-line profits the old fashion way, adapting and driving innovation. 

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® often reminds regular readers of this blog that if success does leave clues, and it does that White Castle is a great company to follow if your either looking to grow your same store sales or if you want your brand to be around 100 years from now.

With 350+ outlets White Castle is doubling down on Miso Robotics' Flippy machines after more than a year of tests yielded better operations and staff productivity. It could be the largest adoption of such technology by a U.S. restaurant chain because White Castle knows how to adapt to changing times according to Johnson who stated “The family leading White Castle looks a customer, a employee ahead, they do not get stuck doing what they have always done.”

White Castle COO Jeff Carper, stated, “Our partnership with Miso continues to lead the way on what’s next for back-of-house restaurant operations looking to empower team members with technology to better satisfy customers.”

In case you did not know, or read about it on this blog when we had our first ‘flippy story”. So, Flippy is a robotic arm mounted on a rail and powered by AI software. White Castle will be using the second-generation model known as Flippy 2 to work the fry station. The bot will take orders, fill baskets, fry the food and dump it off to be packaged and handed to the customer by human workers.

You have to understand that this system takes some less-desirable work off of employees' plates and allows them to focus on other things, particularly helping customers, White Castle said. It also improves food consistency.

Leader’s lead, White Castle became the first big restaurant chain to embrace Miso's robot when it began testing it in a single restaurant in September 2020. The pilot was not without its bumps, but Miso used feedback from White Castle to develop Flippy 2, which handles more tasks than its predecessor, including filling the fryer baskets itself. White Castle installed Flippy at 10 more restaurants in November.

This announcement comes as restaurants are looking to automate more tasks reducing cost as labor cost are sky rocking. The simple fast is robots can help ease challenges in hiring and retaining human workers as well as keep costs down amid skyrocketing inflation. Who will step up next?

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Robotic Micro-Bakery Drives Growth with Partnerships

 

Can Robots be ‘fresh’?  If you want to grow, your food brand today you have to think outside the box. Regular readers of this bold know that the restaurant business model has evolved with consumers.  Consumers are dynamic not static and according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® “restaurants need to evolve with consumers, they must stay relevant, to be resilient.

The answer to the question is yes, robots can be fresh particularly if you’re custom branded Bake Xpress, robotic bakery.  Bake Xpress Le Bread Xpress unit announced recently that Macy’s has installed a custom-branded Bake Xpress robotic micro-bakery at its Westfield Valley Fair location in Santa Clara, Calif., offering shoppers convenient in-store meals and snacks.

So, Bake Xpress micro-bakeries are unique robotic vending solutions that offer a selection of pastries, pizza and artisan sandwiches that are freshly baked at time of order. Each food item is prepared and partially baked at a traditional bakery before being stored in the Bake Xpress refrigeration unit and then freshly baked in the machine’s smart oven when the customer places the order.

The Micro-Bakeries food is delivered hot and fresh within minutes, providing restaurant-quality food in a convenient vending solution. Bake Xpress partnered with Macy’s to create a custom menu featuring croissants, chocolate croissants, pepperoni pizza, pasta meals, sausage and ham sandwiches and calzones.

Even robots understand branding as with its full menu of fresh-baked meals and pastries, Bake Xpress complements the beverage and snack options also offered, while providing Macy’s customers with a unique, high-tech experience. Bake Xpress features a Macy’s-branded machine wrap and a custom menu selected by Macy’s to best enhance the in-store shopping experience.

Heather Stallion, Macy’s Westfield Valley Fair store manager, stated, “Food is an important part of our customer experience, and Macy’s Westfield Valley Fair is thrilled to expand the customer experience with a robotic micro-bakery,” … “As we evolve to meet our customer’s changing needs, we’re confident that Bake Xpress will be a tremendous partner by offering hearty, fresh-baked food in a fun and futuristic new way just in time for holiday shopping.”

Get this, Le Bread Xpress combined robotic, artificial intelligence (AI), sensor, wireless and heating technologies with artisan recipes to create Bake Xpress, a ground-breaking vending machine that custom bakes a variety of meals and pastries on demand.

Le Bread Xpress Founder and CEO Benoit Herve, stated, “We are excited to launch the first public Bake Xpress in the Bay Area at Macy’s Westfield Valley Fair after two years of successful operation at private corporate and university locations,”…“Bake Xpress is unique in its ability to provide hot, freshly-baked gourmet food, which sets it apart from packaged snacks in traditional vending machines. We are pleased to see our vision of applying robotics and technology to food delivery continue to gain popularity, and we are looking forward to this new partnership with Macy’s.”

With a customizable menu ranging from croissants and muffins to pizza, calzones and gourmet sandwiches, Bake Xpress is a significant upgrade to traditional vending options. Le Bread Xpress was founded in 2015 and has installed Bake Xpress micro-bakeries in universities, hotels, retail centers, factories and office parks worldwide. Is your brand ready for a robot?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

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

Briggo Coffee with a Robot not a Barista

Regular readers of this blog have heard of Briggo’s Robot barista but have any of you considered the undercurrents of coffee sector change that Briggo has in trial?  If successful Briggo will garner customer migration from other retail brands with coffee they can sell for LESS according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

While travelers and employees of San Francisco International Airport will soon have their coffees prepared and served by a robotic barista. The next sept could be in your office lobby, at your local YMCA, in the lobby of your bank, doctor’s office, dormitory, and hospital.

Consider that Briggo’s robotic Coffee Haus can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  That my friends is why Briggo could be the next breakout grocerant niche Ready-2-Drink fresh prepared food company.

Loaded with technology that enables ordering ahead from the Briggo mobile app or on the Coffee Haus touchscreens, customers can completely customize their flavored latte, cappuccino, or several other gourmet coffee and tea drinks. Using the precision and efficiency of Briggo's robotic technology, drinks are crafted within minutes from custom whole-bean blends, fresh dairy, and gourmet syrups at a rate of up to 100 cups per hour.  How much do you spend on labor to serve 100 cups of coffee? Are you looking a customer ahead? 

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Bagels for Breakfast are ‘Hip’ ‘Happening’ and Helpful

Einstein Bros Bagels has learned the power of partnerships can drive new electricity for its brand according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  If success leaves clues than Einstein Bros Bagels has picked up one very important one on how to drive brand relevance via partnerships.

Sodexo, Inc. and Starship Technologies revealed that an extra 1,500 breakfast orders have been delivered autonomously shortly after the two companies joined forces to debut the Starship delivery robots on the campus of George Mason University.  

To help celebrate the launch of a fleet of more than 30 robots on campus and raise awareness of the breakfast offerings, the companies are partnering with Einstein Bros. Bagels and offering free breakfast for the remainder of the academic year to the NAU student who places the first order via the Starship app. The school’s nearly 25,000 students and faculty can now use the Starship app (iOS and Android) to order food and drinks from local retailers to be delivered anywhere on campus, within minutes. So, how are you adding relevance to your brand? Are you looking a customer ahead?

How is your brand building new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, free food / sampling, toy’s, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different. 

Are If you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Little Caesars Technology will Fuel Growth

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson says that ‘looking a customer ahead’ is what industry leading companies do time and time again.  This week we learned that Little Caesars filed a patent to increase store profitability when they applied for a patent for pizza making robot.

According to the United States Trademark and Patent Office USTPO the patent granted franchisor Little Caesars Enterprises on Tuesday, the device can pull a dough-loaded pizza pan from a rack, press out the dough, apply sauce, add cheese and toppings and then place the pie in an oven.

While Little Caesars has commented about the possible deployment of the automated pizza-maker the fact is the patent was applied for and granted.  Kinda makes you think they are serious about reducing staffing levels at each unit lowering operating cost doesn’t it.  So, according to the filing, is an articulated arm that can grip the pan and move it along the various stages of pizza assembly is it’s point of differentiation.

How is technology helping you evolve?  Little Caesars is not alone in the pizza robot business as Zume Pizza has five robots (Pepe, Giorgio, Marta, Bruno, and Vincenzo) on its pizza production line. The company has secured $48 million in funding for expansion.

Regular readers of this blog know that the robotization within retail foodservice is more experimentation than reality as CaliBurger, a small burger chain, had to bench its Flippy burger-flipping robot earlier this week because humans couldn't keep up with the cyborg's pace of prepping 2,000 burgers per day. Is your company ‘looking a customer ahead’?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.