Retail Technologies Advance for Restaurant Orders

Retailers, restaurants, hotels and many other types of consumer-facing businesses are investing heavily in new technologies that simplify transactions and increase customer service. This has become particularly important during the Coronavirus era where there are shortages of workers to take care of customers. Self-service kiosks and smartphone apps are increasingly seen in businesses, but robots that directly serve customers are also growing in use.

Online Ordering: Online ordering skyrocketed during the Coronavirus pandemic. Restaurants with online ordering systems already in place got the jump of those that had to scramble to enhance or create websites and apps with fast, intuitive ordering systems. Online restaurant ordering has become a lasting habit for many consumers, continuing well beyond the COVID pandemic.

Video Restaurant Menus and Ordering Kiosks: A number of restaurant chains, including Sonic Drive-Ins, are installing electronic menus that have point-of-purchase (POP) dynamic content. Customers place their orders using a touch screen, which are displayed complete with the total check amounts. Suggested additional items appear, some including special discount offers or promotions. The system is provided by MICROS Systems, a subsidiary of Oracle. The technology raises average check amounts, and increases inventory efficiency, since it is connected with the restaurants’ overall networks. If the POP is pushing a particular flavor of milkshake, for example, and customers respond, the system alerts owners to buy more ingredients. Installation and maintenance run about $150,000 per restaurant.

Meanwhile, Microsoft and CKE Restaurants, Inc. (which owns Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.) have widely implemented self-order kiosks using Dell Optiplex All-in-One devices. Customers place their own orders and pay using credit cards or smartphone payment apps. Kiosks relay orders directly to kitchens, increasing speed and accuracy, and staff can easily update menus with seasonal offerings or promotions. The system also enables management to run sales and administrative reports, while employees can use the kiosks to clock in and out.

TGI Fridays locations equipped staff with rugged Windows tablets, loaded with MICROS software, to use in collecting orders from customers and transmitting the orders to the kitchen. Leading restaurant chain Chili’s installed tabletop self-order devices made by Ziosk that can also receive orders, transmit them to the kitchen and handle credit card checkouts. In addition, the devices offer games and news feeds for a small additional fee. Chili’s reported reliable increases in average checks, and the machines automatically suggest a 20% tip for servers who deliver food and beverages. With U.S. restaurants under considerable pressure to raise employees’ wages, many firms are keen to utilize advanced technologies that enable customers to enter and pay for their own orders, thus cutting down on the total number of staff members required to serve customers.

Virtual Grocery Shopping: Grocery chain Tesco posted subway corridors in Korea with shopable billboards. The long arrays of billboards are designed to look exactly like full-size shelves and refrigerated cases within the aisles of Tesco stores. Commuters waiting for trains can walk down the lines of photos of shelves and order groceries by scanning quick response (QR) codes using the Homeplus phone app. Scanned items are automatically added to the customer’s online shopping cart, where they can pay for the orders on their phones and schedule a time for home delivery (usually the same day as the order is placed). See a video of these billboards in action at https://youtu.be/7JItU05mjCk.

SPOTLIGHT: Restaurant Robots

With wages rising and new employees hard to hire, the restaurant industry is adopting robots to a growing degree. At CaliBurger, a casual chain with about 50 locations, “Flippy” the robot has been installed in about 20% of its restaurants to flip burgers and clean hot grills. Management believes the robots will free human workers to clean dining rooms and refill drinks. Restaurants of most types are experiencing high levels of to-go orders as well, thanks to online orders and on-demand delivery services. In February 2021, food delivery firm DoorDash acquired robotics startup Chowbotics, which makes salads and poke bowls prepared by a robot in under one minute.

The operator of Flix Brewhouse, a U.S. chain of dozens of combination movie theaters/brew pubs, purchased a kitchen-delivery robot for each location. The robots pick up completed food orders in the kitchen and deliver the food to the appropriate location within the theater. A human then checks the plates and hands them to the customers. Each robot can do the work of one human—that’s one less employee to hire. The cost is about $20,000 per robot, plus $200 monthly in maintenance fees. These robots are made in China and are particularly popular in restaurants in Asia. The robots include a sufficient level of artificial intelligence to allow them to learn to navigate each building successfully.

Automats: Once popular in U.S. cities during the mid-20^th century, automats are making an entry in China. Restaurant chain Wufangzhai has eight outlets in the Hangzhou province where customers order food via smartphone and pickup items from lockers that are connected directly to the kitchen. The lockers open via smartphone connection. Customers click open the locker and remove the fresh food. Drink dispensers operate in a similar fashion using QR codes scanned by smartphones.

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