Goodbye Cashiers

Written By Brian Hicks

Posted September 2, 2015

Silicon Valley can be a truly stupid place sometimes.

For every Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and Google that it builds, it creates two-dozen start-ups that claim to solve some nonexistent problem or answer some barely addressable demand.

Silicon Valley’s corniest inventions tend to blend into one another, with their nonsensical SEO-focused names and laughable business models.

Among these, however, there is usually a clear zeitgeist. Even the most forgettable start-ups bear the marks of the era in which they were conceived and built.

This week, a new fast-food restaurant opened in San Francisco, and it has many of the marks of current trends. It’s an all-quinoa restaurant where customers interact only with touchscreens.

It’s being called the restaurant with no workers, and though it’s gimmicky and coated from head to toe in ridiculous Silicon Valley hype, it’s a sign of the times and a sign of things to come.

Eatsa

Beyond the menu, which bases all of its dishes on the trendy grain quinoa, Eatsa is designed like a 21st century automat… an automat in the age of the Apple Store.

Customers punch in their order on one of the in-store iPads or on their own mobile device. The order is submitted, and the customer waits until a transparent touchscreen window lights up with their name. They then double tap the window, open it, and pull out their meal without any human interaction.

Were it not for the touchscreen cubbies where the food appears and the touchscreen ordering systems that remember your previous orders for each visit, it would essentially be a 20th century automat.

But because of the tech and the location, it had a launch event involving the press, and it is enjoying glowing reviews from the tech press and San Franciscans alike, tweeting about their fast and affordable dining experience.

We’ve Been Waiting for Something Like This

This kind of restaurant has been a long time coming.

I wrote about this topic over at Energy and Capital nearly two years ago, when I said companies providing digital signage and automated menus were in a desirable position because brick-and-mortar retail has been in a transitional phase since the Internet became a dominant form of commerce.

Then, last year, I wrote about the evolution of vending machines and how automation was once again changing the face of retail. Companies like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), British Telecom (NYSE: BT) and Mondelez International (NASDAQ: MDLZ) have all evolved into new designs in retail that involved no human interaction. 

What I didn’t write about was the development going on at the same time elsewhere in retail.

Gas stations, convenience stores, and fast-food restaurants across the United States have slowly switched over to touchscreen ordering systems. East Coast convenience stores Sheetz, Royal Farms, and Wawa all utilize similar order placement systems, as do QuikTrip convenience stores in the Midwest.

More “traditional” restaurant chains like Chili’s and Applebee’s piloted touchscreen ordering and payment, while all kinds of QSR establishments began to utilize Coca-Cola’s “Freestyle” touchscreen beverage-dispensing machine.

Digital order systems and digital payment systems have been evolving alongside one another.

It was only a matter of time before the automat came back in a more modern form. The success or failure of Eatsa will determine how far the nouveau automat will go.

The question, before we start thinking this is the next big frontier, is simple…

Why did the original automats disappear?

For one thing, they were relics of an era of rapid urban growth. They provided premade meals in a cafeteria-style setting and allowed individuals or groups to dine completely informally. When the American workforce moved to the suburbs in the 1950s, carhops, fast food, and eventually drive-thru dining took over.

For another thing, the technology of automat vending never evolved as the price of food increased. The machines at popular automat chains like Horn & Hardart, for example, ran either on nickels or tokens that represented higher denominations that had to be purchased from a cashier inside the establishment. It was not exactly a convenient affair. 

A modern place like Eatsa represents a different era… when the consumer is mobile and always connected, when their desires and their bank accounts are linked in their mobile device’s memory.

For a young, urban tech workforce, it is ideal. The companies providing the hardware and software to make restaurants like this a reality are definite bright spots.

Good Investing,

  Tim Conneally Sig

Tim Conneally

follow basic @TimConneally on Twitter

For the last seven years, Tim Conneally has covered the world of mobile and wireless technology, enterprise software, network hardware, and next generation consumer technology. Tim has previously written for long-running software news outlet Betanews and for financial media powerhouse Forbes.

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