How about a mobile app which would allow me to pre-order from food trucks? I work in downtown Chicago, and there are a bunch of trucks around everyday (but not within 200 feet of a "real" restaurant entrance, of course!). Imagine that the food trucks all posted their menus to foodtruck.com in the morning along with their schedule of locations/times. I could then see a menu of food available within an N minute walk of my building, pre-order and pay, and then go pick-up my bag of food. The food trucks would just have a net-connected tablet onboard which would alert them of purchases. They could mark menu items as unavailable when they run out. By taking the uncertainty out of deciding to leave one's desk and find a food truck, business could increase. Perhaps owners could also be given geospatial/temporal demand pattern information with which they could optimize their positioning.
Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
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Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
A social event with the waitstaff? No one is saying that you can't talk to the restaurant staff, even when using a tablet -- you just aren't beholden to them for service.
Actually, yes. Does that sound crazy? I'm not talking about bad servers, I'm talking about good servers. Also, servers let me ask questions and help me discover new food I would probably not try. That's just me though, maybe I'm special.
You aren't unusual. A good server will beat automation hands down. It's the power of a bad server to fore a bad experience upon me which makes me love the tablet as an option.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
I spent about a year in 2003 trying to launch a similar start-up. Restaurant owners told me that they would gladly trade a normal distribution of customer satisfaction for consistent-but-average experiences. Why? If you have a great experience, you might tell a few people. However, when you have an awful experience, you'll tell a hundred.
Those owners probably aren't great at training their staff and/or don't understand the intangibles that make for a good service experience. You might be able to sell the owners on your product. That doesn't mean the owners can sell their customers on your product.
The owners understood quite well what made for an amazing experience, but they didn't feel they could ensure that each customer would receive that experience given the issues they had in hiring and retention. One thing that shocked me was that I didn't get pushback on the likely increase in credit card usage. While 1.6% is a horrible portion of net margins, it's a small price to pay for keeping greenbacks out of employees' hands. There's a shortage of competent people in America who are willing to serve food at [Chain X] for more than a few months while finishing up school, etc. Most who will opt into serving long-term will seek higher-end restaurants.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#44How about a mobile app which would allow me to pre-order from food trucks? I work in downtown Chicago, and there are a bunch of trucks around everyday (but not within 200 feet of a "real" restaurant entrance, of course!). Imagine that the food trucks all posted their menus to foodtruck.com in the morning along with their schedule of locations/times. I could then see a menu of food available within an N minute walk of…
I'm working on this ATM, will be launching in a few weeks. starting in Perth, Australia but will try to launch in the US as soon as we have a little traction. Great to hear that there's demand for this service.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#45All of this is just fluff until mobile payments become a reality. I don't want to remove the waitstaff, I want to remove the wait. I should be able to pay from my phone when I am done ordering and walk away.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#46"I actually dread human interaction of any kind" > Well ok, necessity is the mother of invention. "People say it's very inhospitable. But it's the epitome of hospitality. It empowers the guest to get in and to get out." > Wow, the irony (and sadness) are overflowing. The only time I can really see this being more useful to me, is when I can't get a hold of my wait(er/ress) to bring the check or run my card. And here'…
One good use for tablets-on-bar-tables I thought about, years ago, was the exact opposite: make people interact, sending messages between tables and the such. Then I've read an individual somewhere saying that "meeting people face to face is too creepy, that's why everyone prefers online dating". Goes hand in hand with this comment. Scary faceless world..
Maybe at a bar or restaurant specifically for this purpose but at most places it wouldn't fly / would be useless.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#47> Suri dropped out of the prestigious university and got a job in a sports bar in Cambridge to learn the ins and outs of the restaurant business.
This really puts the "No really, talk to your customers on occasion" battle into perspective. For so many of us, the first reaction to this kind of idea is to fire up an IDE, not to temporarily change careers.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#48This has all been done in Japan for 5 or 6 years now. There are plenty of Izakaya in Japan that you order from wireless color tablets. They have the entire menu in color with pictures of every item. They've been around since at least 2005.
(Izakaya = the type of place Japanese people drink which is most easily described as booze and tapas)
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
By "better" I meant "works with a stylus". Most of Europe might be paying for meals with PIN-based debit, but a lot of Americans still pay with signature-based credit. The banks need the signature.
Not just europeans, but also japanese and all countries in south america (not sure about other asian countries and africa). Also, pin works for credit cards too, in these countries, not just debt Why do the banks need signatures in the US? Specially badly-drawn ones that don't even ressemble the actual signatures? (I can never sign properly in one of those POS machines from CVS, ever)
Signatures allegedly lower the fraud rate, or at least assist in proving fraud if a card is stolen.
Some banks now offer the option to bypass signature capture at the tradeoff of a slightly higher merchant rate. Many quick-serve restaurants (Chipotle comes to mind) will take the hit in return for processing customers faster. Time is money.
Given how badly I sign the UPS pad when picking up a delivery, I can't see these signatures as being usable.
Re: Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
One good use for tablets-on-bar-tables I thought about, years ago, was the exact opposite: make people interact, sending messages between tables and the such. Then I've read an individual somewhere saying that "meeting people face to face is too creepy, that's why everyone prefers online dating". Goes hand in hand with this comment. Scary faceless world..
Maybe at a bar or restaurant specifically for this purpose but at most places it wouldn't fly / would be useless.
most bars and nighclubs ARE there for this purpose :-)