Will automation supplant the restaurant worker?

Menu trend analyst Nancy Kruse and NRN senior food editor Bret Thorn debate current trends in the restaurant industry. For this installment, the two discuss robots in restaurants.

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eatsa - the automated restaurant without a middle man.

The first thing you notice when you walk into eatsa is the staff. It’s almost non-existent. There’s no cash register, no counter where you pick up your order at this highly automated restaurant chain. A single worker, sometimes two, mans the floor to answer questions.

Customers can enter and exit, food in hand in under a couple of minutes — all without ever interacting with another human being.

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KFC is Using Virtual Reality to Train Cooks.

Blending virtual reality with real reality, KFC is using VR technology to teach its cooks how to make Original Recipe fried chicken in an entirely unique, hands-on and modern way. “The Hard Way—a KFC Virtual Training Escape Room” is designed as an escape room where Colonel Sanders gives his trainees hints and clues along the way to ensure they are making fried chicken the Hard Way—the way that he invented more than 70 years ago.

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Yelp ratings may be predictor of how restaurants fare after a minimum wage increase.

Some restaurants owners have argued that raising the minimum wage may force them to close, or cut staff. Now a new study suggests that this only really happens to restaurants with lower customer satisfaction ratings as measured by Yelp.

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Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods is 'a threat to everyone,' even restaurants.

Whole Foods shareholders approved Amazon's proposed $13.7 billion acquisition of the grocery chain. Where Amazon really stands to threaten restaurants is in its consumer data collection abilities and its long-term drain on retail locations. Most analysts and investors worry that the tech giant's deal with Whole Foods will largely upend the landscape for grocers, food delivery services and meal-kit companies.

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