After years of pandemic this and pandemic that, foodservice is returning to normal – yeah, I said it -normal. But a new normal; one where labor challenges are permanent and third-party delivery platforms steal customers and margins.
But wait, are they really permanent?
- In 2017, our CEO Ed Zimmerman wrote an article – “The Robots are Coming” where he predicted that high minimum wages would usher in an era of machines to replace labor.
- Not the Star Wars type robots, but in-store self-service kiosks (Panera Bread, McDonalds’) and back-of-the-house production like pizza toppers and hamburger flippers.
- Excessive regulation by well-meaning governments will push restaurant operators to replace people with machines. Throughout time, entrepreneurs have substituted capital for labor. As machines and machine learning improve, restaurateurs will simplify their operation and improve margins.
