Commentary

Vending: Convenience for consumers and growth opportunity for restaurants

Today's food preparation and dispensing technology offers an opportunity for restaurants to make offerings available during off hours. It is also possible to site machines inside of an establishment where those in a hurry will not need to wait for orders.

Image: Adobe Stock

February 19, 2024 by Steve Stollman — owner, www.theAutomat.com

Imagine walking up to the window of a local restaurant that you have never eaten in and finding an array of small dishes for sale out of a vending machine, many hot and all ready to eat, that only take a few buttons to push and the wave of a credit card and are then delivered into your hand.

Instead of some highly manufactured product, these are specially-designed, just-made treats, made to be relatively easy to consume, and just as good as the best entree in the restaurant that is preparing and providing them.

There once was a chain of automated restaurants that offered such an offering — the Automat — from the early 1900s to the early 1990s. The Automat allowed patrons to serve themselves ready-to-eat hot food using coins to unlock glass compartments that were refilled by servers behind a wall. It was one of the first businesses to popularize automation for the average U.S. consumer.

Technology changes the playing field

Since that time, technology has created new opportunities for a similar concept that will go even further to meet the needs of a new generation of people eating on the run.

I believe today's food preparation and dispensing technology offers an opportunity for restaurants to make their offerings available during off hours. It is also possible to site machines inside of an establishment, perhaps just inside the front door, where those in a hurry will not need to wait for orders.

There are food heating devices now that can bake a baguette, make fries, ramen or a slice of pizza in less than two minutes. There are numerous models of large, refrigerated vending machines with the capacity to heat the food in a built-in microwave oven from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes.

One challenge is customer perception of vend food. There are many people who still regard this system as likely to result in dishes that are not optimally desirable.

This perception will change when freshly prepared food from culinary professionals is made available to the public. This is an opportunity for chefs who are not only proud of the food the prepare, but are interested in putting it before a wider public than those persons who happen to patronize their restaurants.

Challenges remain

It will take some careful management to keep a constant flow of fresh items from the kitchen to the windowed vending compartments. There will need to be someone whose is to keep an eye on the machine and commute to the kitchen as needed.

Meanwhile, for the consumer, the convenience of being able to stop quickly, grab something to munch on immediately or maybe bring home to another appreciative person is profound. Instant gratification is one of our key drives and food is an absolute necessity.

Being able to call ahead and have something special prepared at a specific time to pick up or to be delivered to your location will take convenience to a new level.

Opportunity for restaurants

For restaurants, what better promotion is there than giving people a chance to sample a special selection of their goods, for a reasonable sum, without even having to enter the main dining area?

When I visualize this scenario, I see baked and vegetable and grain-centered products, stews, soups, pastries and pies — new ways to favor the healthiest ingredients and processes. The original Automats featured creamed spinach and other nutritious choices.

In an ideal situation, providing products is accomplished easily, with the kitchen adjacent to the front window. Since it is more usual for the cooking to be done at the back of an establishment, creating an open face to the street will require a design modification in the floor plan.

Creative use of this system might enable existing patrons to serve themselves impulse additions to their meal. Another way of utilizing this opportunity could be the siting of satellite locations, where a vending machine can serve to give travelers and others the chance to sample a restaurant's goods in helping them decide where they might want to travel to have a meal.

From the restaurant's perspective, the technology offers a revolutionary opportunity for chefs.

Many chefs are proud of their creations. Given a chance to show off their skills and taste, most would relish the opportunity to demonstrate their talent by providing some special creations to the general public. Some of these special dishes could even prove their popularity by this means, become signature dishes and find their way into the regular menu.

Restaurant meals can be expensive, and providing potential customers with modest-sized samples of the high quality of the food being served within is both a service to the customer as well as being a recognition of the hard work and deserved pride of the crafters of these healthy delights.

Regardless of the work needed to accomplish this, using this arrangement can offer a way to foster closer relations with the surrounding community, add a new income stream and increase appreciation of a restaurant's fare.

Can the historic Automat revive? Given the advances in technology and the need for customer convenience, I believe that it can.