Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/14/MNQN1MOOOU.DTL

by fredliu • 15 years ago

76 51 15 years ago

herval9• 15 years ago

With all the Android (and the iPad) options out there, why do they have to roll out their own tablet hardware at all? (besides the obvious "because it's rugged" answer, which could obviously be solved with a case on any other tablet)

cydonian_monk3• 15 years ago

No reason you couldn't do both, and just have the smartphone app interface with the same system the in-house tablets do. (And not everyone will leave a smartphone.)

Menu systems are simple, and don't need much in the way of processing power. They don't need to be full-featured web browsers, or be able to run high-end games. An e-Ink screen would be enough for most places. This approach even makes sense from a recycling point of view - just use screens from old iPads or Kindles for the in-house tablets.

herval9• 15 years ago

pushing out your own hardware costs more than just building software for a widespread platform...

Another fine example: the Kno

ShabbyDoo10• 15 years ago

The value in high-end processing is the multimedia upsell. Replacing a paper menu doesn't require much processing power, but it's worth a lot to increase the check average and/or improve margins by promoting higher margin items.

fredliu2• 15 years ago

I guess ordering dishes out of your own Android/iPhone feels more like ordering a take-out instead of a sit-in? I think e la carte is intended to offer more on enhanced dining experience, rather than just an easy way to pay for your dinner.

herval9• 15 years ago

I didn't mean the CUSTOMER's tablet/phone, I meant buying tablets (or making the restaurant buy them) instead of manufacturing your own

joezydeco4• 15 years ago

Then the tablet is just a menu. The companies that I have seen working on this kind of product are adding card swipe readers and printers to expedite payment. Otherwise you're still waiting for a server to take your card and come back with a receipt.

That, and you need better signature capture.

herval9• 15 years ago

I've seen companies working in this area for years too (my first company actually WORKED with this - for palm devices :-)) - my question was just about that product in specific and it's tie in to a proprietary hardware piece.

herval9• 15 years ago

By the way, I don't think you need a better signature capture. You need to GET RID OF SIGNATURES, like they do already in a lot of countries... :-)

cydonian_monk3• 15 years ago

I can't think of a way to complement this with out pointing out the obviousness of it. Good job and good timing!

In a way I'm surprised the large chains haven't already started to use customer-facing touch screen ordering, especially with the huge bump paper and printing costs went through several years ago.

joezydeco4• 15 years ago

McDonald's has been testing self-service kiosks on-and-off since at least 2004. There must be some barrier to adoption that's holding it back.

That, plus most quick service restaurants do a majority of their business in the drive-through now. Ever see a line of cars out to the street and then go inside the store? Empty counters.

cydonian_monk3• 15 years ago

True, and there's an element of the McDonalds crowd that would be uncomfortable with touchscreens. I was thinking chains like Luby's, Bob Evans, Applebees, etc, more than fast food. There's a labor issue at work here, too. You're not cutting into labor with sit-down restaurants like you are with fast food. Just making the existing labor more efficient.

ShabbyDoo10• 15 years ago

A McDonald's outside of Orlando was experimenting with self-ordering in 2003. I saw it in action when I was working on a tablets-at-the-table start-up. It worked well. In the Midwest, Sheetz "gas station" (quotes because it's so much more) has done self-ordering for years using a system from Radiant Systems.

cgag• 15 years ago

Wawa (covenience store that also sold sandwiches like subway) was using touch screens for ordering since at least 03 or 04. It was great and I've wanted to see it used everywhere since then, I agree that it's surprising it's not already widespread.

ShabbyDoo10• 15 years ago

Casual dining chains are very scared of change. Deciding to feature a different sandwich in the most prominent sections of their menus is what they consider a huge decision. All execs believe that their customer service experience is much better than in reality. So, they compare their "ideal selves" to the experience of using a tablet and cringe in horror. Also, most folks managing in the restaurant industry came up through the ranks, so they've all self-selected into an extroverted, interaction-intensive occupation. Their views don't mirror those of Americans as a whole.

killbot5000• 15 years ago

> and even calculates the tip

Who the hell are you tipping?

robbed• 15 years ago

The person that brings you your food and takes away your plates?

fletchowns• 15 years ago

+ all the other people they have to tip out to like the host, bussers, etc

sown• 15 years ago

Didn't Nolan Bushnell try something similar to this in Mountain View not long ago?

leak3• 15 years ago

Yeh, uWink. I think it went bankrupt.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UWink

ShabbyDoo10• 15 years ago

He seemed to be focused on the idea that people would want to play games on the tablet -- nevermind that handheld game machines existed before he even opened.

andyking• 15 years ago

...prefers to order his lunch from a computer rather than a server.

This sentence confused me momentarily. "Hmm. Isn't a server just a type of computer?"

joshu• 15 years ago

hooray! (i'm an investor)

gerggerg2• 15 years ago

"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's a better idea that I'm a give you all for free. Near field communication with cellphones and a chip in the table. Open up my payment app, close and pay for the check with my cellphone. Put a few bucks tip on the table and leave like it's the old days before credit cards.

herval9• 15 years ago

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..

gerggerg2• 15 years ago

Maybe at a bar or restaurant specifically for this purpose but at most places it wouldn't fly / would be useless.

samtp• 15 years ago

Great, now all restaurants can have the ambiance/experience of a Sheetz or Wawa gas station!

warmfuzzykitten• 15 years ago

Anything would be better than sitting at your table waiting for your waiter to wander by so you can ask for the check, then wait to get it, then wait for the waiter to come back for your credit card, then wait for the stupid slip of paper you sign that nobody will ever look at.

badbandit• 15 years ago

I'd prefer if people like this just stayed inside and did not have to interact with the rest of us normal humans...

rewind2• 15 years ago

Most people don't notice good service; they notice bad service. For any restaurant that already has good servers and good training, this type of thing will destroy the flow of service and the interaction between guests and servers.

ShabbyDoo10• 15 years ago

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.

rewind2• 15 years ago

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.

leak3• 15 years ago

I don't go to a restaurant just to eat. It's a social event. I go to hang out with friends, people watch, and just be around people. You can order in if you really hate human interaction that much.

ShabbyDoo10• 15 years ago

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.

leak3• 15 years ago

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.

ShabbyDoo10• 15 years ago

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.

Ankur84• 15 years ago

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.

bbwharris• 15 years ago

All 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.

drewcrawford• 15 years ago

> 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.

greggman• 15 years ago

This 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)

mixmastamyk2• 15 years ago

And in California during the same period.

mixmastamyk2• 15 years ago

Reminds me of Uwink, a restaurant based on this kind of idea. I enjoyed going there and the place was always busy but I guess it wasn't successful enough to survive.

Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle

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