

Tablets take waiting out of restaurants: E la Carte on the cover of SF Chronicle - fredliu
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/14/MNQN1MOOOU.DTL

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warmfuzzykitten
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. 

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herval
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_monk
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. 

~~~
ShabbyDoo
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. 

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andyking
_...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?" 

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gerggerg
_"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. 

~~~
herval
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..

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

~~~
herval
most bars and nighclubs ARE there for this purpose :-)

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killbot5000
> and even calculates the tip

Who the hell are you tipping? 

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

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

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greggman
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)

~~~
mixmastamyk
And in California during the same period. 

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ShabbyDoo
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
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. 

------
drewcrawford
> 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. 

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cydonian_monk
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. 

~~~
joezydeco
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_monk
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. 

------
rewind
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. 

~~~
ShabbyDoo
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. 

~~~
rewind
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. 

~~~
ShabbyDoo
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. 

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

~~~
ShabbyDoo
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. 

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bbwharris
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. 

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leak
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. 

~~~
ShabbyDoo
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. 

~~~
leak
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. 

~~~
ShabbyDoo
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. 

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mixmastamyk
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. 

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

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joshu
hooray! ( i'm an investor)

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

