Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

denny's

The Media Was Fascinated with a TikTok Video of a Robot at Denny’s. Here’s What it Means.

Maybe it was a slow news week. Perhaps it was the sight of pancakes hitching a ride on a robot at America’s late-night diner. Whatever the reason, it seemed like every news organization wrote the same story about a TikTok video of server-robot showing up to dish out breakfast at a Denny’s.

They all had a variant of the same headline: “Viral Video of Robot at Denny’s Sparks Debate.” From there, the authors sifted through comments made by TikTok viewers, some cheering the idea of faster service and lower tips, others angry about a robot stealing a job.

While the sudden interest in a social media post about a server robot may say as much about the modern media landscape as it does about the use of robotics at restaurants, the reality is Denny’s deploying robots is kind of a big deal. After all, as America’s most famous 24-hour diner, Denny’s holds a special place in our collective consciousness, a place where almost anyone can get a cheap meal as well as apply for – and often get – a job.

And it’s these two things that Denny’s represents – a place with affordable food and an employer of everyday Americans – that seemed to be in tension with one another when looking at both the comments on the video on TikTok as well as the framing by the media.

Media coverage of robotics in food service has been evolving over the past year, with news organizations going from gee-whiz articles about a cool new novelty to increasingly viewing the use of robotics as a direct result of hiring difficulties due to the pandemic. Of course, this new framing isn’t altogether wrong, as hiring has been difficult. Still, the reality is a bit more nuanced and has as much to do with fast-changing restaurant industry business models and changing consumer eating patterns as it does with hiring difficulties.

No matter the reason, the wider arrival of robotics at Denny’s and restaurant chains is raising the profile of these solutions and looks to be sparking a broader conversation about the impact of automation on the experience and the livelihoods of those in the service industry. This increased spotlight will also likely mean a more jaded framing of food robotics by the media, much like we’ve seen when it comes to their coverage of social media and privacy. While this isn’t necessarily a wrong reaction – it’s the media’s job to be skeptical – a pendulum swing is something the industry should be prepared for.

For the average consumer, the use of robots remains a curiosity. There hasn’t been – at least not yet – a rise of an organized Luddite anti-automation reaction to food robotics. However, the passion in some of the comments on TikTok could be the canary in the coalmine signaling one may be on the way.

As for companies like Bear Robotics – the provider of Denny’s server robot – business just continues to grow. I checked in with Bear Robotics COO Juan Higueros on how the Denny’s rollout is going.

“They have moved fairly quickly,” he said.

According to Higueros, it’s the operators on the front lines who are looking for answers. “What’s interesting is that this is a bottom-up movement by franchise owners that are really pulling for our solution.”

You can watch the TikTok video that sparked the conversation last week below.

@miabellaceo

Early morning breakfast at Denny’s I did give the server hot apple pie mini melt sample..

♬ original sound – Bob

Denny’s Off-Premises Sales Have Almost Doubled Thanks to the Pandemic

Denny’s announced on its Q2 earnings call this week that average weekly sales for off-premises orders have almost doubled since the start of the pandemic, from $4,000/week in February to $7,900/week in July.

Like other restaurants that have historically been known for their in-dining room experiences, Denny’s found itself having to quickly pivot when the pandemic hit. Speaking on the call, John C. Miller, CEO of the Spartanburg, S.C.-based chain, outlined the ways in which his company has adapted to the changes.

Those efforts included continued focus on Denny’s long-established Denny’s on Demand platform, which allows guests to place online orders for pickup and delivery. (The chain’s menu is available through most of the major third-party delivery services.) Like others, it also added curbside pickup and, once stay-at-home restrictions began to loosen, converted areas of its parking lots and sidewalks into outdoor seating.

The reinvention of the restaurant menu is another common theme to emerge from this pandemic. And by reinvention, I mean pared down selections that allow kitchens to work more efficiently. Denny’s was no exception here, having streamlined its own menu to focus on its most popular items, and offering family-style bundles, as well.

If Denny’s story of off-premises orders saving the day sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the state of most major restaurant chains the U.S. right now. McDonald’s said it made 50 operating changes to get “pandemic ready,” many of them around digital ordering and off-premises orders. Starbucks, which saw one of its toughest quarters so far, is completely overhauling some traditional sit-down locations and turning them into to-go-centric stores. 

Denny’s itself has permanently closed some of its sit-down locations due to “unforeseeable business circumstances prompted by COVID-19.”

“This quarter has proven to be one of the most difficult quarters this country and especially the full-service restaurant industry has ever seen,” Miller said on the call. And there’s no telling what Q3 will look like, since the state of the restaurant industry changes practically every day and full recovery is dependent in part on the trajectory of the pandemic.

Week in Restaurants: Regulators Are Coming for Delivery, Denny’s and Yelp Team Up

Happy Valentine’s Day, food techies. If you haven’t run away to Las Vegas yet to get hitched at a Denny’s, there’s still time.

But speaking of Denny’s, the chain announced a new pilot with Yelp this week. Elsewhere in the restaurant world, Subway is now using Olo’s technology to handle delivery orders, and if you want more intel on the demise of Zume’s vision for mobile pizza kitchens, read on.

Yelp Pilots a New Feature to Measure In-Store Visits

Yelp this week launched Yelp Store Visits, a metric meant to help restaurants and other stores measure how online activity on Yelp drives customer visits to physical locations. The opt-in tool is available to businesses with multiple locations and meant to help them increase foot traffic to their physical stores. The company also introduced Showcase Ads, which lets multi-unit brands highlight special deals and promotions via video ads to Yelp users. Denny’s piloted both tools in 2019 and saw positive results. 

Subway and Olo Partner for Integrated Delivery

Subway announced a partnership with Olo to integrate digital orders directly into its POS system, making it easier for the sandwich chain to process and fulfill off-premises orders coming from multiple sales channels. With Olo’s technology, orders coming from third-party services like Grubhub or Postmates go directly into the restaurant’s main POS system, removing the need for an employee to manually input the information into the ticket stream and lowering the risk of human error when it comes to order accuracy.

Regulation Is Coming for Third-party Delivery

It’s no secret that people are getting fed up with third-party delivery services’ Wild West tactics. Now regulators are stepping in, proposing legislation meant to check some of the practices companies like DoorDash and Grubhub employ that often don’t seem to benefit anyone but themselves. This week alone, California and Rhode Island introduced legislation, and Nation’s Restaurant News rounded up a few more states that are also taking third-party delivery to task, which could change the way the model operates in future. Read the full list here.

Inside the Fall of Zume’s Robot Pizza Delivery

Zume, a startup famous for its pizza-making robots, made headlines in January when it announced it was laying off 360 staff members and facing challenges securing more funding from investor Softbank. What happened to the once-promising startup? An article from Bloomberg Businessweek goes into the details of the startup’s evolution and how it landed in its current predicament.

Week in Restaurants: Moe’s Goes Digital, Denny’s Adds Pay-at-the-Table Features

Some weeks are all about the incremental developments. Such has been the case over the last few days, with much of the news in the restaurant-tech space about chains adding new tools and features to their digital-focused operations. As the weekend sets in, here are a few more of those developments. 

Moe’s Southwest Grill Plans Digital-First Locations
Joining the growing number of restaurant chains experimenting with off-premises-focused store formats, Moe’s Southwest Grill announced this week it will launch its first-ever “all-digital/kiosk-only” locations in the first quarter of 2020, one in Pittsburgh, PA and the other in Charlottesville, VA. Each store will be equipped with four self-order kiosks and accept cash, Apple Pay, and, for, University of Pittsburgh students, university credit cards. Both locations will also offer limited in-house seating and one traditional cash register.

Denny’s Adds Pay-at-the-Table Feature
Denny’s, beloved pit stop of roadtrippers everywhere, plans to add tabletop devices in its restaurants that allow customers to pay for their meal, rather than having to wait for a server to run a credit card. The Spartanburg, S.C.-based chain has teamed up with restaurant tech company Presto, whose partners also include Applebee’s, Red Lobster, and Outback Steakhouse, among others. An initial deployment of Presto tablets at Denny’s is slated for 2020, and guests will be able to pay, complete feedback surveys, and access loyalty points on the devices. As of now, they will not be able to order food. 

Now You Can Reorder Your Favorite Chipotle Meal With Alexa
Chipotle added a little extra beef to its existing Alexa efforts this week by announcing a reorder skill for the device that functions just as it sounds. Customers download the Alexa app, enable the Chipotle skill, link up their Chipotle profile, and say something like “Alexa, tell Chipotle to reorder my favorite for delivery.” While a very incremental development in the world of restaurant tech, as voice-enabled technologies improve and become more integral to the order process, we’ll see more restaurant chains offering similar functions for repeat customers.

DoorDash May Go for a Direct Stock Listing Instead of an IPO
There have been plenty of rumors about DoorDash’s IPO, which we first heard rumblings about in August. But according to Bloomberg, DoorDash many now opt for a direct stock listing, which would allow it to enter the public markets without incurring the burden of investor pressures that go hand-in-hand with IPOs. This is an approach both Slack and Spotify took when they entered the public markets, and it’s one that lets companies save on bank fees. Whether this is the better approach for food delivery companies, who continue to struggle with the problem of becoming profitable businesses, remains to be seen.

Cracker Barrel Ramps Up Delivery Efforts, Off-Premises Ordering

Cracker Barrel announced on its earnings call this week the “continued expansion of [its] off-premise business.” In particular, that includes expanding its catering business and also ramping up its efforts around third-party delivery.

The Lebanon, TN-based chain might be a fixture along highway exits across the country, but where off-premises ordering is concerned, it’s been slow to adopt, having only recently started testing a third-party delivery program in a few locations. Tests are reportedly “going well,” and Cracker Barrel is looking to roll out delivery to about 170 stores over the next few months, and have third-party delivery available in 400 of Cracker Barrel’s 650-plus locations.

The company is also adjusting its menu to accommodate off-premises, and Cracker Barrel says it hopes its new bone-in fried chicken offering will boost orders in this area. As any good southerner knows, fried chicken is best eaten a little while after cooking, not as soon as it leaves the fryer. That makes it an ideal food item in a delivery world where food sits for some minutes as it travels to your house. And as we’ve discussed before, food that gets better with delivery could be a differentiating factor for restaurants as more and more restaurants join the race.

Cracker Barrel has not yet disclosed which services it will partner with when it rolls out its delivery efforts nationwide.

The company also continues to focus on its catering business, which has been in place for years. Off-premises catering is expected to continue growing over the next year, particularly in the B2B catering realm. To meet demand, Cracker Barrel has added catering managers at some locations and is also testing catering-specific items.

The focus on off-premises is part of the Southern food chain’s ongoing plan to bolster lagging sales and fix some operational issues, including increased costs due to construction of new stores, a new POS system, and the new fried chicken, which requires new kitchen equipment. The company reported two consecutive quarters of positive same-store sale growth on this week’s earning’s call, and also noted higher check averages.

As far as delivery is concerned, Cracker Barrel may be onto something with its new fried chicken offering. The company is a little late to the delivery game, compared to other “classic” family chains (Bob Evans, Denny’s, and IHOP all deliver extensively). Experimenting with which foods travel well (chicken) versus those best left on a plate (cooked carrots, IMO), could be one way for the chain to ensure higher quality food that’s worth paying a delivery fee for. Cracker Barrel has a lot of loyal followers and a decent mobile app, but so do a lot of restaurants. Truly good food that keeps its southern roots but translates to the delivery era, on the other hand, could be a game changer.