The popular "unmanned supermarket" created by Ma Yun and the novel future store of Dicos unmanned restaurant ... The "unmanned mode" entered the catering industry with a strong attitude.

Diners look at this new "smart wave" and can't help asking questions:

"Is the unmanned restaurant really reliable?" "Will the future unmanned catering industry replace the work of waiters?"

This seems to be a controversial topic forever. Today, I will discuss a new meal with you.

First, the "unmanned" wind of the Internet is prevalent.

Recently, in all walks of life, the "unmanned mode" has robbed the limelight.

July 20 17, Alibaba's first unmanned supermarket "Amoy Coffee" was officially unveiled. At present, the shopping process of "Amoy Coffee" is like this: users log in to Taobao account before entering the store, and after entering the payment password, they can order and shop in the store. After picking up the goods, you don't have to queue up for cashier. When you leave the store, you just have to go through the "settlement door" consisting of two doors. When the first door senses the user's departure demand, it will automatically open; After a few seconds, the second goalkeeper was opened. At this point, the deduction has been completed, and the reminder on the side will tell the user, "Alipay will deduct XX yuan."

2065438+At the beginning of August 2007, Dicos Shanghai launched a brand-new unmanned store model.

In this future store of Dicos, in addition to the original ordering table, there is also a row of cupboards in the lobby area. Using this set of self-service meal-taking equipment, Dicos boldly explored and reshaped the process of the front hall, and ordered food, paid for it, took food and ate without the intervention of employees.

These "black technologies" all look beautiful, but is this really the case?

Second, "unmanned" restaurants, will this be the future of the catering industry?

"unmanned restaurant" seems to liberate the manpower of the restaurant, improve the efficiency of the restaurant and save the cost of the restaurant. But this is based on the fact that the technology of payment, ordering, production and other aspects of catering is very mature and the technical cost has been accepted by the public.

The truly complete "unmanned restaurant" has not yet been realized, and it is more like a "gimmick" of restaurant marketing.

The relevant person in charge of Ali said that in the future, "Amoy Coffee" will not become a real unmanned supermarket, and there will still be shopping guides in the supermarket to guide consumption; The prototype of Dicos "unmanned restaurant" The chef of American Eatsa restaurant is still artificial, not a real "unmanned restaurant".

The essence of the catering industry is the service industry, and when people try to turn the waiter from a person into a cold machine, the consequences can be imagined.

"Unmanned restaurant" has really entered the hearts of customers and become the trend of future development. There are three mountains ahead.

1, the related technology is not yet mature.

At present, all the "unmanned" modes are only realized without cashiers, waiters, buyers and chefs.

From a technical point of view, in addition to providing standardized products, "unmanned" has no perfect solution to provide services such as changing the taste of dishes, solving customer complaints, cleaning up leftovers, and personalized needs of customers. If all dining links are "unmanned" instead of labor, the cost of technology development and maintenance will actually far exceed the labor cost.

2. The retrogression of user experience and emotional communication.

After the consumption upgrade, the proportion of young customers is getting higher and higher. For customers, eating in restaurants is no longer just to satisfy their appetite, but also has social and entertainment functions, and spiritual comfort and pleasure have become more concerned.

In this sense, "unmanned mode" is actually a retrogression of service. The efficiency of "unmanned" is for catering enterprises, but for customers, the lack of communication can not make them feel the benefits of "unmanned mode", but will reduce the quality of their dining experience.

3. "unmanned restaurant" Chinese style "acclimatized"

In the catering industry, there have always been two modes: X theory and Y theory.

Theory X refers to the highly programmed execution of production and business processes, with very clear rules and reward and punishment mechanisms. American restaurant chain enterprises usually focus on X theory, such as KFC, McDonald's and Starbucks. These enterprises are characterized by rapid expansion and high standardization.

Theory Y refers to stimulating employees' enthusiasm for production with humanization, based on the consistency of personal ideas and goals with the team, with humanized management system as the core, without clear reward and punishment mechanism, and all based on personal concept of honor and disgrace. In Japan, most enterprises take Y theory as their management core.

And China? From the perspective of management mode, most restaurants in China still adopt Y-style management mode. For example, Haidilao has been imitated and never surpassed, and the brand development is far ahead with humanized management; From the characteristics of dishes, China people's favorite Chinese food, snacks and other categories often attach great importance to the chef's "skills", and chefs with "skills" will cherish the warmth and care in food, which also makes catering enterprises unable to simply replace the important role of "manpower" in restaurant management.

In the final analysis, "unmanned restaurants" and traditional restaurants are not the relationship between substitution and substitution, but the whole catering industry may exist at the same time. Just like even if humans invented AlphaGo, they would still like to enjoy the top-level confrontation between chess players. Machines ultimately serve human beings, not replace them. "Intelligent restaurant" is an important proposition for many restaurants in the future. Intelligentization can help diners manage more scientifically and provide customers with faster and better services. But no matter how smart, as a place for people to communicate, people's emotional expression will never be replaced by cold machines.