The Digital Restaurant

Taco Bell just launched a “Name Your Price” feature in their app! (And it’s genius) The tech lets users set the max price they want to spend, then Taco Bell will build a cart of random combos to fit the bill. And don’t worry, if you don’t like your combo, you can refresh the cart for a new one! With dozens of items to choose from, it can get overwhelming to find the right mix of items you want within your budget (AKA - Analysis Paralysis). This will likely not only increase Taco Bell’s average order value, but also the conversion rate of online pickup. What do you think? Who will build this for the masses? It’s only a matter of time before big DTC brands take advantage of this.

"It is much easier to structure the data correctly from the beginning than to retrofit your systems to talk to each other." "For a Digital Restaurant, a guest's experience of the restaurant is the digital experience. They may never speak to one of your employees. Your digital experience has to be great." "When you make the ordering experience great, your sales will go up. But if you don't also fix the kitchen throughput and fulfillment, your wait times will also go up. Your product is not just the food, it is the entire experience from ordering through to delivery. With all the data is one place, you can make the entire experience great." "You need to instrument the kitchen to collect the data you'll need later. Our software is designed to collect the data of what's actually happening in the kitchen, which enables us to use machine learning to help the kitchen operate smoothly. Our goal is to make employees' jobs easier. the technology we use to do that should be invisible to them." -Brian Howenstein of Empower Delivery at the #qsrevolutionconference Brian knows what he's talking about. Together with Dan McFadden he's built a system that puts all ordering, cooking and fulfillment data in one place. This unified architecture enables the promise of #ai in the #restaurant industry: personalization, ecommerce metrics, 100% known guests, real-time quote times, better kitchen throughput, and cheaper, better delivery.

Love this article from Alicia Kelso at Nation's Restaurant News. She shows with #restaurant performance data what Carl Orsbourn and I wrote about in Delivering The Digital Restaurant: Your Roadmap to the Future of Food Chapter 2: Our Tastes Are Changing. The rate of legal immigration to the United States doubled between 1970 & 2020. Within that population, immigrants themselves got more diverse. In the 1960's, immigrants to the US were 67% European. Today, just 13% come from Europe. This diversity adds so much to our shared culture. All these new Americans are bringing their diverse culinary traditions with them and teaching the entire country - and especially younger generations - how to eat differently. Can existing restaurants change fast enough to keep up with more adventurous eaters? Or will new restaurants rise to fill the demand for more diverse foods? Based on Alicia's article, it seems to be the latter. https://lnkd.in/gNkCGFmf

Shots fired..... Are drones safe from using the airspace of residential land without approval for drone deliveries? Will such a risk hinder the airspace delivery channel, or is this where regulation will be required to enable this emerging channel of logistical efficiency? Mr. Winn, the 72-year-old real estate owner, reported that the drone was invading his land's private airspace. Walmart, undertaking some test deliveries, had yet to ask Mr Winn for permission to fly through his land. $2500 of damage was incurred as Mr. Winn's aim wasn't in question after he shot at the drone. It begs an interesting question. How would you feel if a random drone from one of your neighbors' gardens hovered over you and your family this upcoming holiday weekend? I suspect you may feel your privacy is somewhat intruded upon. These issues may become more common in the years ahead, and it will be interesting to see where regulators have to get involved - but to what extent and how will permitting delay the ability to drive cheaper and more efficient deliveries (via mass volume) to our homes. Wing Nathaniel M. https://lnkd.in/gh-AmKPC