It seems to be that the primary driver is an aversion to social interactions but a desire to have the food. I wonder if vending machines could make a come back, hah.
In all seriousness - are there vending machines that serve warm food in the USA? I know these exist in Japan, but have never seen one in SF, NYC, Boston or Chicago (not that I checked every inch in those places).
An interesting idea would be to use statistics to find out what categories of food are popular at specific complexes (apartment or housing) at specific times. Then restaurants could bid to get space to put prepared food in the "mystical vending machines" at the predicted quantity with the predicted types of foods that would sit well.
Then you don't even need your food to be delivered. Just go to the thing and get it. Done.
I suspect it has more to do with trying to serve “all hours” without the associated staffing costs - an American example used to be rest stops before everything went 24hr. They used to have soup dispensing machines and more.
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It seems to be that the primary driver is an aversion to social interactions but a desire to have the food. I wonder if vending machines could make a come back, hah.
In all seriousness - are there vending machines that serve warm food in the USA? I know these exist in Japan, but have never seen one in SF, NYC, Boston or Chicago (not that I checked every inch in those places).
An interesting idea would be to use statistics to find out what categories of food are popular at specific complexes (apartment or housing) at specific times. Then restaurants could bid to get space to put prepared food in the "mystical vending machines" at the predicted quantity with the predicted types of foods that would sit well.
Then you don't even need your food to be delivered. Just go to the thing and get it. Done.
Automated vending machine shops were around in the 1950 https://www.thoughtco.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-automat-4...
I'd like to understand why Japan has a vending machine culture. I would guess it's regulatory, but it might be crime related.
I suspect it has more to do with trying to serve “all hours” without the associated staffing costs - an American example used to be rest stops before everything went 24hr. They used to have soup dispensing machines and more.
I don't think you'll ever be able to get the requisite quality required to pull this off.