It'd be larger if wealth inequality werent so staggeringly high.

The first automated-server restaurants (Horn and hardart) appeared in the 1930s during the depression. They were popular because they were cheap.

Far from being the wave of the future, they went out of business in the 1950s when people started having disposable income.

Part of the reason we accept slop, impersonal service and mass produced crud is not because "demand" is indifferent to it, but because disposable income is so often politically repressed, meaning the market is forced to prioritize price.

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lotsofpulp 3 days ago | parent [-]

I have doubts on the quality and how automated a 1930s restaurant could have been.

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ac29 3 days ago | parent [-]

They are talking about automating the serving process, not the cooking process.

Specifically, you can read about Automats, which were basically early vending machines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat

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lotsofpulp 3 days ago | parent [-]

I don’t understand how this could materially reduce costs compared to current restaurants where you order on the screen and pick up your tray at the counter when your name/number is called.

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pydry 2 days ago | parent [-]

They dont. Theyre equivalent to those on screen menus that have been around since ~2015.

The point is that the automation of the customer service part of restaurants existed before and disappeared for ~60 years.

	▲	lotsofpulp 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		That automation was nowhere near equivalent to today’s automation.