🤔 Cashierless stores could kill Chick-fil-a

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” ― Albert Einstein

In today’s newsletter:

• Cashierless stores could kill Chick-fil-a — And it horror of Jane Austen

• Papers

• Learn

Penses

As I've been writing this series it occurred to me that if some businesses added automation it could kill their business.

And Chick-fil-a ,would be one of those businesses.

When I was younger, I used to work at a Chick-fil-a. All these years later, I still say my pleasure to any thank you said to me. The one thing they taught me was exceptional serve in all circumstances.

I've talked to people about their divorces, retirement, the political decisions of their children, and more.

1. Because I'm southern and talking to a stranger you see regularly who knows your name is just common and polite.

2. Because it was Chick-fil-a and when you give everyone a smile they want to talk to you.

I've personally had extremely bad days and I was like hey, I'm going to Chick-fil-a just to get a smile and a bit of conversation.

I've been at airports and had Chick-fil-a staff clearing my trays away.

A computer. A robot. They can't do that. Not even with all that fake skins they're plastering on them.

Businesses that have built their brand on customer service can't compete with automation. Now, Chick-fil-a has been testing a new drive thru. It's a board that you scan to notify them that you are their instead o having an order take log your mobile entry.

But, I don't know. It's faster, that's true. And if I want my smile, I can go inside. So maybe it will work.

Now McDonald's. They can automate that whole thing and people would probably still get poor service, raw meat, and paper towels in their drinks. ( All true stories told to me my other people. I haven't eaten McDonald's in years. I don't have a death wish.)

Maybe with the brilliant minds reading this newsletter we can find a way to help restaurants as the minimum wage increases that doesn't involve a worse customer experience. We just need people with a much bigger imagination to innovate in the restaurant industry.

Time to freak out at all the cameras and technology coming to a drive thru near you.

See more here.

A longer video:

Paper

Grab: Fast and Accurate Sensor Processing for Cashier-Free Shopping A combination of face trackers and sensors to enable cashierless check out. This implementation supposedly reduces infrastructure cost by 40%. It has robust shopper identification. I’m not sure if we should be crept out or not yet.

Learn

The data science behind speech recognition