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.
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.
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.