Um, does the vending machine in question mean the end of fast-food restaurants?
I hope he makes a fortune with this invention. Will we see McDonald’s or other fast food shops start adapting these machines? I can only hope that food sanitation and food quality gets a boost with these devices.
Wait! A thing to make hamburgers and you don’t have to pay it? Isn’t that already the definition of a McDonalds Employee?
I have seen reports of all sorts of machine doing things such as this for years now.
The Automat was a a self-serve food establishment where food was dispensed through doors and there was no wait staff and was started in 1895. It did not shut eliminate the job of waiters and waitresses. TV Dinners, created by Swanson in 1953, did not push restaurants out of business.
Granted, the whole idea behind places like McDonalds is that no matter where in the world you go, you know the quality and taste of the food will be the same. However, if a teak or fettuccine Alfredo tasted the same world wide, eating out would be very boring (ask Sheldon Cooper).
If you ever sat in a train or bus station in the 50’s or 60’s, they had those vending machines that made a fresh cup of chicken soup or a cup of coffee. The think was a unit where the product drop into a pile on a roll of filter paper, hot water would drizzle over the pile and it would drip into the cup for you to take. The problem was that the coffee always has a tinge of chicken soup flavor.
One of the reasons to travel or eat out is to try something prepared a different way. Remember the old saying “Life is like a Restaurant. You never know what you’re gonna get!”.
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MOst likely not. These were round in the early 1900’s
One thing I can say for sure from experience, never and I mean NEVER buy an egg salad sandwich from a vending machine.
I love history but comparing something today to the Automat is silly. Delivering pet food and groceries was a way to go bankrupt in 2000 but in 2025 the giants that do that make a ton of money.
As someone that worked at McDonald’s I look forward to trying out a Roboburger.