Episode 174: Pandemic Hastens Arrival of Restaurant Robots

Of all the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the labor model, one of the more lasting ones may be the acceleration of the adoption of technology. White Castle is aggressively experimenting with a robot named, “Flippy” that can handle a lot of the back of the house duties. We’ll discuss what this could mean going forward. And speaking of labor, the pandemic may have also but the nail in the coffin of the no-tipping movement. This week, Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group pulled the plug on their no-tipping policy and instead will move to a more traditional tip sharing model. We’ll take a look at how that will impact the national conversation on tips. We’ll have those stories and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.