Since Amazon first introduced its “just walk out” payment technology earlier this year, several other retailers have announced plans for similar platforms.

Source: www.chainstoreage.com

Since Amazon first introduced its “just walk out” payment technology earlier this year, several other retailers have announced plans for similar platforms. Microsoft is testing new technology for an automated checkout experience, working with retail giants like Walmart. Albertsons also announced a pilot program in Texas that creates a checkout-free experience for selected items, such as prepared meals.

What can other retailers learn from the Amazon Go experience?

Sometimes it’s just easier to let people come to you. That seems to be the thinking as Kadabra (previously Veebie) debuts the second generation prototype of its cubby-filled kiosk. Unlike the…

Source: thespoon.tech

“It’s much more sophisticated than our first prototype,” said Sperry. “It’s a fully functional IoT device that can operate without an attendant and is also refrigerated.”

By taking mobility off the table, Perry’s team was able to focus on making a more capable kiosk system that seems almost akin to an Amazon Locker for food. With the new kiosk system, a consumer can order food from local restaurants and have it delivered to the kiosk and then unlock a cubby with their phone. And because the new system is refrigerated, food can be placed into a cubby (called pods) for a much longer period of time.

A new IDC Innovators report profiles four providers that are considered key emerging vendors in the Smart City kiosks market.

Source: www.businesswire.com

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–International Data Corporation (IDC) today published an IDC Innovators report profiling four providers that are considered key emerging vendors in the Smart City kiosks market. The four companies named as IDC Innovators are CIVIQ Smartscapes, Smart City Media, SmartLINK, and Soofa.

Some types of “artisan” bread, for example Italian bread loaves, are first proofed in an oven to cause the dough to rise and then are “scored” on top to create a split in the dough that when baked adds a pleasing crunchiness to the bread.  Scoring has been done by a baker with a knife, …

Source: futura-automation.com

Retailers have been apt at using data to make predictions, like using sales from previous years to estimate next year’s inventory, forecast sales – average cart size and items most often purchased together etc. But today predictive analytics means much more than that.

Source: customerthink.com

McDonald’s, KFC, Panera, and other fast food joints already have robot employees. Experts say that this automation won’t replace human workers. Instead, they say the bots fill a major labor gap in food service.

Source: www.businessinsider.com

The restaurants report that kiosks have also helped both chains expand their delivery. Take-out, Delivery, drive-thru, catering, and other off-premise orders now comprise 62% of Panera’s business— an important new source of revenue, as Business Insider’s Taylor previously reported.

BOSTON — The world’s first restaurant with a robotic kitchen that cooks complex meals has opened. Spyce’s automated kitchen has seven cooking woks able to serve up to 200 meals an hour.The Boston eatery’s menu is based on a half-dozen bowls with flavors t

Source: kpic.com

200 meals an hour is max rate.  Is average restaurant 60 customers and 20 tables. Turnover is 30 minutes?  120 customers?

Essential Retail chats to Pyramid Computer about the digitisation of the hospitality industry.

Source: www.essentialretail.com

Nice interview with Graeme Derby of Pyramid in UK discussing restaurants and adapting to customers.

Private equity bosses took $200m out of Toys R Us and crashed the company, lifetime employees got $0 in severance

Source: boingboing.net

Comments:  They deserve it. Toys r Us and toys.com lowballed the US toy market to sub-zero margins. I was doing contract work at the time with M.W. Kasch, the largest toy wholesaler in the USA, and these guys were selling below cost to capture market share. They lowered margins to zero, then died.

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Typical behavior of "category killers" in the pre-Amazon days. They assumed they could corner the market on select categories, not realizing more-efficient online operations would displace them, especially if they operated warehouse-sized stores and were heavily leveraged.

No department-store chain has embraced technology more aggressively. But will tech help Nordstrom avoid the slump in higher-end retail?

Source: fortune.com

the 47,000-square-foot emporium is also a sophisticated shopping-tech laboratory—one of several where Nordstrom is urgently experimenting with ways to make upscale, high-touch retail more competitive in an e-commerce-driven era. The mazelike layout, spread over three floors, showcases subtle but important technological enhancements. Some are super-practical—such as self-service bins where shoppers can drop off returns (including online purchases) and get credit almost immediately. Others have a wow factor: In the suits section, customers can see how bespoke jackets would look on life-size avatars of themselves, projected on screens, a digital take on the adage, “Measure twice, cut once.” And yet others pamper you: If you’ve “reserved” a product online to try on before you buy, there’ll be a fitting room waiting for you—with your name on the door.