The robots are coming for your jobs. No, really—they are. Popular Mexican fast food chain Chipotle is refining robots to take over the task of making guacamole and salad orders, and it’s taking the prototypes out of the lab and into at least a few restaurants in California.
On September 23, Chipotle announced the decision and said it will monitor feedback to figure out whether to beef up the robot program and roll it out to more locations. California may have been picked as the starting point because of a new law that hiked the wages of fast food workers up to $20 per hour. Businesses fought this initiative by uber-liberal California Governor Gavin Newsom, who promised that it would not cost jobs.
But when wages go up, consumer prices go up, and companies sometimes decide to lay off workers or simply close up shop. Statistics show more than 5,000 fast food worker jobs have been lost already since the new wage law took effect. Shake Shack is just one of several chains that have closed locations in the Golden State because of labor costs.
Chipotle is taking a different, digital route. A press release from the company said the robotic kitchen worker effort is meant to increase efficiency so the chain can continue to give “great hospitality for our guests.”
This is also part of a nationwide trend that is reducing the presence of humans in retail shopping. What was marketed as a health measure during the pandemic—remember how many places boasted of offering “contactless” service—now looks to be taken up as a cost-cutting and staff-cutting measure. More and more convenience stores and fast food outlets have replaced customer service staff with digital kiosks, forcing customers to key in their own orders and bad their own purchases. So far, no such business has offered customers a discount for performing the store’s job.
Of course, Chipotle has not publicly said that the minimum wage hike is behind the robot roll-out, but it’s not hard to connect the concepts. The company had almost $10 billion in revenue last year.
What do the robots do? They assemble “bowls” (this is apparently what salads are called now) by shooting corn, lettuce, and other ingredients into a container.
