Its much more expensive to have human restaurant staff, and fundamentally doesn't matter if you're willing to admit it or not but dating and "conspicuous consumption" already drives those expenses. Unless you've never gone on a date fancier than a picnic or perhaps McDonalds and then bragged about it to friends...
The startup lesson for today is the first SUCCESSFUL game changing industry altering automated restaurant is going to sell $500 steaks out of a vending machine not $0.50 hamburgers. And its not solely because of simple marketing buzz either. It needs to be the most expensive place in the market. Look at peapod, by far the most expensive possible way to get a bag of cheetos in my cabinet, even though its probably the cheapest to supply (aka the most profitable way). The ipod did not succeed because it was the cheapest player on the shelf at walmart.
The startup lesson for today is the first SUCCESSFUL game changing industry altering automated restaurant is going to sell $500 steaks out of a vending machine not $0.50 hamburgers. And its not solely because of simple marketing buzz either. It needs to be the most expensive place in the market. Look at peapod, by far the most expensive possible way to get a bag of cheetos in my cabinet, even though its probably the cheapest to supply (aka the most profitable way). The ipod did not succeed because it was the cheapest player on the shelf at walmart.