You say that, but cafeterias and automats are usually wholly impersonal mass produced garbage like fast food in another wrapper. That’s what they were when they were new, a la carte prison food. They would bet slammed for not being authentic enough for some reason.
Sure, but fresh food is perishable, making this a more expensive prospect. Economies of scale doesn’t apply to a flat line of food waste. Fruits and veg only have so many days before they go off.
Chipotle used to be the single-cuisine version of exactly this, and look what happened to it. Chopt does all fresh veg and over 25 years only has 70 locations. And neither of these things are cheap.
I’d have no problem with that, of course. But that would do best in bigger cities, and there’s always going to be a significant advantage to knowing how to DIY. Specialization is for insects, never de-skill willingly.
What we want are cafeterias and automats.
What we get are finely crafted artisan pasta experiences, and empty closed buildings, but nothing in between.
You say that, but cafeterias and automats are usually wholly impersonal mass produced garbage like fast food in another wrapper. That’s what they were when they were new, a la carte prison food. They would bet slammed for not being authentic enough for some reason.
But I don’t want garbage. I want inauthentic mass-produced healthy food - economies of scale.
Sure, but fresh food is perishable, making this a more expensive prospect. Economies of scale doesn’t apply to a flat line of food waste. Fruits and veg only have so many days before they go off.
Chipotle used to be the single-cuisine version of exactly this, and look what happened to it. Chopt does all fresh veg and over 25 years only has 70 locations. And neither of these things are cheap.
I’d have no problem with that, of course. But that would do best in bigger cities, and there’s always going to be a significant advantage to knowing how to DIY. Specialization is for insects, never de-skill willingly.