Somewhat OT - in Redwood City, it's not unusual to see lines of 3-5 people at each of the two Red Boxes at the seven-eleven on fifth avenue. I'm guessing those two redboxes do more business than the entire Block Buster in downtown RWC based on how fast that line turns over.

Block Buster got squeezed out by automation - At the high end from iTunes and on the Low-End from Netflix/Redbox/Amazon.

Redbox's boost into it's current fame didn't have as much to do with automation as it did with the price and convenience factor.

People were tired of paying $5+ to rent from Blockbuster and get nailed with late fees all the time. Redbox simplified this model ($1/day until you return it). Of course the 24 hour kiosks are a boon too.

I'm starting to see the Seattle's Best Coffee machines (powered by Redbox, image[1]) replacing Starbucks stands inside grocery stores. The machines are way smaller, cost less, and make more consistent coffee. They seem like the younger sister to the "Microsoft Starbucks" machine [2], which are apparently available to anyone buying 4 cases of beans per month.

[1] https://lh3.ggpht.com/-0vJb6GbCYGs/Tn9dFJkPPUI/AAAAAAAAGtE/2...

[2]https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communi...

You probably already know this, but for those who don't Seattle's Best is a Starbucks company --they used to be the brand found in bookstores, when those were popular --now they seem to be the brand SBUX uses for in-store (substore) locations.

Seattle's Best started out as their own company that was then acquired by Starbucks in the 00's sometime. At around the time they were acquired, they became the cafe brand for Borders bookstore, and we all know how that worked out in the end :) B&N has always franchised Starbucks directly in their stores (or at least, for as long as I can remember).

Why is it Microsoft Starbucks? is it in the MS campus? Or running Windows?

I believe they were first introduced inside of Microsoft (in '05 or '06, I think). And it was a huge relief, too, let me tell you. They replaced these awful Farmer Brothers industrial-style coffee urns.

You'd punch in your order (tall drip, decaf, etc.), and it would grind beans and brew your coffee all in about 20 seconds. They're quite spectacular.

They're a simply amazing blessing. You press 3 buttons (cup size, right or left coffee (right is always house blend), then "Start"), and a minute later you have delicious coffee. Anywhere on campus, any time of day or night. The machine does Short (8oz), or a Tall (12oz) which makes a beautiful latte in my 16oz cup with 4oz of milk.

I was asking a question not making a judgement.

Your question about the economics wasn't silly... I was just pointing out that corporations like McDonalds are very unlikely to start spending money on robotics research or rethinking their entire business. It just isn't in their corporate DNA. Whether the economics make sense or not... McDonalds/BurgerKing/TacoBell etc. isn't the one to figure it out.

To support your point:

Burger King, to take an example, probably doesn't give a crap about the restaurant sales at all.

Most of their profit is from franchise fees, not restaurant sales.

Company restaurant revenues in 2011 were 1638.7 million, and company restaurant expenses in 2011 were 1447.4 million. All told, profit from restaurant sales was 191 million.

Franchise fee revenue in 2011 was 697 million, franchise and property expenses 97.1 million. All told, profit from franchise fee revenue was 599.9 million.

Basically, I can't imagine they care if they are franchising restaurants with people, restaurants with robots, or heck, franchising robot boxes themselves.

They only care that someone is paying them to call it burger king, and giving them a cut of sales

I find this comment a bit short sighted. First of all, it's obvious that the burger king org DOES care about restaurant sales, otherwise they would not be advertising constantly. Even if you ignore the contradiction between their actions and your suggestion about their priorities, applying a little logic to the situation will make it clear. If sales aren't good, how many people are going to be making new Burger King franchises? If sales aren't good, will franchises remain in business to pay them fees?

Yes, they do care about restaurant sales, but, IMHO, only to keep franchisees happy.

I still think they'd be just as happy franchising robots. I could be wrong.

At the risk of sounding nit-picky, you did make a judgment: "I have the feeling that, if this sort of idea was as value as the article implies, McDonalds ... would have put serious money into developing this sort of thing and it would already be everywhere."

It was this judgment that I felt super-serial was responding to.

They have them, they call it blockbuster express.