"Bro just pay people more": Internet in disbelief as White Castle and Chipotle are spending $500,000 a month on robots

Major fast-food companies such as White Castle and Chipotle are utilizing robots to greet customers, flip hamburgers, and brew coffee at a fraction of the expense of hiring human employees.

Similar to how 1,200 Starbucks stores have $18,000 AI-powered espresso machines, at least 100 White Castle locations are now testing the Flippy robot. Additionally, Chipotle is utilizing a one-armed robot to manufacture tortilla chips at 73 locations.

As the news made it to the internet, netizens had varied reactions to it. One Twitter user, @trillvillhou, wrote:

"Bro just pay people more"

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Netizens express their disbelief at how Chipotle and White Castle are handling labor shortages with the help of robots

According to a recent National Restaurant Association survey, since the COVID-19 epidemic hit in 2020, four out of five operators have been operating with insufficient staffing.

At 100 sites, White Castle is putting the Flippy robot to the test. Every day, this robotic arm flips hundreds of hamburgers and fries on a number of menu items. Interestingly, one robot has a monthly cost of $3,000. David Henkes, director of restaurant research firm Technomics, said:

“I think that lot of experimentation will let us somewhere at some point, but we’re still a labor-intensive, labor-intensive industry.”

However, experts are not entirely convinced and think it will be a while before robots completely replace human employment.

Expressing similar sentiments, Twitteratis also took to the platform to express their opinion on the matter, with the majority of the users talking about low salaries being a contributing factor to the rising labor shortage problem. Meanwhile, other people used this opportunity to create memes to comment on the hilarity of the situation.

Earlier, Starbucks had installed more than $21 million worth of Deep Brew-enabled, AI-powered espresso equipment. Despite not being able to create cups of coffee, robots can now combine brews more precisely and quickly than human baristas.

The drive-thru lanes at the café have also been upgraded with the same software, which reduces the need for staff members at each location by greeting and taking orders from customers.

California-based Miso Robotics is a significant supplier to the sector. Every day, their Flippy food processor can prepare 300 burgers and hundreds of baskets of fries for frying. The company asserts that its technology prepares food 30% more effectively and twice as quickly as human labor.

Major US fast food businesses like White Castle, Jack in the Box, Inspire Brands (the parent company of Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby's, and Sonic), Wings and Rings, and Wing Zone use Flippy 2, the company's most cutting-edge model.

White Castle said in 2022 that it had added Flippy 2 at 100 locations, whereas the majority of these restaurants only had one or two locations with Flippy. The second-generation Flippy is capable of frying everything on the menu in addition to flipping hundreds of burgers per day.

Flippy 2, launched by Miso Robotics! (Image via Miso Robotics)

Chipotle utilizes another $3,000 per month tortilla-making machine called Chippy (seen in the back of this test kitchen) at one of its restaurants. In a California Chipotle restaurant, this robot produces tortillas.

Miso Robotics built Chippy with Chipotle's formula of using corn dough flour, water and sunflower oil, a touch of salt, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice after cooking. This helped them ensure that Chippy makes the best tortilla chips.