Wow Bao Leverages Vending Machines as Restaurants Rethink Self-Service

As restaurants look to navigate their ongoing labor challenges, many are leveraging the rise of tech-powered ordering channels to create new dining experiences.

Chicago-based Asian-style restaurant brand Wow Bao, for one, which is available via hundreds of virtual locations in addition to a handful of brick-and-mortar stores, is leveraging the vending machine model to drive sales without investing in front-of-house staff or paying delivery service commissions. The brand announced Tuesday (July 12) a partnership with Automated Retail Technologies, making the former’s foods available through the latter’s Just Baked Hot Food vending machines.

“I believe that vending machines are going to start growing in a way that we have not seen for decades,” Wow Bao CEO Geoff Alexander told PYMNTS in an interview. “It seems like the vending machine world is becoming more understood and readily convenient for people to shop at as opposed to, ‘I’m just going to go and get a soda and a candy bar.’”

About one in three consumers are interested in self-service restaurant options, according to data from the May/June 2022 edition of the Digital Divide study, “Digital Divide: Technology, the Metaverse and the Future of Dining Out.” The study, which drew from an April survey of nearly 2,500 U.S. consumers, found that 31% of all consumers and 51% of grab-and-go restaurant customers said ordering through a self-service kiosk had a positive impact on their satisfaction.

Read more: How the Metaverse Is Shaping the Consumer Restaurant Experience

In this self-service-friendly environment, restaurant brands can experiment with forms such as vending machines, which put the entire purchasing journey in consumers’ hands.

“[In] the next six to eight months, based on what’s already in the works, … I hope to see more hot food in vending machines, … and that they’re not just in these deserts of airports and hospitals, but they could be on street corners,” Alexander said.

The New Vending Machine

In recent months, a range of food and beverage (F&B) businesses have been rethinking the vending machine for the age of digital ordering and self-service.

Silicon Valley-based technology company Yo-Kai Express has been debuting autonomous ramen bowl vending machines in the United States and Japan. In a May interview with PYMNTS, the company’s chief operating officer, Amanda Tsung, noted regional variations in adoption.

See more: Consumer Adoption of Food Service Robotics Varies Based on Local Tech Norms

“In Japan, because it is the vending machine Mecca, I do see more participation,” she said. “People are more likely to try it for the first time than compared to the U.S.”

In March, Tortoise, a company that had previously focused on robotic solutions for last-mile delivery for grocery and general retail, announced the launch of its Mobile Smart Stores, effectively automated, roving vending machines.

Read more: Last-Mile Delivery Firm Tortoise Turns to Mobile Vending Machines

Tortoise CEO Dmitry Shevelenko told PYMNTS in an interview at the time that the pivot came after consumers kept approaching the company’s existing robots with the intention of making a purchase.

“When we surveyed them afterwards, what those people all said was, ‘Oh, we thought we could buy something from the robot,’ and as is often the case, your customers are a lot wiser than you are,” he said.

Also in March, Newark, New Jersey-based robotics company RoboBurger announced the launch of its fully autonomous robotic burger chef at a mall in Jersey City, stating there would be more locations to come.

See more: Robotic Burger Machine Launches as Vending Machines Get a Digital Upgrade

Into the Metaverse

In addition to making restaurant food more accessible in physical spaces through initiatives such as these vending machines, Alexander said he is also interested in ways restaurants are making their foods more available in virtual spaces. However, he argued that existing efforts in the space tend to misuse the medium.

“I think there are some very exciting ways that restaurants can become involved in the metaverse,” he said. “Unfortunately, I think that the understanding of that medium is not fully communicated in a way that people can relate to it.”

Research from the July 2022 edition of the Digital Divide study, “The Digital Divide: The Move to the Metaverse, which drew from a May survey of roughly 2,700 U.S. consumers, found that 57% of consumers are at least somewhat interested in the metaverse, and that share rises to 79% for Generation Z and 75% for millennials. Moreover, out of metaverse participants and metaverse-interested consumers, 54% are highly interested in integrating restaurant purchases into their virtual experiences.

Read more: Study Shows Restaurants See Metaverse as New Loyalty Play

Alexander hinted at an upcoming announcement in the weeks ahead.

“There’s a great way to create community; there’s a great way to create loyalty; there’s a great way to create rewards; there’s a great way to create engagement,” he said, “and when we make our announcement for the metaverse, I think we’re going to be able to deliver on all of these different points and do something that has not been done before.”