Hacker News Reader

Comment by devit | Hacker News Reader

Nice, maybe we can start embracing more sensible ways of feeding people that the ridiculously inefficient restaurant model with cooks, servers, individual food choice and individual tables.

View on HN

Yes, soylent green for everyone. In the meantime, we should also destroy most of side-projects in github (heck, developers are using electricity while doing these non sensible projects), probably also kill youtube and facebook, and even commenting here in HN. Think of the server electricity bills we will save.

Just because you don't enjoy something, don't be so happy for others misfortune please. For some going to restaurants are their highlights of the week and for the people working there, their paychecks

I read a article pre-covid about a restaurant owner in SF who'd closed her sit-down, full service restaurant and opened a counter-service/takeout restaurant instead. Less staff, less overhead, more customers, and she felt it was a better model for everyone involved.

Even before Covid, the sit down restaurant service with it's hostess and waiters and 3 course menus seemed to be going the way of the movie theater. Who has time, who has energy, and who wouldn't be just as happy getting Doordash and eating in the comfort of their home and probably watching a movie at the same time? Fewer and fewer people it turns out.

I would much rather eat at s restaurant. The food hasn't gotten cold, and it just feels like a completely different experience

I like eating in restaruants but it just doesn't happen very often. Mostly when I do (did) it's lunch with coworkers. Otherwise - while on vacation or maybe the oddball anniversary dinner, but not much else. I doubt I'm paying their bills.

I mean, OK? But other people are: restaurants collectively were booming before the pandemic[0]. And even in the midst of a pandemic, many people are still going out to them!

I think your anecdata is heavy on the anecdote and light on the data.

0: https://www.nrn.com/sales-trends/us-restaurant-sales-reach-r...

> sit down restaurant service ... seemed to be going the way of the movie theater ... who wouldn't be just as happy ... in the comfort of their home and probably watching a movie

Well, I'm just one data point, but I vastly prefer going out for dinner (and sitting down, getting a menu, having a waiter) and going in person to a movie theater to doing those things in my same-old living room that I see every night. I don't know just how in the minority I am, but there are some of us who think it's worth the extra money you pay to have the experience.

My family and I have been going to movie theaters as a weekly family outing for a long time (pre-covid), and I have always enjoyed that. You just don't get the same experience from home.

That's great, until Doordash or Uber eats is having server problems. (Like Uber eats is in my area. Right now. When we're having an online lunch meeting, and the management bought everyone lunch for the meeting in the form of Uber Eats vouchers, and several people cannot get their food because the drivers can't talk to the servers for a couple of hours so far.)

Who has time? I do, when I'm on a date. Takeout isn't the same. (When you're married, you can get takeout and take it home, but that's... kind of lame.)

Also, when it's bad weather (hot/cold/rainy), takeout leaves me with the question of where I'm going to go to eat it. Not to the park when it's 35 degrees (whether Farenheit or Celsius). In my car? That gets old. At home? Where?

Line up at the dispenser for your very efficient food pellet!

In Portland (Pre-Covid), a popular upscale restaurant model was to wait in line to pre-order at the counter, then grab your own silverware and table, and a non-server would bring out your order.

Often this would allow restaurants to serve upscale food at cheaper prices due to low overhead. Even with their successfully efficient business model, many are closing permanently.

Your comment sounds dramatically bitter.

? It's actually probably more efficient to have people prepare food than for you to do it yourself, just like almost everything else in life.

I'm not saying we should just do that, but in terms of raw efficiency, the only issues is freshness vs. transport/timing etc.

Otherwise - you don't make your own butter, grow your own food, or make your own furniture either.

We've already tried that. Cafeterias have their place, but places like Luby's and other cafeteria style restaurants are on their way out.

Let's just live in our pods, own nothing by renting everything, implement our social score system, and eat our bug bars. That'll make everyone happy...

Soylent green is made of people

Reply on news.ycombinator.com