Dirk Izzo, senior vice president and general manager of NCR Hospitality, a technology provider for restaurants, said in cities including Denver and Jacksonville, Florida, customers cite costs for kitchen and front-of-house staff that are running 20%-40% higher than a year ago.
"The cost of this technology has come down quite drastically," said Brad Bogolea, co-founder and chief executive of Simbe, which provides an autonomous robot that uses computer vision to track inventory in a grocery store, drug store or hypermarket. "Instead of using an agency to get a temp worker, you can get a robot in," said David Gray, chief executive of GreenSeed. Depending on the structure of the contract, the cost of the robotics is 40% to 50% of what he would pay to hire a person, which costs at least $17 or $18 an hour, not including benefits or the costs to a temp agency."So you can really reduce your costs and get better consistency," Gray said.
San Francisco-based Nana Joes Granola has been facing higher costs of raw goods and labor and is trying to figure out how to bring the costs of its premium granola down as consumers look more closely at pocketbook decisions.