You know robots are becoming popular as you see them around more and more. The startup Blendids debuted this week with its fourth location in a shopping mall in the US. The kiosk, open seven days a week, allows customers to place contactless orders for a 350ml (12oz) fresh smoothie. It is prepared by an autonomous robot to order, in three minutes, directly on site.
How Blendid works
“Consumers use their mobile phone to order by scanning a QR code at the kiosk or through the Blendid app,” he says Vipin Jain, CEO and co-founder of Blendid. “They browse our menu of fruit and vegetable smoothies. Once they choose their drink, they customize it to their personal taste and health preferences, changing the amount of each ingredient as desired. Then they place their order and the Blendid robot gets to work preparing their drink. When the drink is ready, they receive a text with instructions for a contactless pick-up of the drink. The robot serves them the drink when they confirm the pickup.”
A robot capable of making a delicious smoothie would be a novelty at any time, but the fact that it's opening now makes it even more remarkable. 2020, as Jain acknowledged, was an incredibly difficult year for everyone. If you operate in the service sector, things are particularly difficult, with margins already falling due to less foot traffic and lower consumer spending. The fact that Blendid is opening its fourth store in less than two years is impressive. And it tells us so much about the way robots are becoming a growing part of the service sector.
The pandemic as a “robotic” factor
COVID-19 is a pandemic that seems tailor-made for robots, Jain says. Contactless food preparation is now a necessity, and it's something that robots inherently offer. Blendid has seen a huge increase in demand since the onset of COVID-19 and we are grateful to be able to help.
Vipin Jain, CEO and co-founder of Blendid
This is far from the only robot-assisted innovation I've talked about recently. Robot assistants in the house (and hanging from the ceiling), sanitizing robots, robots that do the firefighters, dealing robots of deliveries, even robot bartender continue to arrive in abundance on the market, a "symptom" and consequence of this transformation.