Customers pick their orders from a robot in Robot.HE in Shanghai. (Photo: Yang Hui/GT)
A high tech-themed restaurant, which uses robots to deliver and collect dishes, is undergoing trial operations in the central square of the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, where the China International Import Expo (CIIE) will be held.
The restaurant, operated by Hema, the new retail supermarket chain under China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, is called Robot.HE. The restaurant will officially start business on November 5, when the CIIE will open.
Monday at about noon, the Global Times arrived at the restaurant, which had started to get a little crowded with customers. At the open kitchen, cooks put dishes on a dozen white, semi-circular robots. The robots then moved down several "food delivery aisles" until they reached the location where the customers were seated.
Covers on the food automatically open for customers to pick up their food. The robots also remind customers that the food is ready with a voice message.
A customer told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that he thought it was "novel" to use robots to deliver food. In the past he had only seen food-delivery robots once in a restaurant in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province.
The Global Times also saw several black robots that will collect plates. Those robots will officially start operation after the CIIE starts.
Rebecca Rui, public relations advisor of Hema, told the Global Times Monday that it's a little difficult to hire restaurant staff nowadays, and using robots can help the company reduce labor costs.
Hema opened a robot restaurant in Shanghai earlier this year, and according to Rui, the restaurant achieved the breakeven point in just four months.
Hema is also ready to open new robot restaurants in first-tier cities like Beijing soon, she said.
Rui also said that setting up a high tech-themed restaurant in the exhibition venue is a kind of "consumption upgrade," as in the past food offered in the National Exhibition and Convention Center was mostly "fast food." The Robot.HE, instead, offers imported seafood and Chinese snacks.
As the CIIE approaches, the supporting facilities for the exhibition are gradually progressing. In terms of food supply, nearly 80 restaurants have been set up in the venue to provide meals for CIIE attendees.
