No surprise here. Labor costs in CA, NYC, and other HCoL areas are driving this trend. It started with self-checkout and ordering kiosks, and this was obviously where it was going to end up.
I wonder what this will do to fast-food and fast-casual prices in the medium- and long-term. Will it ever result in price drops, as the technology is commoditized and rolled out at scale? Or will it only slow the rate of increase, as machines are swapped in as a substitute for the least economical human labor?
