What tends to get overlooked in these discussions is that
all business models appear novel when first introduced, but some will continue
to generate value for the customer even when the company becomes widely familiar,
and some will prove difficult to imitate even after the particulars of the
business model become well known. My favorite case to date is probably The Legal Grind, a business in Southern California that combines various aspects of
a neighborhood legal clinic (consultations, referrals, self-help materials,
etc.) with a coffee house. To the best of my knowledge, it’s the only venue in
the world where you can get a latte and a bankruptcy – or a mocha and a
divorce, if that’s what you need. Legend has it that the founder (a
fully-qualified attorney) got fed up with traditional legal practice and wanted
to open a coffee house, but people kept coming in and asking for legal advice –
and a good idea is a good idea. Whether you’d consider this a coffee house with
a legal service as a gimmick, or a legal service with a coffee house as a
gimmick is up to you, but the firm has been in operation for over 18 years as
of this writing, and has expanded into three locations now…
Then there’s the case of a “fully automated” restaurant in
Germany. This isn’t actually a new story – I saw it on ABC News when they first
ran the piece – but it was reprinted online this past week and struck me as a
gimmick business that may or may not have staying power. The place is called
Bagger’s, and their gimmick is that there is no waitstaff working there – you place
your order on a touch screen at your table and your plates are delivered down a
curving track by a gravity-feed system. It’s an arrangement that would be
difficult to set up in a retail space where you couldn’t put the kitchen on the
second floor, and it isn’t clear from context how you would send something back
if it isn’t prepared correctly, but the real question from where I’m sitting is
whether such an operation has any utility. Which is to say, does this arrangement
offer any value to the customer above what you would expect from a more
traditional method of service?
On the one hand, there would be no delay while you attempt
to get the waiter’s attention or while you wait for a food runner to turn up
with your plate. And there would be no issues with the waiter spilling soup on
you; if the delivery system is working properly the only one who could spill
anything would be you. And, at least in theory, if you wanted a drink refill,
another plate of something, or to place a dessert order you could arrange for
it by using the touch screen. But on the other hand, people enjoy some amount
of human contact, and part of the service a traditional restaurant offers is
people who will take your order, bring you what you’ve requested, and answer
your questions, no matter how absurd any of this might me. People who, in fact,
serve you…
I’m not sure the technical details can be easily overcome,
and I’m not sure if anyone else is going to want to assume the costs of setting
up the hardware or the risks inherent in a faulty delivery system spilling
something hot onto a customer. But if we ever get such an operation in Central
Michigan, I know I’d at least go and give it a look…
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