Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Oct 26, 2015

choi

(1) Leslie Patton with Spencer Soper, Coming Face to Screen with Baristas.
("Now, instead of an unknown voice on the other end of a scratchy intercom taking her order, [to order in drive-thru, a patron] can look into a digital screen on the menu kiosk and, from the comfort of her car, see her barista’s head and shoulders. * * * The drive-thru isn’t as crucial to Starbucks as it is to fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, which get about 70 percent of sales that way. The coffee chain has said that 60 percent of sales at drive-thru stores come from the window")

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Starbucks adds video to its US drive-thru cafes
(b) There is no need to read the rest. On the other hand, I can not find this report online; the closest (but not the same) I can find is

Leslie Patton Starbucks Is Adding Drive-Thru Video Screens to Improve Service. Washington Post, Oct 14, 2015.
washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-NW6GT06KLVRN01-2FUJT0QH0HEFD1G8521SUDCJ1N


(2) Spencer Soper, The Robots Chasing Amazon.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/ar ... bots-chasing-amazon

Quote:

"In a mock warehouse * * * a [human] worker plucks items from shelves and places them in a plastic bin. The bin [capacity: 150 lb; $25,000 apiece; on sale since April] is set atop a small wheeled robot that follows the employee’s every step like a puppy. When the container is full, the robot darts off with it to a packing area; a second robot with an empty bin then picks up where the first left off, allowing the worker to keep gathering items without pausing or having to push
around a heavy cart. For now, this demonstration is just that: a beta test of human-robot teamwork. It’s in the San Jose office of Fetch Robotics, one of a handful of startups working on warehouse robots aimed specifically at e-commerce companies.

"Fetch exists because of something Amazon.com did. In 2012, Amazon paid $775 million for warehouse robot maker Kiva Systems; shortly after, it stopped Kiva from selling its machines to anyone else. 0neither Fetch nor Kiva uses pricey conveyor belt.]

" The rise of online shopping created one of the relative bright spots in the US job market: The warehousing industry employed 778,000 people in September, up 22.5 percent from the same month five years earlier, according to the Department of Labor. As the job market tightens, companies seeking to cut prices and speed delivery are looking to replace people with machines.

Note: summary underneath the title in print: Startups point their metal claws at e-commerce warehouses