CSA Exclusive: Sky Zone implements robotic ice cream kiosks
An indoor trampoline park chain is utilizing a robotic solution to expand on its concessions assortment.
Sky Zone, a Los Angeles-based operator of experiential indoor trampoline parks with more than 300 global locations, is deploying 24/7 remote-monitored attend-less kiosks that dispense Mini Melts ice cream. The units work off cellular data that connects nationwide.
“The Mini Melts kiosk machine is a showstopper, and the customers’ excitement is fun to watch,” Mike Revak, chief business officer with Sky Zone, said in an exclusive interview with Chain Store Age. “The customer chooses a card or cash option and their flavor selection. The machine then extracts the Mini Melts from the chest and dispenses them. If one customer is using, five are watching – it's great.”
The kiosks, which occupy a small real estate footprint, are designed to look and feel like a claw-crane carnival game, and according to Revak add “amusement novelty” to the Sky Zone locations where they have been deployed as well as offer stores the opportunity to obtain extra sales.
“The locations that offer the kiosk, in addition to the cafe/concession areas, see a noticeable difference in their food and beverage sales volume,” said Revak. “The machines also do not detract from the cafe/concessions use. Furthermore, this is a no-labor use machine for the staff. We will continue to grow with Mini Melts kiosks in all Sky Zone locations moving forward.”
Robotic kiosks spread in food service
Automated stores running on robotic technology are slowly popping up across different retailers offering food. For example, Máka Mia Pizza is introducing its new Mia V4.5 Robotic Pizza Shop in the U.S. market, in partnership with a robotic pizza-making system from Europe. This new process creates pizza in less than three minutes using Maka Mia’s proprietary ingredients and recipe with precision robotics.
RoboBurger, a fully autonomous robotic hamburger restaurant, operates fully autonomous burger vending robots at St John's University in Queens, N.Y. and the Newport Centre Simon mall location.
Operating like an automated vending machine, the unit cooks restaurant-quality, freshly grilled burgers from scratch. Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), RoboBurger is a self-controlling kitchen designed to include all the processes of a restaurant at a fraction of the size. It measures 12 square feet, plugs into a traditional wall socket and has a refrigerator, as well as an automated griddle and cleaning system.
And Jamba is continuing to expand its test of an automated kiosk that dispenses made-on-demand blended smoothies. The specialty foodservice retailer is opening “Jamba by Blendid” autonomous robotic kiosk locations in collaboration with food automation platform provider Blendid.
The kiosks leverage machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence for the contactless dispensing of on-demand, customized, blended smoothies.