Posted on 11/11/2023 2:13:53 AM PST by Libloather
A San Francisco smoothie startup promised to create customers "one-of-a-kind" recipes, but two months after opening, the store was shuttered.
The shop, BetterBlends, used artificial intelligence to generate custom smoothies based on customer preferences. The company only offered one menu item called "Your Smoothie, powered by AI" and claimed to be "the most personalized restaurant, ever," according to its site.
"People really like the idea of us betting on San Francisco," BetterBlends co-founder, Clayton Reynolds, said in September, adding the community reaction to the shop had been "phenomenal."
Michael Parlato, the other co-founder, said the smoothie store "is a real application to solve a challenge."
"There’s a lot of value in just saying, ‘This is what you should order,’" he told the San Francisco Standard.
The shop opened in September to skeptical, yet overall positive media coverage. However, as of Oct. 20, the doors had been locked and a "temporarily closed" sign was hanging on the front door stating "we will reopen in 1 hour," according to a report from The Guardian.
Photos of the business show the shop void of blenders, fruits, vegetables and decorations. By Oct. 23, the only items that appeared to remain were the trash and recycling bins, the British outlet reported.
"I was hopeful for this business," one reviewer wrote on Google. "The owners however did not understand the discipline to run a restaurant."
"It was often open late and closed early," the writer continued. "And then 1 day they put up a sign, ‘Temporarily Closed, be back in an hour.’ They have not been back in over 2 weeks."
The longest the shop was open consecutively was two weeks, a local worker told The Guardian.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I knew a guy that owned a Filipino store in my city. It sold all sorts of Filipino products. He had the same mentality. If he felt like closing the store, he would. He went out of business as well.
Marxist have conditioned people to believe business owners don’t have to work.
I wonder who provided the financial backing for this effort.
Opening a food (or related) store is the quickest way to lose your investment. The start up cost are high, the over head is high, and the profit margin is low. If you are good (and lucky, luck being the important thing) you may make a go of it, for a few years. Most don’t last longer then five years. Closed after two months may be a record.
Robot says: “I smell poop on your shoes. I’ll make you a poop smoothie.”
IMO, this operation was started to get some free, irresponsible money from the gummint (The gummint in place to destroy America) and never INTENDED to actually work and turn a profit.
The problem is that San Francisco is in terminal decline and unable to support any business much less a wacko smoothie concept.
Frisco was
Trying to cash in on AI hype. So what? AI is gonna tell me what my taste buds want? I guess the entrepreneur thought that skilled and competent workers are impossible to find so an AI system would work. Doofus?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.