音频下载[点击右键另存为]
-Hello, can I have a table for one please.
-Sure, no problem.
-Thank you very much.
That was Sonia, and she's pretty much the last staff member I will be seeing at the Baggers restaurant in Nuremberg. Inside, its pots, cups and bottles on a roller-coaster ride. The owners say they've designed what they believe is the world's first fully automated food ordering and delivery system. Here's how it works.
Let's just see what we will have today, why not a steak? And we are ready to go. And that sets these guys in motion. A little sauce, some salad, then they put it into this specially-designed, well, let's just call it a food sled. And it's off to the races, straight to my table.
"This out of here, ready to eat." Easy enough, most customers tell us they came for the entertainment value.
I've never seen anything like this before, this woman says, I think it's really funny.
It makes eating an adventure, he says, certainly something totally different.
But the restaurant's creator says what looks like a cute gimmick makes pretty good business sense as well.
In a fast food restaurant, imagine customers don't have to go to the counter, Michael Mack says, you don't need an employee to take orders or for the payment process, and then the food just slides to the table. It all becomes much more efficient with less staff. Efficiency is what it's all about. No waiters, and of course, no tip.
Fred Pleitgen cnn, Nuremberg, Germany.
WORDS IN THE NEWS
1. roller-coaster: n-count
A roller-coaster is a small railway at a fair that goes up and down steep slopes fast and that people ride on for pleasure or excitement.
2. in motion: phrase
If a process or event is in motion, it is happening. If it is set in motion, it is happening or beginning to happen.
3. off to the races: idiom
busy doing something
4. gimmick: n-count
A gimmick is an unusual and unnecessary feature or action whose purpose is to attract attention or publicity.