The Automat Concept – What’s Old Is New Again With Technology: Opportunity for Hotels

Dr. Frederick DeMicco | December 2, 2020

By Frederick J. DeMicco, Ph.D. and Isaiah Morrow, MBA Student, The School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, The W.A. Franke College of Business, Northern Arizona University A restaurant without waiters or workers behind the counter seems like an idea from the future; Ironically, this is an idea of the past. This concept is called an Automat, it was popularized in the early 1900s after the Spanish Flu Pandemic (Figure 1). Horn & Hardart, the largest Automat opened in New York in 1912 without any visible employees’ whatsoever costumers inserted their money into a glass-enclosed kiosk and enjoyed a steaming plate of freshly made food...