NEW YORK: The cut-throat US restaurant industry is getting increasingly aggressive about technology, enlisting Facebook and Amazon.com in their race to make it easier for customers to order and pay for their food.
Last month, TGI Fridays began letting customers foot the bill using their Amazon accounts. And pizza chains are locked in an escalating battle to adopt new ordering methods — a contest that involves chat bots, voice-activated devices and social networks.
Papa John’s International went so far as to declare itself an “ecommerce company” this month after delivering surprisingly strong results. “We’re much more close, I would argue, to Amazon than we are to a brick-and-mortar restaurant,” Brandon Rhoten, Papa John’s chief marketing officer, said in an interview.
The stakes are high to make restaurant technology as effortless — and fun — as possible. Customers, especially millennials, are no longer content to call up a pizza place and dictate an order over their phone. And they don’t want to wait in line at the Starbucks register.
