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Moe's franchisees see multiple benefits of self-order kiosks

Moe's Southwest Grill franchisees see self order kiosks as a tool to allow restaurants to meet consumer needs in smaller footprints.

Some prime restaurant locations require small restaurants, creating challenges that self-order kiosks can address. Photo courtesy of franchisee Mike Geiger.

December 18, 2019 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

Editor's Note: This is the second part in a two-part series on Moe's Southwest Grill and the brand's expectations from kiosks deployments.

With more consumers looking to order and pay for food quickly and with retail space limited in many prime real estate markets, formats like self-order kiosks make a lot of sense.

That's why Mike Geiger and Angelo Dajon, a pair of Moe's Southwest Grill franchisees, are anxious to open the first "all-digital/kiosk-only" locations in their respective markets in the first quarter.

Moe's all digital stores will have only one cashier. Photo courtesy of Moee's Southwest Grill.

Each location — one in Pittsburgh and the other in Charlottesville, Virginia — will have four self-order kiosks and feature Moe's new brand design, as described in part one of this two-part series. Customers who want to pay with cash will hit a button on the kiosk, then pay at the one cashier.

The kiosks will accept credit cards and Apple Pay. Students at the University of Pittsburgh will be able to use their University ID cards.

Both franchisees are planning to have the digital formats in new restaurants presently under development in locations serving a lot of students and hospital employees.

New market realities take hold

"I was very opposed to anything kiosks," said Geiger, a multi-unit Moe's franchisee, when asked how the decision to add kiosks came about. His view changed over the last year and a half as he began remodeling a downtown Pittsburgh store. 

"As that (location) has grown, I was landlocked on throughput capacity," he said. He also witnessed more orders being placed by apps and more third party delivery orders. 

"Seeing hundreds of transactions have come through on the digital side of the business, my mindset changed," Geiger said. "There probably is a good value to this (technology) because people want it."

"What I learned is if we increase the ability for throughput, if we give people the experience they want — if (for instance) you want something quick and you're not concerned about interacting with people, we've got that for you now too," he said.

Location footprints pose challenges

The need for a kiosk became even clearer when Geiger found a prime store location at a university campus that has a small footprint.

"The footprint was too small to effectively execute a traditional Moe's operation," he said. "A kiosk actually for the first time in my mind made sense."

Dachon felt the same way about a location in his market that didn't have a large footprint but had a lot of students and hospital employees.

"I think it (the kiosk) is going to allow us to go into locations that you could not go before because the space is a lot smaller," Dachon said. "It's going to open up a lot more opportunities to put a Moe's in an area that could help the overall market share."

The decision to have a Moe's kiosk was a group effort that included corporate Moe's and the franchisees, the men agreed. Both Geiger and Dachon sit on Moe's franchisee advisory council.

"He (Dachon) and I both kind of found the real estate at a similar time frame," Geiger said. "Everyone (the two franchisees and corporate Moe's) was willing to take the leap and give it a try."

"Any restaurant, or any brand for that matter, that isn't paying attention to technology and current consumer demand trend is probably going to be in trouble at some point," Geiger said. "This is clearly something that our customers want."

No panacea for labor costs 

Store head count will not be affected, the men agreed. 

Dajon views the kiosk as a tool for helping restaurants address the labor shortage. He doesn't envision reducing labor, but utilizing it in a differently. The employee removed from the "build your own order" line will relocate to the dining area or near the kiosks to assist customers as needed.

"We are eliminating the process of going down the line to build your food," he said. "The kiosks are being set up to be the only way that you can order. We're going to need staff for production only in typical restaurant operations.

"Those challenges (hiring and keeping employees) are more difficult than they were a few years ago," he said.

If anything, labor costs could be higher, Geiger said, as there are new skill sets needed with all the new technology being added to restaurants.

"It may cost more to bring those skills sets in than some other scenarios that we're used to," he said.

"I'm not approaching this as a cost savings for labor out of the gates, but I do expect that as we get our feet under us and really learn the power of this technology that we'll be able to capitalize on it at some point," he said.

The men do not yet know how much the kiosks will cost, which the company was not able to say at the time of this report.

About Elliot Maras

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Elliot Maras is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times. He brings three decades covering unattended retail and commercial foodservice.