On Mon, 30 Dec 2019 23:20:32 +0000 (UTC), Graham Donald wrote:

>I suspect the selling point would be that an actual Sophont is doing the
>cutting rather than a robot, speaking of which I visited a well known
>'charcoal cooked chicken' place and they are using wifi connected beepers
>as order numbers.You take this small device that looks like a hockey puck
>to your table and when it starts beeping and flashing you know the meal is
>ready to collect from the counter (Each one displays a number on the side
>of the 'puck'.)

There are a couple of places on the Dining Concourse at Grand Central
Terminal (NYC) that do this, except it doesn't look like a hockey puck;
it's an unabashed 'beeper'. You place your order, they give you a numbered
beeper, and when the beeper vibrates and flashes at you, you go pick up
your order.

There are also a couple of 'family dining' places near me (Applebee's,
Uno's) that do this for letting you know that a table is ready for you, but
only at peak times, when the wait may overflow the reception area.

>Getting back to the hairdressing idea, I'm beginning to think that a
>'Brubecks' style setup where the whole thing is fitted into a transportable
>container might be a way to go. The ones I've seen have around 5 'cutting
>stations' and a small waiting area, although one is in a bus station and
>dispenses with the waiting area, patrons make use of the seats on the
>concourse.

It doesn't really take much, even now, for a "full service" hair stylist to
get set up - or to move when the cost of a lease on the space becomes
uneconomical. The place I go moved about a half-mile up the main street of
town literally overnight - Tuesday night, they were at the old location,
Wednesday morning, the new - it was just a matter of taking down the
mirrors, disconnecting the hair-washing 'slop sink', and loading the
"toolstands", sink, styling seats, mirrors, etc., into a van or two, and
reversing the dismantling process at the other end of the street. They were
probably up half the night doing the takedown and setup, and they'd
scheduled light for both Tuesday and Wednesday in anticipation of the move,
but they really did do the move overnight.

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