Meet the Autonomous Robotic Kitchen. Exploring why off-premises only locations may struggle. Dining on deals is on the rise. History’s lessons from past government shutdowns. These stories and more This Week in Foodservice.

Contract feeder Aramark has invested in RoboEatz’ Autonomous Robotic Kitchen (ARK) technologyFeeding third-shift employees is a challenge for most healthcare foodservice operators. Some common solutions include vending machines and unattended retail, among others. Now you can add a robotic kitchen to that list of potential solutions.

Contract feeder Aramark has invested in RoboEatz’ Autonomous Robotic Kitchen (ARK) technology, which can prepare customizable meals around the clock.

ARK operates within a 400-square-foot footprint, per an Aramark release. It uses a robot to grab ingredients from storage bins to prepare up to four personalized bowl-based meals at a time, drawing from a selection of up to 80 fresh ingredients. The system requires minimal staffing and provides replenishment alerts via a mobile app to dining services, the release added.

Foodservice News

• Restaurant industry performance held steady in August, per data from the National Restaurant Association. Its Restaurant Performance Index rose 0.1% for the month, which is good news. The not-so-good news is that it remained at 99.8, which indicates the industry is in a period of contraction. Higher same-store sales continue to be offset by lower levels of customer traffic.
• With foodservice technology developing at such a fast pace, how can an operator make sense of it all? By developing its own AI foundry, of course. That’s what multiconcept operator Dine Brands did. The parent company of IHOP, Applebee’s and Fuzzy’s Tacos uses its AI foundry to cultivate ideas that either fail fast or can be implemented fast, per a Nation’s Restaurant News story.
• Lunch is becoming more of an on-premises dining experience, per data from Technomic. The midday daypart accounts for 31% of all restaurant occasions and 57% of lunch guests opt for on-premises dining. This meal occasion is relatively habitual in that 33% describe their occasion as routine.
• If you’re feeling nostalgic of late, you’re not alone. That’s because nostalgia is a big driver of restaurant visits, as restaurant development + design magazine notes. What’s driving this nostalgic period? A desire to go back to a simpler time, according to 75% of the rd+d readers participating in a survey issued by the magazine. And this feeling of nostalgia is not confined to restaurants. Rather, it’s impacting bar design, as this Eater story
• Speed of service is always important to consumers but that’s even more so when it comes to breakfast, notes a Food Institute story. For starters, customers are often more time sensitive first thing in the morning. Understaffed models and flawed labor assumptions may be costing chains millions in lost loyalty, the story adds.
• Deals continue to drive customer traffic to restaurants. In fact, during the past 12 months, nearly 30% of commercial foodservice traffic was due to a deal offered by the operator, per a Restaurant Business story citing Circana Data. That’s the highest rate in 50 years. Further, the rate of dining on discounts is up 3.1 percentage points since 2022. The last time the industry saw such a surge was during the economic downturn of 2008-2010.
• Chi-Chi’s comeback story took another step forward on October 6, 2025. That’s when the legendary Mexican-inspired chain opened its first restaurant in 20 years, per a FSR Magazine story. Michael McDermott, the son of the chain’s co-founder Marno McDermott, is leading Chi-Chi’s renaissance. In a very 2020s move, so to speak, crowdfunding provided a key source of revenue to this relaunch. More than 2,000 investors contributed more than $2.3 million to this effort, the story notes.
• Food continues to remain the focus among many c-stores, including 7-Eleven. Roughly one year ago, the chain rolled out its new prototype, which only serves to further drive home this point, as C-Store Dive story notes. Upon entering the 4,800-square-foot location, guests will encounter 7-Eleven’s coffee feature, which includes both hot and cold brews. There’s also the company’s Laredo Taco offering, a Mexican-inspired QSR concept. In a nod to the protein’s popularity, some locations also feature a Raise the Roost Chicken & Biscuits. It also features a variety of refrigerated grab-and-go options as well as a large beverage offering.
• Kitchen Brains has acquired Micro Control Systems. The deal also includes MCS’ related company Sensing Technologies. MCS designs and manufactures advanced controllers, sensors, and compressors for the commercial and industrial HVAC market. SCI develops precision sensors.
• Why are so many off-premises-only restaurants struggling? For starters, they offer a barebones experience, which consumers don’t value as much as the typical quick-service restaurant, per a Restaurant Dive story. Second, to-go only stores limit the which customers a restaurant can serve and potentially what they can offer them, the story adds. These examples explain, at least in part, why companies like Starbucks are taking a different approach with many of their off-premises-only locations.

Economic News

• Private sector employers lost 32,000 jobs in September, per the ADP National Employment Report. This represents the biggest decline since March 2023, per multiple published reports. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected employers to add 45,000 jobs for the month. Leisure and hospitality lost 19,000 positions. Looking at employers by size, small (1 to 49 employees) and medium businesses (50 to 499 employees) were hit the hardest losing 40,000 and 20,000 jobs, respectively. “Despite the strong economic growth we saw in the second quarter, this month's release further validates what we've been seeing in the labor market, that U.S. employers have been cautious with hiring,” said Dr. Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP.
• Due to the government shutdown, two key economic reports were not released last week. The U.S. Census Bureau did not release the monthly update on new orders for manufactured goods and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics withheld releasing the September jobs report. Through August, the U.S. economy had seen signs of a sharp slowdown in the job market, with revisions released last month showing the economy actually shed jobs in June as the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, per a Yahoo! Finance report. Consensus estimates are that the economy added 50,000 jobs in September, per data from FactSet shared by CNN.
• Economic activity in the manufacturing sector improved slightly in September, per the ISM Manufacturing PMI. The study’s reading of 49.1 is greater than August’s level of 48.7 and greater than most economists' projections of 49.0, per multiple published reports, including this one from FXStreet. Despite the improvement, it’s worth noting that any reading of less than 50 indicates contraction. The combined decline in the new orders and inventory indexes is what kept this study in contraction mode.
• Economic activity in the services sector was relatively unchanged in September, per the ISM Services PMI Report. The study came in at roughly 50.0%, which indicates that it was in “break-even mode.”
• What does history tell us about past government shutdowns? Past economic shutdowns have had an impact of 0.1% to 0.3% on quarterly GDP, per an analysis from The Conference Board. This time, however, may be a little different. In the past, government operations resumed largely unchanged, but this time around, the Administration is considering using the lapse in funding to make significant changes in Federal operations.