--- title: Pizza, Burrito, and Sushi Vending Machines Are the New Fast Food Trend description: The future of fast food may be from the past—in the form of an automat that no one has to pay. authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2016-06-07T14:31:28.000Z' modified: '2016-06-07T14:31:28.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - automation - Fast Food - pubdesk - technology word_count: 291 canonical: https://money.com/pizza-burrito-vending-machine/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![A hostess takes a pizza out of a Pizzoma](https://img.money.com/2016/06/gettyimages-124215154.jpg) *A German pizza vending machine.* The Automat, a restaurant that used a vending machine-like apparatus to dispense food, had it's heydey [more than 80 years ago](http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/11/nyregion/last-automat-closes-its-era-long-gone.html). First launched in 1902 in Philadelphia, Automats numbered more than 30 in New York City alone at one point. Then the fast food craze hit America and prevented a rise of the machines. But if we've learned one thing from James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the machines *will* rise again. That Automat of the past may be the fast food of the future. Amidst the rise of "foodie" and "slowfood" culture on one side, the other end of the spectrum is pushing against current norms as well, and according to [Bloomberg](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-07/vending-machine-pizza-made-fresh-for-you-is-coming-to-america), the result may look a lot like that traditional Automat. Automation is coming whether we want it to come or not,” Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast-food chains told Bloomberg. “It’s everywhere. It’s in everything.” As *Fortune* [put it](http://fortune.com/2016/03/17/automate-fast-food/) when it wrote about Puzder earlier this year, a primary motivation is that "robots don't sue." -- unlike minimum wage workers. He also told [Business Insider](http://www.businessinsider.com/carls-jr-wants-open-automated-location-2016-3) that "Millennials don't like seeing people." App to person preferences aside, machines also fit into the fast food minimum wage conversation by providing a way out of the "Fight for $15" debate. Puzder's vision for restaurants that look like vending machines is joined by *actual* vending machines. A pizza vending machine called "24/7 Pizza Box" is coming to Florida later this year, according to Bloomberg, and already sushi is sold by "Sushi Station" (with rolls made by robots) and burritos by "Burritobox"—which enjoyed a viral moment a few years ago. All of this should boost the vending machine business that draws about [$8 billion dollars annually](http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=1113). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/pizza-burrito-vending-machine/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Restaurants", "item": "https://money.com/restaurants/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Pizza, Burrito, and Sushi Vending Machines Are the New Fast Food Trend" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/pizza-burrito-vending-machine/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/pizza-burrito-vending-machine/", "name": "Pizza, Burrito, and Sushi Vending Machines Are the New Fast Food Trend", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-06-07T14:31:28.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/pizza-burrito-vending-machine/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/pizza-burrito-vending-machine/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-06-07T14:31:28.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Pizza, Burrito, and Sushi Vending Machines Are the New Fast Food Trend", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/06/gettyimages-124215154.jpg", "width": 3000, "height": 2079, "caption": "A hostess takes a pizza out of a Pizzoma" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-06-07T14:31:28.000Z", "description": "The future of fast food may be from the past—in the form of an automat that no one has to pay.", "abstract": "The future of fast food may be from the past—in the form of an automat that no one has to pay.", "@id": "https://money.com/pizza-burrito-vending-machine/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-06-07T14:31:28.000Z", "wordCount": 291, "keywords": [ "automation", "Fast Food", "pubdesk", "technology" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Restaurant", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurant" ] } ] } ] } ```