A Baton Rouge company is bringing automated drive-through vending machines to the market, which will allow customers to purchase meals, snacks and drinks without getting out of their vehicles.
Shoppers can log on to the Speedy Eats app, select and pay for their purchases, then scan a QR code at a stand-alone machine. Speed Bancroft, CEO of Speedy Eats, said it will take less than a minute for the machine to dispense a combo meal of an entrée with chips and a drink. The machines fit inside a refrigerated shipping container.
The goal is for customers to pick up their items without having to take off their seat belt, Bancroft said. “That’s the kind of metric that we’re after,” he said. “I don’t know if we can achieve it.”
Bancroft launched Speedy Eats several years ago. The original concept was an automated pizza kitchen, where pre-cut toppings would be placed on prepared dough, then sent through an oven.
Bancroft said he obtained patents for the pizza machines, but he decided to pivot Speedy Eats to being a vending machine business because of the complexity of operating an automated kitchen.
“The failure rate for this is close to zero, because the equipment we’re using in vending equipment,” he said. “We don’t have to reinvent the system.”
There are some wrinkles to the vending machine. Speedy Eats patented a system where expired items get kicked into a waste receptacle that can be dumped when the machine is restocked. And the machines are refrigerated and can be outfitted with freezers to allow for the sale of ice cream.
For the first location, Speedy Eats has partnered with Fresh Chef Kitchen, a local company that makes prepared meals. Fresh Kitchen will select a site for the first Speedy Eats location and stock the machine with take-and-heat meals, sandwiches, salads, soft drinks and chips.
Shane Srsen, chef/owner of Fresh Chef Kitchen, said he is looking for locations in South Baton Rouge. The goal is to find a location by the end of May.
“It’s a little challenging,” he said. “There’s lots of available retail space, but not in a lot of areas that have high traffic, high visibility and 24/7 clientele.” Srsen said he is looking for locations near petrochemical plants and hospitals.
Srsen said if the first Baton Rouge location goes well, Speedy Eats machines could be placed in Ascension, Livingston and West Baton Rouge parishes.
Bancroft and the team at Speedy Eats plan to spend this summer marketing the system in about 15 cities stretching from Houston to Jackson, Mississippi, and Destin, Florida. He is looking at potential partners such as boutique grocery stores and convenience store operators who want to get into an area without opening a full-sized store.
"This is just a plug-and-play for their existing business that they don't have to man," he said. "They can just focus on the food marketing, driving people to this."