High tech Grilled cheese sandwich: ordering with smartphone technology

Introduction: MarketWatch columnist Pleti (Therese Poletti), the famous science and technology entrepreneur Kaplan recently launched a use of smart phone technology to order a meal comfort food fast service restaurant, which is likely to be a major potential industry development direction.　　The following is the full text of Pleti's commentary: In Silicon Valley, timing is everything. This maxim is true for the creation of a new enterprise or the introduction of a product, and the timing is especially crucial for the advent of new technologies.　　Looking back at the history we can see that quite a few products are actually quite good, but the timing is either too early to come to the times, or too late, did not catch up with the trend, and thus suffered the fate of failure. For example, when it comes to the fate of the flip video camera, it's easy to think about the timing. In 2009, Entrepreneur Kaplan (Jonathan Kaplan) sold pure digital $590 million to the Cisco System (CSCO), but the buyer had to close the business two years later.　　The timing of the Kaplan sale is excellent, and it can be a safe sleep after watching it swallow up in a wave of corporate restructuring. Now that the economy is showing signs of weakness and investors are increasingly worried about the possibility of a double-dip recession, Kaplan's new idea may be a better time to come.　　His new company is selling fast comfort food, thanks to smartphone technology, that can be made quickly after a single order.　　Technically, it should be a grilled cheese restaurant with a technology-enhanced version. Kaplan's new start-up, the melt, which opened in downtown San Francisco this week, immediately aroused widespread media attention, as CNN, CNBC and NPR reported.　　It will compete with other players in the popular "fast-service restaurants" field, where prices range from 5 to 10 dollars, while competitors are from Chipolte Mexican Grill (CMG) to Panera Bread Inc. (PNRA). "When Americans need a little comfort, it is appropriate for us to make comforting food," he said. In an interview, Kaplan looked at the long line of his first storefront and exclaimed, "like a bowl of soup and a piece of grilled cheese, just as your mother did." "This idea is actually very simple, very basic, I believe there will be some entrepreneurs Pat Forehead said:" Hell, I should have thought of this! "The melt offers five grilled cheese sandwiches and five daily soups, which consumers can book in advance on the melt website."　　Orders are kept in the system until they come to the restaurant. Ordering meals through the web is not a novelty. However, the magic of this web site technology is that your sandwiches will not be made until you reach the store., and it's still able to make sure it's fast. This program uses QR code reading techniques to scan your smartphone for code from orders, and orders are sent to the kitchen, where consumers don't have to wait in line.　　When they get to the store, the cheese sandwiches and soups will be served in a few minutes. Everything is designed with a quick focus.　　Different kinds of bread are locally tailored for the melt, stored in a frozen drawer in an orderly fashion, and are quickly processed by specially designed Electrolux machines. Kaplan said: "Our process allows you to order anywhere, we can prepare a meal in less than two minutes." "He said his company and Electrolux developed the perfect grilled cheese sandwich machine. "Electrolux perfected this device for us. We invented some new parts and cooperated to develop the equipment. "At first glance, the 8.99-dollar price seems to be a bit high," the Grilled cheese sandwich plus soup package. But the truth is, in the downtown area, grilled cheese sandwiches with French fries, a set down generally in 7 dollars to 10 dollars.　　Not far away, for example, rival Anglo grilled Cheese, where the sandwich plus soup package is priced at 10 dollars. The melt's board does have some heavyweight roles, such as AAPL, the former retail guru of Apple (Ron Johnson), who is now J.C. The chief executive of Penny Co. JCP, as well as the celebrity Mina (Michael Mina) of the catering industry. Among their investors are benchmark capital and Sequoia of California's Menlo Park, which are big players, but the company has not yet disclosed how much venture money they have got. Kaplan just said: "We have enough money to open 20 stores." "Kaplan's melt plan is ambitious. His goal is to open 500 outlets across the United States. With Apple's retail guru, the melt's first storefront is really hit. The location of the store is very flattering, it is on New Montgomery Street, which is only a block from the financial district, like a small start-up company rally, across the street is Trulia's office, not far from the wiki.　　At seven o'clock in the evening, the diners will queue up. It may seem foolhardy to start a chain restaurant when the country's economy is likely to fall back into recession, but as long as you pick the right place, choose a product, have a quick service and a reasonable price, the melt is perfectly likely to succeed. (Yuxiang) to share: