Robot Working At Maple Grove Restaurant Amid Employee Shortage

MAPLE GROVE, MN — After struggling to hire new employees amid a labor shortage brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, one Maple Grove restaurant has called in help of a different sort.

For the past several weeks, Sawatdee Thai has been using a robot named DeeDee to deliver meals to diners, KARE 11 reports. DeeDee has three trays to carry dishes from the kitchen to diners and back again, along with other repetitive tasks.

One employee told the station that DeeDee helps him “be in five places at one time.”

Sawatdee Thai, 7885 Main St. in Maple Grove, is the first restaurant in Minnesota known to be using robotic servers to supplement its workforce, the Star Tribune reports. The restaurant is also using a DeeDee robot at its Minneapolis location, the report states.

DeeDee costs the restaurant about $4 an hour, about a third of what it would spend to employ a staff member, the Star Tribune reports.

Minnesota’s hospitality and leisure industry has about 40,000 fewer workers than it did in February 2020 before the start of the coronavirus pandemic; but an executive for the company that makes DeeDee said the robot is not taking many food-service jobs away from people because very few people are applying for those jobs, the report states.

More than 90 percent of food-service businesses that responded to a recent survey by Hospitality Minnesota said the labor market has not improved since May, with just 6 percent reporting they think the labor market is in a good place.

Sixty-two percent of food-service businesses said they have taken on debt since the coronavirus pandemic started in March 2020, according to the survey. Just 29 percent are expecting to record higher revenues this fall than they did in 2019, the survey shows.

DeeDee robotic servers will soon make their debut at two Minnesota senior living centers, the Star Tribune reports.