Dark kitchens are coming to Westfield Mall

New technology will allow restaurants at a popular mall in California to provide virtual customer service during a quarantine.

During the pandemic, restaurants, and cafes often found themselves on the brink of survival. Many of these establishments have found a way out by organizing delivery and takeout services. One of California's largest malls, the Westfield Valley Fair, took a significant step in that direction.

Westfield introduced a dark kitchen technology, otherwise known as a "ghost kitchen," to support the mall's restaurants. In this case, the restaurant works only for delivery, not for visitors. Several restaurants often use such kitchens at once. Westfield Valley Fair will use Kitchen United's technology to organize the entire process, which will simplify ordering food from takeout restaurants and setting up delivery from the mall. 



Thanks to Kitchen United's technology, visitors will be able to check out menus from the comfort of their homes and pick out their order. The restaurant will fill it and deliver it to special boxes located on the first floor of the mall. Moving food from the kitchen to the outlet station can be done with a conveyor belt. The food can then be picked up by visiting the mall or delivering a delivery service to the door. Incredibly convenient for customers will be the fact that the order can be made from several restaurants at once.

Such a trend toward "dark kitchens" will help restaurants survive in a crisis and establish income and be profitable for shopping centers. The creation of ghost kitchens can solve the problem of empty spaces in malls. Thanks to the re-profiling of both restaurants and retail space and the loss of visitors, the flow of which has significantly dried up because of the pandemic. 

According to experts, by 2030, "dark kitchens" could create a market for food delivery, estimated at one trillion dollars. In 2020, investment in such technology has increased by 11% compared to 2019 and amounted to about $ 3 billion.

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