I seem to recall some Mexican panaderias like that. Pick up tongs and a tray, select your breads and pastries, pass those with payment to the clerk, who bags your purchase and sends the tongs and tray to the washer.
We have had wonderful meals at especially Indian buffets - although the latest local entry wasn’t so great. Two such buffets I know of at Lake Tahoe attract Bay Area Indian customers on weekends. And we do miss the Chinese buffet down in town. Some “better” Reno casinos have “better” buffets we returned to.
MrsRico’s sister was a VERY senior financial exec with expensive tastes, and she knew good buffets when she saw them. But on our own we found upscale buffets at The Top Of The Mark [Hopkins Hotel] in San Francisco (Senator Ed Muskie was there) and the Easter buffet at the Ahwanee Hotel in Yosemite (Senator Bob Dole were there).
I’ve experienced quite a few hotel/motel breakfast buffets. Will they vanish?
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Some things will change, but maybe not how we expect, and in strange comobos with other events. WWI spread the 1918 flu, and what followed? Did it contribute to the “jazz age” and “Roaring Twenties”, Prohibition, bootlegging - and the spread of self-serve cafeterias?
I do expect some tweaks to self-serve buffets - hand-washing at the entry, upgraded sneeze/touch shields, single-use serving utensils, more separated tables, and tricks I can’t think of but those in the business will exploit if they want to stay in business.
IIRC some years back I read of American-style buffets in China whose customers regularly loaded trays mountain-high with as much edible content as possible. So it’s not a “peculiarly American desire to overindulge”. MrsRico and I didn’t “overindulge” at buffets - we merely wanted suitable meals at suitable cost, especially traveling.
One crowd that swamps buffets are bicycle tourers. A gang of lean, sweaty pedalers rolls into a buffet and cleans out the carbs. I’ve seen it happen. And when I biked a couple centuries a week to commute to college, I depended on a girlfriend who was a cashier at the school cafeteria and undercharged me for multiple sandwiches.
Do we know how many obese gringos frequent buffets? Any studies? I’ve seen folks of all body types at all sorts of buffets. Yes, the US is fattening, and so is much of the world. WHO lists key facts:
How prevalent are buffets worldwide? How implicated are they in global obesity?
Sure, suppress those base instincts by pricing food unaffordably high. Levy 40% tax on self-serves, takeouts, cafeterias. Higher rates for fats and carbs. But the economics remain, and not just at buffets, but throughout the food service sector: as much as we want for what we can afford. Possible solution: draconian rationing. Good luck there.
So, you’re the one creating all these taxes; I wrote nothing of the kind. But it needs to be made clear that the processed food industry has manipulated food to produce the same kind of compulsive effects and marketing as the tobacco industry did with cigarettes, and to the same end, e.g. to compel people to consume their products in excess regardless of harm. The reality is that highly processed, sugar-enriched, hydrogenated food products are contributing to epidemic levels of obesity and diabetes that have significant impacts upon health and the economy.
It is entirely possible to eat economically on more healthy food—which would also be better for the environment—but the perverse incentives of ease of availability of low cost and low nutrition foods combined with a lack of education on healthy eating choices is causing more premature deaths than automobile accidents, violent crime, and the COVID-19 pandemic combined. The argument that we can’t do anything about it “because freedom” is inane. There are plenty of things that can be done that aren’t onerous taxation or “draconian rationing”.
They have been generally a no-go for me for about 30 years. I’ve watched too many kids taking food out, taking a bite, and then throwing it back in. Besides, anything that requires something called a “sneeze shield” is generally a non-starter, although I’ve made exceptions over the years.
At our local Quik Trip, a convenience store like a 7-11, they still have serve yourself drinks but you dont pull your cup out of a bin and go get it yourself. You have to buy one and they hand it to you. Dont know about straws and lids.
So the serve yourself drink areas with cups, straws, and lids might be out.
Exact science on virus transmission does not exist.
Anecdotally, I have not read of any cases with COVID-19 where transmission was human breathing on inanimate object, then delivering that object to someone else, who touches the infected portion, then touches their mouth in such a manner as to infect themselves.
Part of it is the curb high barrier issue. There are multiple barriers to being infected that way. Being infected by breathing the air of an infected individual is just so much easier. In and out.
Plus the fact that the hand washing, etc. gives control back to the individual. We want control, it would be great to stop the disease that way. So people tend to overrate methods that they can control. I read a post on here that listed 5 things to do to prevent COVID-19, and social distancing was listed LAST, after hand washing and all the rest. I’m sorry, that’s backwards.
The more likely mechanism of transmission is a person coughing into their hand, or using a hand to adjust a contaminated mask, then touching that hand to a door handle or other common fixture. The next person who touches that fixture, and then touches their face or adjusts a mask, or picks up a piece of food, or opens a water bottle, or whatever, will transfer pathogen to the mouth and nose area. How much of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is necessary to result in probable infection is unknown but given the contagiousness of the disease probably isn’t a lot. And of course, this is the mode for transferring other non-aerosolized pathogens, so this isn’t just limited to SARS-CoV-2.
What about a person touching their mouth or nose and getting some infected fluid on their hands, transferring that fluid to an inanimate object, and then another person touching that object? In a buffet environment, that would be a common scenario.
It’s all part of close contact. I believe there is one known case of contact transfer over a period of time and/or distance, that is what Jay Z is talking about. Close personal contact includes infection through direct and indirect contact, along with exhaled droplets directly or indirectly ingested. Buffets are about close contact, getting Corona from a package someone else touched at a different time and/or place is very different.
Despite that, a buffet is just a serve yourself cafeteria. The cafeteria model can work just a well.
I didn’t intend to imply that you had - sorry if I was unclear. Taxes or rationing occurred to me as “easy” mechanisms to suppress demand. I’m open to other options.
How can such manipulation be stopped or reduced? “We must achieve this!” But how?
My emphasis. What are these “plenty of things”? Do they include strict regulation, or boycotts, or what? Ban types of advertising? And enforce it! Require HAZARDOUS TO HEALTH notices on packaging and inexpensive diners? That’s not deterred smokers. Public education doesn’t deter smokers. High taxes slow them down a little. What do you suggest to solve a global obesity crisis?
The cafeteria model requires more food-dispensing staff whether or not customers are in line. That might work with rather strict, limited meal hours, and either low-overhead or subsidized operations like a casino or hotel. (I doubt hotels make a profit on breakfast buffets.) Or the 1970s Army mess halls I recall. Eeek! In civilian life, more staff means higher prices or lower wages AFAIK. Or cheaper product. Eeek again!
That said, I expect we WILL see less self-service in some places, maybe by government or corporate mandate, or “merely” customer (economic) pressure. If [del]scared[/del] sane, cautious folk stop patronizing open self-serves, only fools will self-serve, right?
Do you remember those cafeterias where you got your food out of lock boxes at one end of the room? When my dad took the family to New York City in the 1960s, we dined at one of those places. I wonder if that could make a comeback.
That particular model is not coming back but the automation of food ordering and delivery certainly is. Companies like Panera Bread are already experimenting with it and the food service industry as a whole is anticipating this…which means, of course, fewer entry-level jobs for people without professional skills (although those jobs are going to take a hit, too).