China restaurant sacks robot waiters
revert /rɪ'vɝt / v. 回复;重提 CET6
gimmick / 'ɡɪmɪk / n. 暗机关;骗人的玩意;花招TEM8
catering / 'ketərɪŋ / n. 给养;承办酒席;提供饮食及服务
retain /rɪ'ten / v. 保持;雇;记住 CET4
Three restaurants in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou have found that "employing" robot waiting staff was more trouble than it was worth.
Of the three establishments, two have closed down, while the third has sent all but one of their robots back and reverted to human servers, the Workers' Daily newspaper reports. While the robot waiters were an excellent gimmick to get customers through the door, they were not quite so good at their programmed task of serving food and drink to customers, according to staff. "The mobility of the catering staff was great, we initially recruited six for service, but after a year we only retained one," says a hotpot restaurant supervisor named Ms Liang.